Damiano Falcioni

Direct Verification of BPMN Processes through an Optimized Unfolding Technique

Business process analysis is one of the most important and complex activities of Business Process Management. Business processes are typically defined by business experts which ask for graphical and user-friendly notations. Nevertheless most notations used typically lack precisely defined semantics limiting the possibility of analysis to informal approaches such as observation techniques. To support formal verification techniques it is necessary to define a precise mapping between the adopted user-friendly notation and a formal language. In this paper we propose a Java based verification approach for Business Processes modeled using the BPMN 2.0 standard. In particular, we defined a precise Java mapping for the main elements of the BPMN 2.0 notation. The relations among the different elements of a BPMN 2.0 specification are supported by the inclusion of specific attributes and methods in the created Java objects. The behavior of a set of interrelated objects, corresponding to a BPMN 2.0 specification, can be explored using an algorithm we defined for the purpose. Such an algorithm permits to avoid the state explosion phenomenon using an ad-hoc unfolding technique. A plug-in for the Eclipse IDE platform has been developed. It permits to have an integrated environment in which to design a business process, to verify it, and to check the result of the verification in order to improve the business process itself. This iterative approach can continue until all the issues highlighted by the verifier are solved. The approach and the prototype have been successfully applied to real scenarios within the Public Administration domain, with encouraging results.

HawkEye : a tool for collaborative business process modelling and verification

In this paper we propose a collaborative Business Process modeling approach where multiple stakeholders can be coordinate considering global and local views on Business Processes. In the modeling phase we use a standard language such as BPMN 2.0 that provides both local view, via collaboration specification, and global view, via choreography models specification. The approach provides support also for analysis activities aiming at reconciling local and global views to effectively and efficiently derive inter-organizational Business Processes. For the analysis phase we adapted well known verification approaches in order to check behavioral constraints.

FedCohesion: federated identity management in the marche region

Federated identity management is a set of technologies and processes supporting dynamically distribute identity information. Its adoption in Public Administrations maintains organizations autonomy giving at the same time citizens support to access the services that are distributed across security domains. In this paper, we propose the Marche Region experience for what concern federate identity management focusing on the regional authentication framework, named FedCohesion. It is bases on Security Assertion Markup Language standard and it results from Cohesion re-engineering. It is the old style legacy authentication framework. We first present resulting architecture showing supported identification process and pilot applications. Lessons learned and opportunities have been also presented.

Designing quality business processes for E-government digital services

Research works and surveys focusing on e-Government Digital Services availability and usage, reveal that often services are available but ignored by citizens. In our hypothesis this situation can be justified since defined service delivery processes do not sufficiently take into account social aspects and mainly focus just on technical aspects. Domain knowledge, related to how delivering high quality e-Government Digital Services, remains in most of the case in the mind of e-government stakeholders. To address these issues we have developed a quality framework to assess delivery process strategies of services. Moreover we have introduced a user-friendly approach permitting to assess, using formal verification techniques, a delivery process with respect to the defined quality framework. The approach has been also implemented in a plug-in for the Eclipse platform and it has been applied to real case scenarios from the Public Administration domain. In this paper we report and discuss the results we obtained from the conducted experiments. First of all the experiments provided encouraging results confirming that the approach we developed is applicable to the e-government domain. Moreover we discovered that delivery processes, defined for the services under study, reach low quality marks with respect to the framework.

A cloud-based solution for public administrations: The experience of the Regione Marche

Cloud computing is perceived as the next wave of ICT, and many real experiences are on the commercial scene. However this kind of architecture has open legal issues which makes it an endeavor for Public Administrations, despite its potential impact on the efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of administrative initiatives. In the present paper we present the experience made in the deployment of a Cloud solution in the Regione Marche Local Public Administration, which represents one of the pilot experiences at Nationallevel.

Improving PA Business Processes through Modeling, Analysis, and Reengineering

Too often e-government services are derived from “old style” intra- and inter-administration Business Processes without taking into account the potentiality of adopted technologies.

EGOV: A solution for public services execution

Public Administration (PA) sector in modern society is characterized by the need to support extremely complex processes in order to provide services to citizens and business. Complexity is raised by the fact that the provisioning of services is, in the most cases, a collaborative activity shared among different, possibly many, PA offices. It is also true that in the modern PAs, transparency is one of the most important requirement to improve, on the one hand, administration efficiency and, on the other hand, citizens satisfaction. In this scenario the paper presents an approach and an IT tool supporting PAs collaboration and transparency named Scrivania. It allows Public Administration employee to model, publish their services and be guided by Business Processes models. Many PAs can collaborate in the modeling phase of services using the collaborative editor provided by Scrivania. Services are modeled using BPMN 2.0 OMG standard language for BP modeling. Instead, from the point of view of citizens, using Scrivania, they can search and execute the provided services, tracing their execution and, in case of delay, observe the state it occurs.

Process Oriented Training with ADOxx: A Model-Based Realisation in Learn PAd

Process Oriented Training can be applied in two different approaches: (a) processes describing the methodology of training and learning as well as (b) processes describing the organizational context that need to be learned. This paper introduces the results of the EU project Learn PAd that developed prototypes of modelling tools enabling the latter - the usage of business processes to describe the organizational context. Flexibility of business processes have been introduced with case management and knowledge artefacts had been integrated to provide a homogeneous modelling environment. The requirements of such a modelling environment had been collected and implemented with the meta-modelling platform ADOxx®. The meta-model approach has been used to implement the modelling language as well as the mechanisms and the algorithms. The architecture of the modeling tool is introduced and a use case feedback is provided.

Federated identity management in e-government: lessons learned and the path forward

Management of digital identity involves every company and institution, not only in the internet world. Among different identity management models, only the federated one is able to ensure a strong protection in terms of trust and privacy. In fact, the participants in the federation decide to trust each other about which information can be exchanged in the processes of authentication and authorisation, based on established policies to manage relationships of trust. According to this, it has been widely adopted during the last years. In particular, its adoption in Public Administration allows a proper organisation autonomy, supporting access to the services offered by the institution. This process is going to quickly raise with the progressive adoption of cloud computing by Public Administrations. In the paper, two projects accomplishing federated digital identity in Italian Public Administrations are presented. Starting from lessons learned, authors highlight a path forward for Public Administration toward federated digital identity in cloud computing scenario.

Digital Identity into Practice: The Case of UniCam

Identity management is a set of technologies and processes supporting identity information. Its adoption in Public Administration, in particular in the domain of university, maintains organization autonomy giving at the same time students and staff support to access the services that are delivered. In this paper we present a project lead by University of Camerino with the Italian Banking Group UBI and the Namirial Certification Authority. The project consists in the issue of Enjoy my UniCam card allowing users to have, on a single physical card, several functionalities about facilitated banking account, university services and digital signature certificate. First results about the testing phase are presented as well as the next steps of the project.