Business Process Modeling Tools Research Articles

Remarks on Egon Börger: “Approaches to model business processes: a critical analysis of BPMN, workflow patterns and YAWL, SOSYM 11:305–318”

Egon Borger (SOSYM, 11, pp. 305---318, 2012) challenges the concepts of BPMN, workflow patterns and YAWL as useful contributions to the modeling of business processes. I show that he misjudges the role of BPMN, YAWL and similar techniques in the modeling of business processes. In particular he mistakes YAWL's formal basis, i.e. Petri nets. Borger furthermore suggests evaluation criteria for business process modeling tools. I argue that his criteria overemphasize some less important aspects, while ignoring some decisive ones.

Bringing knowledge into recommender systems

Recommender systems are largely used nowadays to support collaborative tasks. However, it is important to consider each user's knowledge of the system for the recommended subject. In this paper we describe the use of user knowledge to improve the recommender system of the Business Process Cooperative Editor (BPCE), a collaborative business process modeling tool. We use the concept of the Knowledge Vector, developed in a previous work on collaborative navigation, to factor user knowledge into recommendations.We present Knowledge Vectors and how they are applied to the editor. A simulation to evaluate the effectiveness of the editor's new recommender system is presented.

Syntax highlighting in business process models

Sense-making of process models is an important task in various phases of business process management initiatives. Despite this, there is currently hardly any support in business process modeling tools to adequately support model comprehension. In this paper we adapt the concept of syntax highlighting to workflow nets, a modeling technique that is frequently used for business process modeling. Our contribution is three-fold. First, we establish a theoretical argument to what extent highlighting could improve comprehension. Second, we formalize a concept for syntax highlighting in workflow nets and present a prototypical implementation with the WoPeD modeling tool. Third, we report on the results of an experiment that tests the hypothetical benefits of highlighting for comprehension. Our work can easily be transferred to other process modeling tools and other process modeling techniques.

효율적인 비즈니스 프로세스 관리를 위한 J2EE 기반 B2Bi 협업 워크플로우 시스템 설계 및 구현

In this paper, the business process was easily modeled by distinguishing between the business process and work logic. Based on this model, B2Bi collaboration Workflow modeling tool, which facilitates collaboration, was designed and implemented. The collaboration workflow modeling tool consists of 3 components; business process modeling tool, execution engine and monitoring tool. First, a business process modeling tool is used to build a process map that reflects the business logic of an application in a quick and accurate manner. Second an execution engine provides a real-time execution environment for business process instance. Third, a monitoring tool provides a real-time monitoring function for the business process that is in operation at the time. In addition to this, it supports flexibility and expandability based on XML and J2EE for the linkage with the legacy system that was used previously, and suggests a solution for a new corporate strategy and operation.

Comparison and evaluation of business process modelling and management tools

Business Process Modelling (BPM) and management are becoming an essential part of today's enterprises. This paper compares and evaluates several BPM tools against the criteria that are critical to an enterprise's business process optimisation, and its adoption of emerging technologies and methodologies – including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Enterprise Architectures (EAs).

Graphical and Logical Formalisms for Business Process Modeling and Verification

Process models are an essential component of business process management and are found in various information systems such as workflow management systems, enterprise resource planning systems, and supply chain management systems. Process modeling and analysis are key steps in business process management. However, most existing activity-based process modeling paradigms found in process management tools lack a mathematical formalism, have limited expressive power, or have little analytical capability. Consequently, process modeling and analysis in the industry remain an art rather than a science.In this dissertation, we first propose a logic-based workflow verification approach by applying propositional logic with constraints to verifying the correctness of both acyclic and cyclic workflow models. We demonstrate that this approach is capable of detecting process anomalies in workflow models.We then propose process graphs as a graphical and mathematical tool for business process modeling and analysis. We formally define the syntax and semantics of process graphs and their constructs. We show that process graphs can not only model all types of execution order of activities, but also support multi-level abstraction, modular modeling, and analysis of the correctness of process models. We apply process graphs to defining and classifying process anomalies, and demonstrate that the proper use of process graphs can prevent certain process anomalies.We also propose process logic as a logical formalism and mathematical method to represent process models for the purpose of process verification. We formally define the syntax and semantics of process logic to reflect the characteristics of process structures in a more precise way. We establish a formal relationship between process logic and graphical representations of process models, and transform the problem of verifying the correctness of process models into the problem of determining the validity of process argument forms in process logic. We demonstrate that process logic can be used to verify completely the correctness of activity-based process models.Process graphs and process logic provide a theoretical foundation for the modeling, analysis, and verification of activity-based process models that are most widely used in the applications of business process management.