Vincenzo Cartelli

A resource-aware simulation tool for business processes

The deep knowledge of internal and external business processes, along with the capability of governing them, are a key requirement for enterprises to survive. In the dynamic and unpredictable worldwide market, the achievement of business goals depends on the ability of enterprises to adapt to new market conditions by promptly re-engineering their processes. The cost for process re-engineering may be not negligible, if we consider that it may require several refinement steps and that tuning processes on-the-job may impair regular business activities. To this end, there is a growing interest towards tools that allow to simulate process modifications before actually enforcing such changes. In this paper we propose a tool for business process simulation which makes use of modeling specifications such as the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and exploits the rigor of the Colored Petri Nets (CPNets) formalism. With respect to other approaches proposed in the literature, the one presented here defines a detailed model of enterprises resources (both human and non-human) and cost allocation inspired to the Activity Based Costing (ABC) accounting principles. A case study test was conducted on a prototype implementation and related results are presented.

Exploiting BPMN Features to Design a Fault-aware TOSCA Orchestrator.

Cloud computing is nowadays a consolidated paradigm that enables scalable access to computing resources and complex services. One of the greatest challenges Cloud providers have to deal with is to efficiently automate the service “provisioning” activities through Cloud orchestration techniques. By relying on TOSCA, a well-known standard specification for the interoperable description of Cloud services, we developed a faultaware orchestrator capable of automating the workflow for service provisioning. The BPMN notation was used to define both the workflow and the data associated with workflow elements. To corroborate the proposal, a software prototype was developed and tested with a sample use case which is discussed in the paper.

Citizenpedia: simplifying citizens interaction with public administration

Governments are facing increasing expectations from citizens to deliver more innovative and responsive services. Digital technologies offers opportunities for more collaborative and participatory relationships across stakeholders to actively collaborate in the design of public services and participate in their delivery. In this work we present Citizenpedia, a software framework under development within the H2020 SIMPATICO project, that aims to involve citizens in improving e-services provided by public administration and simplifying their usage.

Human Computation to Enhance E-Service Consumption among Elderlies

Smart Cities aim to increase citizens’ quality of life. Smart Government is a part of Smart Cities domain aiming to enhance the communication and interactions of citizens and companies with government. The SIMPATICO framework combines machine and human intelligence to simplify e-services i.e., web accessible apps to accomplish administrative procedures online, and thus enable a more widespread adoption of electronic procedures. This paper reviews the impact of instrumenting e-services, in Galicia region in Spain, with SIMPATICO features, e.g., text and workflow simplication, autocompletion of personal data and public procedure documentation and support through crowdsourced questions and answers. Particularly, taking into account the lessons learnt at the first pilot evaluation with Elderly people, this paper describes the public procedure model proposed by SIMPATICO which backs the application of diverse strategies to better support users while facing the completion of complex administrative procedures.

A Framework for the Orchestration and Provision of Cloud Services Based on TOSCA and BPMN

Cloud computing is a consolidated and high-maturity level paradigm which is capable of handling powerful computing environments and providing complex services in a flexible and scalable way. In order to compete in the cloud service market, one of the challenges Cloud providers are faced with is to efficiently automate the service “provisioning” activities through the use of Cloud orchestration techniques. The focus of this paper is the orchestration process. Starting with TOSCA, a well-known standard specification used to represent the complete structure of a Cloud service, we developed an orchestrator capable of automating the workflow of all the tasks required to build up such a service. What makes our approach novel is the definition of a converter component which takes as input a TOSCA service template and transforms it into a BPMN process model that is ready to be fed to a workflow engine. The BPMN notation is used to represent both the workflow and the data associated with each workflow step. To prove the viability of the YAML-to-BPMN conversion process, a software prototype of the system was developed and tested with a sample use case which is discussed in the paper.

H2020 692819 Simpatico - D4.2: Basic Methods And Tools For Human Computation

This document is the deliverable “D4.2 – Basic methods and tools for human computation” of the European project “SIMPATICO - SIMplifying the interaction with Public Administration Through Information technology for Citizens and cOmpanies” (hereinafter also referred to as “SIMPATICO”, project reference: 692819). SIMPATICO addresses a strategic challenge towards the innovation and modernization of the public sector: the need to offer a more efficient and more effective experience to companies and citizens in their daily interaction with Public Administration (PA) by (i) offering a personalized delivery of PA online services; (ii) enabling a better comprehension of the complex processes and documents (forms, regulations, etc.) behind these services; (iii) engaging them to improve the administration processes and services. SIMPATICOs goal is to improve the experience of citizens and companies in their daily interactions with the public administration by providing a personalized delivery of e-services based on Natural Language Processing techniques and by promoting an active engagement of people for the continuous improvement of the interaction with these services. This report includes the results of project tasks T4.2 “Social question answering engine”, T4.3 “Collaborative procedures designer” and T4.4 “Citizenpedia collective knowledge base and API”. Each of these tasks corresponds to a software module of the Citizenpedia, the Question & Answer Engine (QAE), the Collaborative Procedure Designer (CPD) and the Collective Knowledge Base (CKB) respectively. This deliverable details the current implemented functionalities, the interfaces and the next steps for each the mentioned components.

Complementing the BPMN to Enable Data-Driven Simulations of Business Processes

Business Process Simulation is a useful and widely adopted technique that fits process analysts with the ability to estimate the performance impact of important business decisions before the actions are actually deployed. In order for the simulation to provide accurate and reliable results, process models need to consider not just the workflow dynamics, but also many important factors that may impact on the overall process performance, which constitute what we refer to as the Process Context. In this paper we formalize a new Business Process Simulation Model which strictly integrates to the BPMN 2.0 standard and encompasses all the features of a business process in terms of Process Workflow and Process Context respectively. It allows designers to build a resource-based perspective of a business process that enables the simulation of complex data-driven behaviors. To prove the viability of the proposed approach, a case study is finally discussed. The results obtained from the case simulation are also reported.

Extending the BPMN Specification to Support Cost-Centric Simulations of Business Processes

Business Process Simulation is considered by many a very useful technique to analyze the impact of some important choices designers take at process design or optimization time, right before processes are actually implemented and deployed. In order for the simulation to provide accurate and reliable results, process models need to take into account not just the workflow dynamics, but also many other important factors that may impact on the overall performance of process execution, and that form what we refer to as the Context of a process. In this paper we formalize a new Business Process Model that encompasses all the features of a business process in terms of workflow and execution Context respectively. The model allows designers to build a cost-centric perspective of a business process. Also, we propose an extension to the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) specification with the aim of enhancing the power of the BPMN to also model resources and the process execution environment. In the paper we provide some details of the implementation of a novel Business Process Simulator capable of simulating the newly introduced process model. To prove the overall approach’s viability, a case study is finally discussed.