Pablo David Villarreal

A Modeling Approach for Collaborative Business Processes Based on the UP-ColBPIP Language

The modeling of collaborative business processes is an important issue in order to allow enterprises to implement B2B collaborations with their business partners. We have proposed an MDA-based methodology for the modeling, verification and implementation of collaborative processes. Since collaborative process models are the main artifacts in this MDA-based methodology, a suitable modeling approach is required to design collaborative processes. In this work we describe a modeling approach for collaborative processes based on the UP-ColBPIP language, which is oriented to support the model-driven development of collaborative processes and B2B information systems. The behavior of collaborative processes is modeled through interaction protocols. Enhances to the control flow constructors of interaction protocols are introduced. In addition, we describe an Eclipse-based tool that supports this language.

Transforming collaborative business process models into web services choreography specifications

Languages for web services choreography are becoming more and more important for B2B integration. However, the development of web services-based systems is complex and time-consuming. Enterprises have to agree on collaborative business processes and then derive their respective web services choreographies in order to implement B2B collaboration. To support it, this paper presents a MDA approach for collaborative processes. We describe the components and techniques of this approach. We show how collaborative process models defined with the UP-ColBPIP language can be used as the main development artifact in order to derive choreography specifications based on WS-CDL. The transformations to be carried out are also discussed. The main advantage of this MDA approach is that it guarantees that the generated web services choreographies fulfill the collaborative processes agreed between the partners in a business level.

A Verification Method for Collaborative Business Processes

The verification of collaborative processes is a key issue to consider in cross-organizational modeling methodologies. Some of the existing verification approaches provide only partial support, whereas others impose some restrictions to verify models with advanced control flow, compromise (completely or partially) the enterprise autonomy, or are focused on technology-dependent specifications. In order to deal with these issues we introduce Global Interaction Nets, which are based on Hierarchical and Colored Petri Nets, and the Global Interaction Soundness property, which was adapted from the classical definition of soundness, as the main correctness criterion. The method can be used to formalize and verify models defined with different modeling languages. In addition, we apply the method through a case study modeled with UP-ColBPIP, which is a modeling language for collaborative processes, and formalize its constructs by means of Global Interaction Nets.

Transforming Collaborative Process Models into Interface Process Models by Applying an MDA Approach

Collaborative business models among enterprises require defining collaborative business processes. Enterprises implement B2B collaborations to execute these processes. In B2B collaborations the integration and interoperability of processes and systems of the enterprises are required to support the execution of collaborative processes. From a collaborative process model, which describes the global view of the enterprise interactions, each enterprise must define the interface process that represents the role it performs in the collaborative process in order to implement the process in a Business Process Management System. Hence, in this work we propose a method for the automatic generation of the interface process model of each enterprise from a collaborative process model. This method is based on a Model-Driven Architecture to transform collaborative process models into interface process models. By applying this method, interface processes are guaranteed to be interoperable and defined according to a collaborative process.

Model-Driven Development Methodology for B2B Collaborations

The design and implementation of collaborative business processes and the Business-to-Business (B2B) systems that support them is an important issue in order to enable enterprises to set up B2B collaborations. This involves new challenges, mainly regarding the ability to cope with change, decentralized management, peer-to-peer interactions, preservation of enterprise autonomy, and the support for interoperability. The design and implementation of B2B collaborations require the use of conceptual models that differ in viewpoint, target people, abstraction level and granularity. This makes the use of traditional software development methodologies inappropriate. In this paper, we propose a methodology for the design and implementation of B2B collaborations that support the above issues. The methodology supports a development framework and is based on the Model-Driven Development (MDD). The methodology provides guidelines, languages, methods, model transformations and tools to support the representation of business requirements, the definition of technology-independent collaborative process models, the derivation of technology-independent processes and IT architectures that enterprises require to support collaborative processes as well as the generation of a technology-specific solution for each enterprise. This methodology guarantees the alignment and consistency between the business and technological solutions for B2B collaborations.

Decision support systems generator for industrial companies module IV: forecasting support system

In this work we present a description of a module to support the scheduling of production orders. This system is part of a global decision support system generator that the GIDSATD is developing (Rico et al., 1997). First, we briefly describe the designed architecture to manage the information required for scheduling. Second, we present an object oriented analysis and design of the scheduling support subsystem generator. Finally, we describe a particular scheduling algorithm included in the model base.

