Faruk Hasić

Towards a Holistic Discovery of Decisions in Process-Aware Information Systems

The interest of integrating decision analysis approaches with the automated discovery of processes from data has seen a vast surge over the past few years. Most notably the introduction of the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard by the Object Management Group has provided a suitable solution for filling the void of decision representation in business process modeling languages. Process discovery has already embraced DMN for so-called decision mining, however, the efforts are still limited to a control flow point of view, i.e., explaining routing (constructs) or decision points. This work, however, introduces an integrated way of capturing the decisions that are embedded in the process, which is not limited to local characteristics, but provides a decision model in the form of a decision diagram which encompasses the full process execution span. Therefore, a typology is proposed for classifying different activities that contribute to the decision dimension of the process. This enables the possibility for an in-depth analysis of every activity, deciding whether it entails a decision, and what its relation is to other activities. The findings are implemented and illustrated on the 2013 BPI Challenge log, an exemplary dataset originating from a decision-driven process.

An Evaluation Framework for Design-Time Context-Adaptation of Process Modelling Languages

To enhance the performance and efficiency of business processes, it is essential to take the dynamics of their execution context into account during process modelling. This paper first proposes an evaluation framework that identifies the main requirements for supporting the modelling of context-adaptive processes. Using this framework, we analyse four popular business process modelling languages: Coloured Petri Nets (CPN), Business Process Modelling and Notation 2.0 (BPMN), Yet Another Workflow Language (YAWL), and Unified Modelling Language Activity Diagrams (UML AD). The analysis is carried out by evaluating how the respective language notations fulfil the identified requirements in several real-life scenarios. Lastly, a comparative analysis of the languages focussed on their support for modelling context-adaptive business processes is provided.

Challenges in Refactoring Processes to Include Decision Modelling

Until lately decisions were regularly modelled as a part of the process model, negatively affecting the maintainability, comprehensibility and flexibility of processes as well as decisions. The recent establishment of the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard provides an opportunity for shifting in favour of a separation of concerns between the decision and process model. However, this challenge of separation of concerns and subsequently consistent integration has received limited attention. This work discusses difficulties and challenges in separating the concerns and then integrating the two models. The most challenging scenario is when integrating decision models which entail the process holistically, rather than merely focusing the decisions on local decision points. In this work, we shed a light on the importance of the separation of concerns and identify inconsistencies that might arise when separating and integrating processes and decisions.

A Service-Oriented Architecture Design of Decision-Aware Information Systems: Decision as a Service

Separating the decision modelling concern from the processes modelling concern has gained significant support in literature over the past few years, as incorporating both concerns into a single model has shown to impair the scalability, maintainability, flexibility and understandability of both processes and decisions. Most notably the introduction of the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard by the Object Management Group has provided a suitable solution for externalising decisions from processes. This paper introduces a systematic way of tackling the separation of the decision modelling concern from process modelling by providing a Decision as a Service (DaaS) layered Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) which approaches decisions as externalised services that processes need to invoke on demand in order to obtain the decision outcome. Additionally, the benefits of the DaaS design on process-decision modelling are discussed in terms of scalability, maintainability, flexibility and understandability.

Augmenting processes with decision intelligence: Principles for integrated modelling

Until recently decisions were mostly modelled within the process. Such an approach was shown to impair the maintainability, scalability, and flexibility of both processes and decisions. Lately, literature is moving towards a separation of concerns between the process and decision model. Most notably, the introduction of the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard provides a suitable solution for filling the void of decision representation. This raises the question whether decisions and processes can easily be separated and consistently integrated. We introduce an integrated way of modelling the process, while providing a decision model which encompasses the process in its entirety, rather than focusing on local decision points only. Specifically, this paper contributes formal definitions for decision models and for the integration of processes and decisions. Additionally, inconsistencies between process and decision models are identified and we remedy those inconsistencies by establishing FivePrinciples for integrated Process and Decision Modelling (5PDM). The principles are subsequently illustrated and validated on a case of a Belgian accounting company. We address the question of consistent integration of process and decision models.We provide a formalisation on which the integration is based.We list possible inconsistencies between process and decision models.We provide modelling guidelines for consistent integration.Our guidelines are applied and illustrated on a real life case.

Developing a Modelling and Mining Framework for Integrated Processes and Decisions

With increasing automation of business processes, the possibilities for the automation of routine business decisions grow: granting a loan, insurance or energy premium; simple diagnosis; sensor control systems in manufacturing; etc. are not uncommon automated decisions anymore, deployed and supported by systems and processes. Although each decision is relatively small and operational, they come in large numbers so that they eventually represent a large value for organizations. Reconciling and integrating processes and decisions is therefore of paramount importance, both when it comes to modelling the two concerns consistently, as well as in terms of automated discovery of process-decision models. This paper outlines a research proposal for the development of a framework allowing a sound integration of processes and decisions both for modelling and mining, relying on the newly developed Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard.

A Case-Based Inquiry into the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) and the Knowledge Base (KB) Paradigm.

Modelling decisions in organisations is a challenging task. Deciding which modelling language to use for the problem at hand is a fundamental question. We investigate the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard and the IDP knowledge base system (KBS) in their effectiveness to model and solve specific real-life case problems. This paper presents two cases that are solved with DMN and IDP: (1) Income taxation for foreign artists temporarily working in Belgium; and (2) Registration duties when purchasing real-estate in Belgium. DMN is used as a front-end method, assisting the business analyst in the analysis and modelling of the business domain and communication with the domain expert. It is complemented with the representation of the logic in IDP as back-end system, which allows more forms of inference.