Harald Kühn

Ein Geschäftsprozessmanagement- Werkzeug der nächsten Generation - ADONIS: Konzeption und Anwendungen

At present, state-of-the-art business process management tools usually offer hard-coded methods, that are only partially adaptable. Tools based on metamodeling concepts are bere named next-generation tools, The paper describes the potential of these tools by taking ADONIS as an exam ple. Based on the explanation of the ADONIS concepts three application areas and its corresponding methods are presented: The integrated management of products and busi ness processes, the development of workflow applications and the model-based configura tion of standard software.

Enterprise Model Integration

Due to rapid changing business requirements the complexity in developing enterprise-spanning applications is continually growing. A vital field of delivering technical concepts and technologies for integrating heterogeneous applications and components to support inter-organisational business processes is the area of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). A common characteristic of all EAI approaches is their focus on technical and runtime aspects of integration. From our project experiences in developing large B2B applications, it is necessary to integrate applications on the business and conceptual level as well. Because of the diversity of models and modelling languages for developing enterprise applications, we propose the Enterprise Model Integration (EMI) approach. In this paper we describe basic concepts of EMI, a pattern system for metamodel integration, and a case study applying EMI for developing B2B applications. The EMI approach is compatible with the MDA infrastructure and implemented within the meta model management tool ADONIS.

A knowledge-based approach to manage information systems interoperability

Interoperability is a key property of enterprise applications, which is hard to achieve due to the large number of interoperating components and semantic heterogeneity. The inherent complexity of interoperability problems implies that there exists no silver bullet to solve them. Rather, the knowledge about how to solve wicked interoperability problems is hidden in the application cases that expose those problems. The paper addresses the question of how to organise and use method knowledge to resolve interoperability problems. We propose the structure of a knowledge-based system that can deliver situation-specific solutions, called method chunks. Situational Method Engineering promotes modularisation and formalisation of method knowledge in the form of reusable method chunks, which can be combined to compose a situation-specific method. The method chunks are stored in a method chunk repository. In order to cater for management and retrieval, we introduce an Interoperability Classification Framework, which is used to classify and tag method chunks and to assess the project situation in which they are to be used. The classification framework incorporates technical as well as business and organisational aspects of interoperability. This is an important feature as interoperability problems typically are multifaceted spanning multiple aspects. We have applied the approach to analyse an industry case from the insurance sector to identify and classify a set of method chunks.

Interoperability Issues in Metamodelling Platforms

Metamodelling platforms are getting more and more base technology, therefore interoperability of metamod-elling platforms becomes a crucial aspect in managing corpo-rations’ knowledge assets. This paper describes a generic metamodelling platform architecture and presents an overview of interoperability issues according to conceptual domains in metamodelling platform architectures. Some of these issues are illustrated by a case study from the insurance sector. The collection of interoperability issues can serve as a starting point to stimulate further research on interoperability prob-lems in the metamodelling platform domain.

Moving an application to the cloud: an evolutionary approach

When planning to move a legacy style application to the cloud various challenges arise. The potential size and complexity of such a project might especially discourage small or medium companies trying to benefit from the advantages the cloud promises. In addition, the field they have to address is still young and very dynamic and related technologies are rapidly changing. Based on on-going work in the context of the MODAClouds EU project, this paper describes an evolutionary, iterative approach to accomplish the migration of an existing application to a cloud based environment. Model based techniques are used to support the steps of this transition process by providing a baseline for the development of appropriate deployment architectures and the selection of suitable cloud providers. In addition they provide necessary abstractions in order to be less dependent on a specific technology stack or cloud provider. In order to show how we imagine the developed approach to be applied in practice we describe an existing traditional 3-tier application based on the meta-modeling platform ADOxx and how it could be moved to the cloud from the perspective of a medium-sized software manufacturing company.

Interoperability in meta-environments: an XMI-based approach

In this paper we propose an approach conceived to handle the interoperability in meta-environments. The paper first illustrates the relevance of model interoperability in the present software engineering applications; then, it presents the proposed approach, with a particular emphasis to the relevant role MOF and XMI play in it. Finally, it illustrates a prototype we have realized for verifying the applicability of the proposed approach in a real case, namely the Business Process Management domain.