Specification of behavioral anti-patterns for the verification of block-structured Collaborative Business Processes

Context: The verification of the control flow of a Collaborative Business Process (CBP) is important when developing cross-organizational systems, since the control flow defines the behavior of the cross-organizational collaboration. Behavioral anti-patterns have been proposed to improve the performance of formal verification methods. However, a systematic approach for the discovery and specification of behavioral anti-patterns of CBPs has not been proposed so far.Objective: The aim of this work is an approach to systematically discover and specify the behavioral anti-patterns of block-structured CBP models.Method: The approach proposes using the metamodel of a CBP language to discover all possible combinations of constructs leading to a problem in the behavior of block-structured CBPs. Each combination is called minimal CBP. The set of all minimal CBPs with behavioral problems defines the unsoundness profile of a CBP language, from which is possible specifying the behavioral anti-patterns of such language.Results: The approach for specification of behavioral anti-patterns was applied to the UP-ColBPIP language. Twelve behavioral anti-patterns were defined, including support to complex control flow such as advanced synchronization, cancellation and exception management, and multiple instances. Anti-patterns were evaluated on a repository of block-structured CBP models and compared with a formal verification method. Results show that the verification based on anti-patterns is as accurate as the formal method, but it clearly improves the performance of the latter.Conclusion: By using the proposed approach, it is possible to systematically specify behavioral anti-patterns for block-structured CBP languages. During the discovery of anti-patterns different formalisms can be used. With this approach, the specification of anti-patterns provides the exact combination of elements that can cause a problem, making error correction and result interpretation easier. Although the proposed approach was defined for the context of CBPs, it could be applied to the context of intra-organizational processes.

Ontology-Based Heuristics for Process Behavior: Formalizing False Positive Scenarios

Verification methods to detect errors in the behavior of process models can be formal or informal. The former are based on formal languages, whereas the latter are based on heuristics. The main advantage of informal methods with respect to the formal ones is their short run-time. However, heuristics may lead to false positives, i.e. they may detect errors in a process model even though such model is correct. In this work, we propose using ontologies to formalize heuristics that avoid false positive scenarios. With ontologies it is possible to avoid ambiguities in heuristics that may lead to inaccurate implementations and to enable their execution by ontology reasoners. To this aim, we propose a set of false positive scenarios and define SWRL rules and SPARQL queries to formalize heuristics for such scenarios by means of ontologies. In addition, we identified three requirements that should be met in order to formalize heuristics and their false positive scenarios.

Software Agents for Management Dynamic Inter-Organizational Collaborations

The globalization, modern markets, as well as new organizational management philosophies and advances in Information and Communications Technologies, encourage organizations to establish collaboration networks or inter-organizational collaborations. In this paper we propose a technology solution based on software agents which allows supporting the management of collaborative business processes in environments dynamic inter-organizational collaborations. First, we propose a software agent platform that integrates in agent specifications the notions of Belief-Desire-Intention agent architecture with functionalities of process-aware information systems. The platform enables organizations to negotiate collaborations agreements in electronic format to establish dynamic inter-organizational collaborations and define the collaborative processes to be executed. Second, we propose a methodology that includes methods based on Model-Driven Development, which enable the generation of executable process models and the code of process-oriented agents, derived from conceptual models of collaborative processes. This methodology and methods are implemented and automated by software agents that enable the generations of these implementation artifacts, at run-time of the platform. Therefore, the platform enables the automatic generation of the technology solution that requires each organization to execute the agreed collaborative processes, where the generated artifacts are built and initialized in the platform, allowing the implementation and execution of these processes. In this way, the proposed agent-based platform allows to establish collaboration among heterogeneous and autonomous organizations focusing in the process-oriented integration.

Institutional Violence Complaints in Argentina: A Privacy Study

Argentina is a federal republic located in South America. Despite Argentina’s redemocratization in 1983, conditions favoring human rights abuses still persist. Institutional violence refers to structured practices of human rights violation by state officials belonging to public institutions. In this paper, we outline and discuss privacy issues in institutional violence complaints in Argentina. To this aim, we defined a BPMN process model for registering victims’ complaints in a database, and proposed an approach to investigate the privacy of such process from a threat modeling perspective. With the approach, we identified privacy threats of information disclosure and content unawareness, and defined privacy requirements and controls needed to mitigate these threats.