Business Process Modeling Languages Research Articles

TOWARDS AGENT-BASED MODELING AND VERIFICATION OF COLLABORATIVE BUSINESS PROCESSES: AN APPROACH CENTERED ON INTERACTIONS AND BEHAVIORS

This paper presents the process-oriented aspects of a formal and visual agent-based business process modeling language. The language is of use for (networks of) organizations that elect or envisage multi-agent systems for the support of collaborative business processes. The paper argues that the design of a collaborative business process should start with a proper understanding of the work practice of the agents in the business domain under consideration. The language introduces a novel diagram to represent the wide range of (cross-enterprise) business interactions as a hierarchy of role-based interactions (including their ordering relations) in a tree structure. The behaviors owned by the agents playing the roles in the tree are specified in separate process diagrams. A collaborative business process studied in the context of a case study at a Dutch gas transport company is used to exemplify the modeling approach. Explicit (agent-based) process models can and should be verified using formal methods. In the business process community, design-time verification of a process design is considered vital in order to ensure the correctness and termination of a collaborative business process. The proposed modeling approach is enhanced with a design-time verification method. The direction taken in this research is to combine the interaction tree and the associated agent behaviors into a verifiable hierarchical colored Petri net in order to take advantage of its well-defined (execution) semantics and proven (computerized) verification techniques. The verification method presented in this paper consists of three steps: (1) the translation of the agent-based process design to a hierarchical colored Petri net, (2) the identification of process design errors, and (3) the correction and rollback of process design errors to the agent-based model. The translation technique has been implemented in a software tool that outputs the hierarchical colored Petri net in a format that can be loaded in the widely used CPN Tools software package. Verification results are discussed for the case study model.

A framework for BPML assessment and improvement

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate and improve two popular business process modelling languages (BPMLs) the Integration definition for function modelling (IDEF0) and event‐driven process chain (eEPC).Design/methodology/approachThe paper aims to select, compare and evaluate against a proposed criteria framework two popular BPMLs. In order to meet end‐user requirements, it suggests concrete improvements for either language. Evaluation findings and improvement attempts are documented over a case study within the context of a large European aerospace industry. The languages are applied through the use of appropriate software such as BPWin and Arena Simulation Software for IDEF0 and Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS) Toolset for eEPC.FindingsImproved languages seem to overcome several deficiencies and increase their modelling performance. Improvements in IDEF0 include: classification of component information and insertion of logical operators. In this approach the language describes not only the information flow within the process, but also the time sequences via component discrimination. Improvements in eEPC include event chain diagram in ARIS house of business engineering methodology, which represents the interrelations between functions of different diagrams and the linkages among components and resources to include resources planning.Practical implicationsResults showed that language deficiencies were clarified. Thus, the improvements made, constitute better modelling performance and the development of more reliable models.Originality/valueThe paper outlines a systematic evaluation framework with concrete criteria. Furthermore, the improvements made, are a further step towards increased modelling performance, lean and comprehend diagrams.

Using multi-agent platform for pure decentralised business workflows

This paper describes the development of a distributed multi-agent workflow enacting mechanism starting from a BPEL4WS specification. Our work demonstrates that a multi-agent interaction protocol (Lightweight Coordination Calculus) can be derived from a BPEL4WS specification to enable pure decentralised business workflows. The key difference between our work and other existing multi-agent based systems is that our approach proposes a pure distributed architecture (no centralised controller/coordinator) for deploying workflow systems in an open environment (internat). Moreover, with our approach, existing workflow developing methodologies and business process models can be adopted in as much as possible for multi-agent system development. Some problems we encountered such as mapping problem between the used business process modelling and multi-agent interaction protocol description languages are addressed.

Deterministic Petri Net Languages as Business Process Specification Language

Today, a wide variety of techniques have been proposed to model the process aspects of business processes. The problem, however, is that many of these are focused on providing a clear graphical representation of the models and give almost no support for complex verification procedures. Alternatively, the use of Petri Nets as a business process modeling language has been repeatedly proposed. In complex business processes the use of Petri Nets has been criticized and the technique is believed to be unable to capture such processes in all aspects. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the application of Petri Net language theory for business process specification. Petri Net languages are an extension to the Petri Net theory, and they provide a set of techniques to describe complex business processes more efficiently. More specifically, we advocate the application of deterministic Petri Net languages to model the control flow aspects of business processes. The balance between modeling power and analysis possibilities makes deterministic Petri Nets a highly efficient technique, used in a wide range of domains. The proof of their usability, as business process specification language, is given by providing suitable solutions to model the basic and more complex business process patterns [4]. Additionally, some points of particular interest are concisely discussed.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS MODELS AND WORKFLOW SPECIFICATIONS

This paper presents a methodology to bridge the gap between business process modeling and workflow specification. While the first is concerned with intuitive descriptions that are mainly used for communication, the second is concerned with configuring a process-aware information system, thus requiring a more rigorous language less suitable for communication. Unlike existing approaches the gap is not bridged by providing formal semantics for an informal language. Instead it is assumed that the desired behavior is just a subset of the full behavior obtained using a liberal interpretation of the informal business process modeling language. Using a new correctness criterion (relaxed soundness), it is verified whether a selection of suitable behavior is possible. The methodology consists of five steps and is illustrated using event-driven process chains as a business process modeling language and Petri nets as the workflow specification language.

Extending the concept of transaction compensation

The ability to compensate for previous activities, often in the case of failure or exceptional events, is an important feature of long-running business transactions. In this paper, we present several extensions to existing notions of compensation for business transactions. The extensions are described using a business process modeling language called StAC (Structured Activity Compensation) but are also placed in the context of IBM's BPBeans (Business Process Beans) enterprise technology. The meaning of the compensation mechanisms is made precise, as are issues of compensation scoping in multilevel transactions. The compensation extensions result in flexible and powerful mechanisms for modeling and implementing long-running business transactions.