Werner Esswein

Classification of Domain-Specific BPMN Extensions

BPMN is a standard for modeling business processes and provides meta model concepts for the design of extensions. Thus, domain-specific extensions of the BPMN are facilitated. This research article provides an overview of BPMN extension development by the descriptive analysis and classification of 30 BPMN extensions. An extensive literature review was conducted in order to find published extensions. Further, a classification framework was designed to enable a comprehensive analysis of each extension. The analysis showed, that four out of five extensions are not compliant with the BPMN standard. Also, we found several methodological shortcomings that should be tackled in further research.

Toward a formal research framework for ontological analyses

Ontological analyses have been used in numerous publications to compare existing modelling grammars with an ontology. However, a sound theoretical research framework is still missing. Consequently, working with the results of such ontological analyses is theoretically questionable. Therefore, the aim of this paper is threefold. Firstly, we want to contribute to such a theoretical research framework by formalising the ontological analyses approach as sets of mathematical functions between ontological and modelling grammar constructs. Secondly, on this basis, we derive four formal requirements each ontological analyses must comply with. Thirdly, we analyse whether current state of the art ontological analyses comply with our findings. While the formalisation demonstrates the strengths of the ontological analysis approach we conclude that current analyses have theoretical deficiencies, which lead to serious limitations in their application. Lastly, we demonstrate the usefulness of our formal framework by describing a new application. This application uses two different ontological analyses as input and produces mappings between the modelling grammars used in these analyses as output.

BPMN4CP: Design and implementation of a BPMN extension for clinical pathways

The Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a standard for business process modeling that is very common in professional practice due to its expressiveness, the well defined meta model and the possibility of workflow integration. This research article aims to apply the BPMN for the representation of clinical pathways in order to utilize its benefits in the clinical context. BPMN provides a set of generic process modeling elements what makes it necessary to extend the language by domain-specific concepts from the field of clinical pathways (e.g., evidence indicators). Therefore, the extension method of Stroppi et al. (2011) was applied and extended in order to facilitate a systematic design and development. This research article provides the analysis of requirements and relevant concepts for modeling clinical pathways. Based on a domain ontology, need for extension is identified and the valid BPMN extension meta model is designed by the construction of a conceptional domain model and the corresponding BPMN extension model. The evolved extension ”BPMN4CP” is demonstrated by an example process of wisdom tooth treatment.

Unternehmensarchitekturen — Grundlagen, Verwendung und Frameworks

ZusammenfassungDer Architekturbegriff hat bereits Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts Einzug in die Informationstechnik (IT) gehalten. Dabei stand zunächst die Strukturierung von Hard- und Softwaresystemen im Vordergrund. Mit zunehmender Bedeutung der IT für den Erfolg des Gesamtunternehmens weiteten sich auch das Einsatzgebiet und die Bedeutung von Architekturen aus. Die Verzahnung von Business und IT hat dazu geführt, dass eine gute Architektur heute nicht nur die IT prägt, sondern auch zur Gestaltung und Steuerung des gesamten Unternehmens eingesetzt werden kann. Zur Unterstützung bieten sich verschiedene Werkzeuge an, unter denen insbesondere Frameworks eine besondere Bedeutung zukommt.

Proposal for Requirements Driven Design Science Research

Design Science Research DSR still reveals several methodical shortcomings, which need to be remedied in order to enhance the maturity of DSR and its derived artifacts. For instance, there is a remarkable lack in methodical support for problem formulation. Also, DSR does not provide detailed procedure models, which can be operationalized appropriately. This compromises rigor within the design process and hampers demarcation from professional practice. In order to tackle these issues, we propose the adaptation of Requirements Engineering for structuring the problem space and deriving design decisions systematically. Requirements are also intended to work as glue between single design stages in order to keep the design process comprehensible and transparent. We therefore justify an ontology-based analogy between requirements analysis and DSR parts and provide a requirements-driven DSR framework based on a four-part ontology that especially focuses problem analysis and design preparation. Moreover, a detailed state of the art is presented and our approach is discussed within a critical appraisal.

From Clinical Practice Guideline to Clinical Pathway - Issues of Reference Model-Based Approach

Health care systems are facing new challenges such as the aging population, the increasing amount of chronicle diseases and the rapid development of medical technologies. The increasing of the related health care costs lead to the limits of affordability of health care systems. Building Health networks and standardization of clinical processes are the main trend facing these challenges. Actually, the main instrument for documentation and managing of clinical processes are Clinical Pathways (CPs). They allow to transfer evident knowledge in practice and they are the central point of clinical quality management. In contrast, Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) aggregate the evident medical knowledge in a compact form to support physicians in their practice. In the paper analyze the model-driven development of CP for a health network. Therefore, we work out problems of integration. Finally, the paper shows aspect for a model-based integration of CPGs in CPs. These findings are proofed with the help of the documentation of the regional stroke-network called SOS-NET.

Gibt es eine „Softwarekomponenten Industrie“? Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung

Die Konstruktion von Softwaresystemen aus Komponenten wird bereits seit dem Ende der 1960er Jahre thematisiert. Den Ausgangspunkt dieser Diskussion bildete Mcllroys Vision einer Softwarekomponenten fertigenden Industrie die Integratoren die Komponenten fur eine industrielle Softwareproduktion bereitstellt. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt die Ergebnisse einer in Deutschland erhobenen Studie vor deren Ziel es war zu untersuchen ob sich ein Komponentenmarkt bereits etablieren konnte.

Realisierung des Datenaustauschs im elektronischen Handel

Der elektronische Handel befindet sich in der ersten Hälfte seiner Entwicklung und ist doch schon Normalität in den Unternehmen. Für die Realisierung des Datenaustauschs benötigen die Unternehmen Kommunikationsstandards und Software-lösungen.

Towards Multi-perspective Modeling with BPMN

BPMN is the prevalent process modeling language and a lot of domain-specific BPMN extensions have evolved during the last couple of years. Due to the plenty of extensions and elements within BPMN, it is promising to consider complexity reduction mechanisms in order to provide appropriate, purpose-specific views on BPMN models. We therefore analyze capabilities of BPMN in regard of the definition of additional perspectives and diagrams in order to provide dedicated views on aspects of business processes (e.g., separate resource diagrams). As both BPMN and BPMN-defining MOF reveal shortcomings regarding to the definition of perspectives, we introduce a BPMN meta model extension in order to allow an integrated definition of new perspectives and their respective graphical elements. We further provide methodical guidance by conducting and customizing the BPMN extension method of Stroppi et al. (2011).

A model-driven framework for business IT alignment

Business Information Technology (IT) alignment focuses the efficient support of business processes by IT. Therefore, existing software artefacts are addressed within business process models. When these process models and the processes, respectively, alter, however, there is need to adjust the supporting software systems. Thus, already during the design phase of business process models, IT artefacts have to be considered. In this paper, we propose an approach aiming at the restriction of freedom in process modelling. Thus, previously defined software artefacts are used already in business process modelling. Therewith, the gap between the business and the IT layer can be closed. To support such restrictions, a meta-modelling method is introduced and its usage for composing Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) services is illustrated.