Ruopeng Lu

A survey of comparative business process modeling approaches

There has been a huge influx of business process modeling langu ages as business process management (BPM) and process-aware information systems continue to expand into various business domains. The origins of process modeling languages are quite diverse, although two dominant approaches can be observed; one based on graphical models, and the other based on rule specifications. However, at this time, there is no report in literature that specifically targets a comparative analysis of these two approaches, on aspects such as the relative areas of application, power of expression, and limitations. In this paper we have attempted to address this question. We will present both a survey of the two approaches as well as a critical and comparative analysis.

Managing process variants as an information resource

Many business solutions provide best practice process templates, both generic as well as for specific industry sectors. However, it is often the variance from template solutions that provide organizations with intellectual capital and competitive differentiation. In this paper, we present a modeling framework that is conducive to constrained variance, by supporting user driven process adaptations. The focus of the paper is on providing a means of utilizing the adaptations effectively for process improvement through effective management of the process variants repository (PVR). In particular, we will provide deliberations towards a facility to provide query functionality for PVR that is specifically targeted for effective search and retrieval of process variants.

On the discovery of preferred work practice through business process variants

Variance in business process execution can be the result of several situations, such as disconnection between documented models and business operations, workarounds in spite of process execution engines, dynamic change and exception handling, flexible and ad-hoc approaches, and collaborative and/or knowledge intensive work. It is imperative that effective support for managing process variance be extended to organizations mature in their BPM (Business Process Management) uptake so that they can ensure organization wide consistency, promote reuse and capitalize on their BPM investments. Process variants are complex objects that contain features of different dimensions, such as variant design or variant execution data. This paper provides a technique for effective utilization of the adaptations manifested in process variants. In particular, we will present a facility for discovery of preferred variants through effective search and retrieval based on the notion of process similarity, where multiple aspects of the process variants are compared according to specific query requirements. The major advantage of this approach is the ability to provide a quantitative measure for the similarity between process variants, which further facilitates various BPM activities such as process reuse, analysis and discovery.

Compliance aware business process design

Historically, business process design has been driven by business objectives, specifically process improvement. However this cannot come at the price of control objectives which stem from various legislative, standard and business partnership sources. Ensuring the compliance to regulations and industrial standards is an increasingly important issue in the design of business processes. In this paper, we advocate that control objectives should be addressed at an early stage, i.e., design time, so as to minimize the problems of runtime compliance checking and consequent violations and penalties. To this aim, we propose supporting mechanisms for business process designers. This paper specifically presents a support method which allows the process designer to quantitatively measure the compliance degree of a given process model against a set of control objectives. This will allow process designers to comparatively assess the compliance degree of their design as well as be better informed on the cost of non-compliance.

Measurement of Compliance Distance in Business Processes

Abstract Ensuring that work practice is compliant to regulations and industrial standards is an increasingly important issue in business systems. Whereas as an understanding of control objectives that stem from various legislative, standard and contractual sources may be found at strategic or tactical levels, an assessment of their effective adoption in operational practices is extremely hard. In this paper, we propose a method for assessing the level of compliance in business work practice. The method builds upon business process management platforms, and provides the ability to objectively measure the compliance distance of existing processes within the organization. This in turn empowers process designers and business analysts to quantify the effort required to achieve a compliant process.

Defining Adaptation Constraints for Business Process Variants

In current dynamic business environment, it has been ar- gued that certain characteristics of ad-hocism in business processes are desirable. Such business processes typically have a very large number of instances, where design decisions for each process instance may be made at runtime. In these cases, predictability and repetitiveness cannot be counted upon, as the complete process knowledge used to define the pro- cess model only becomes available at the time after a specific process instance has been instantiated. The basic premise is that for a class of business processes it is possible to specify a small number of essential constraints at design time, but allow for a large number of execution possibilities at runtime. The objective of this paper is to conceptualise a set of constraints for process adaptation at instance level. Based on a comprehensive modelling framework, business requirements can be trans- formed to a set of minimal constraints, and the support for specification of process constraints and techniques to ensure constraint quality are developed.