An interoperability classification framework for method chunk repositories

The competitiveness and efficiency of an enterprise is dependent on its ability to interact with other enterprises and organisations. In this context interoperability is defined as the ability of business processes as well as enterprise software and applications to interact. Interoperability remains a problem and there are numerous issues to be resolved in different situations. We propose method engineering as an approach to organise interoperability knowledge in a method chunk repository. In order to organise the knowledge repository we need an interoperability classification framework associated to it. In this paper we propose a generic architecture for a method chunk repository, elaborate on a classification framework and associate it to some existing bodies of knowledge. We also show how the proposed framework can be applied in a working example.

Metamodellierung im Geschäftsprozeßmanagement: Konzepte, Erfahrungen und Potentiale

Metamodellierungskonzepte wurden in den letzten Jahren vor allem im CASE-Bereich erarbeitet und in Werkzeuge umgesetzt. Gerade das Geschaftsprozesmanagement stellt demgegenuber einen fast noch reizvolleren Anwendungsbereich fur die Metamodellierung dar: Dort ist es besonders hilfreich, branchen-, unternehmens- oder aufgabenspezifisches Wissen bereits in den Modellierungstechniken selbst abzubilden. Zudem ist — im Unterschied zur IT-Ebene — gerade fur die fachliche Modellierung eine Standardisierung wenig sinnvoll und auch kaum zu erwarten. Das vorliegende Papier stellt dazu anhand des Werkzeuges ADONIS1 Metamodellierungskonzepte fur das Geschaftsprozesmanagement vor. Ausgehend von einer Einbettung der Metamodellierung in die Methodendefinition werden das Meta2-Modell (Metametamodell) von ADONIS und Mechanismen fur die Definition der Ablaufsemantik von Prozesmodellierungstechniken vorgestellt. Anschliesend werden Konzepte fur die Adaption von modellauswertenden Komponenten und deren Zusammenspiel mit den Metamodellierungskonzepten am Beispiel der Analyse- und der Simulationskomponente erklart. Das Papier schliest mit der Diskussion von praktischen Erfahrungen und einem Ausblick auf zukunftige Forschungsthemen.

Strategie-, Prozess- und IT-Management: Ein Pattern-orientierter Integrationsansatz

Das Augenmerk von Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) liegt auf technischen Losungen zur Integration und Interoperabilitat heterogener Komponenten und Workflows fur durchgehende, interorganisationelle Geschaftsanwendungen. Eine ganzheitliche Unternehmensintegration muss jedoch bereits auch auf der Strategie-, Geschafts- und konzeptionellen Ebene beginnen. Aufgrund der Heterogenitat von Modellierungssprachen und Methoden in diesen Bereichen gibt es keine einheitliche Modellierungssprache bzw. Methode in der modellgestutzten Unternehmensintegration. Vielmehr wird ein unternehmensspezifisches Bundel von situations- und problemspezifischen Methoden und Methodenfragmenten benotigt, die durch Kombination und Integration die geforderte Hilfestellung fur den Strategen, Architekten, Modellierer und Entwickler liefern. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden Integrations-Patterns des Enterprise Model Integration Ansatzes (EMI) und deren Anwendung vorgestellt.

Der Lebenszyklus des Prozessmanagements

Der Process Management Life Cycle (PMLC) stellt ein zyklisches Vorgehensmodell fur das Prozessmanagement dar und unterstutzt Unternehmen darin, durch Geschaftsprozessmanagement den Unternehmenserfolg zu steigern. Der PMLC besteht aus den sechs Phasen Prozessstrategie, Prozessdokumentation, Prozessoptimierung, Prozessumsetzung, Prozessdurchfuhrung und Prozesscontrolling, die im Einzelnen kurz erlautert werden. Daruber hinaus werden die Anwendungsmoglichkeiten des PMLC sowie die Rollen beschrieben, die unterschiedliche Aufgaben im Rahmen des Prozessmanagements wahrnehmen. Zu diesen Rollen zahlen primar der Chief Process Officer, der Prozessverantwortliche, der Prozessexperte, der Prozessmitarbeiter, der Prozessberater und der Prozesscontroller. Zum einen gibt dieses Kapitel einen kompakten Uberblick uber einen Prozessmanagement-Ansatz. Zum anderen ist dieses Kapitel die Grundlage fur die weitere Strukturierung des vorliegenden Buchs. Einzelne Themen, die in den vorgestellten Phasen des PMLC lediglich angerissen werden konnen, werden in den folgenden Kapiteln des Buchs vertieft. Der Bezug der einzelnen Themen untereinander kann uber den PMLC und die involvierten Rollen stets hergestellt werden.