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2006
The specification, analysis, and administration of business processes have charged great importance in this last time. This has been caused by a competitive industry necessity, dynamics, where she use the available resources efficiently. The "Workflow" technologies has given answer to these requirements, offering support for the partial or total automation of production processes.
Unified Modeling Language (UML) defines a standard notation for object-oriented systems. Using UML enhances communication between domain experts, workflow specialists, software designers and other professionals with different backgrounds. UML can be used on a general level, which is intuitive for the users of workflow systems. In spite of this, UML symbols also have defined semantics, which means that the visual workflow description can be used as a software specification. This position paper explains how to use UML for specification of workflow management systems, how to trace the description of business processes to the objectoriented software design and how to structure the project repository with UML deliverables.
Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, 2007
The Unified Model Language (UML) has nine diagrams. One of them is the activity diagram. This allows the modeling of business processes. A business process is a set of logically related tasks executed to achieve a business result. Workflow systems are those systems based on software that allow automating total or partially a business process. Workflow is defined as a set of methods and technologies that offer facilities for the modeling and administration of diverse processes that happen inside a company. The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) has established a standard that allows the interoperability among applications workflow. The proposed standard includes a model of the workflow processes, Workflow Metamodel, and a language of specification of processes in XML (XPDL). ArgoUML is a CASE tool for the analysis and design of objects oriented software systems. ArgoUML uses NSUML metamodel implementing the UML metamodel defined by the Objet Management Group (OMG). The ArgoUML tool is open source and it allows building all the types of defined diagrams in UML. In this work, we propose an extension of the NSUML, the core of ArgoUML metamodel. In this way, the ArgoUML incorporates the possibility to model and to simulate workflow processes.
Business Object Design and Implementation II, 1998
Unified Modeling Language (UML) defines a standard notation for object-oriented systems. Using UML enhances communication between domain experts, workflow specialists, software designers and other professionals with different backgrounds. UML can be used on a general level, which is intuitive for the users of workflow systems. In spite of this, UML symbols also have defined semantics, which means that the visual workflow description can be used as a software specification. This position paper explains how to use UML for specification of workflow management systems, how to trace the description of business processes to the objectoriented software design and how to structure the project repository with UML deliverables.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2005
In the context of Model Driven Development, models play a central role. Since models can nowadays be executed, they are used not only for description but also for production [32][30][24]. In the field of software process modelling, the current version of the OMG SPEM standard (ver1.1) has not yet reached the level required for the specification of executable models. The purpose of SPEM1.1 was limited at providing process descriptions to be read by humans and to be supported by tools, but not to be executed. Therefore, the OMG issued a new RFP in order to improve SPEM1.1 [35]. Since we intend to participate in the next major revision of SPEM, namely SPEM2.0, in this work, we: 1) compare SPEM1.1 both with primary process model elements (i.e. Activity, Product, Role,…) and with basic requirements that any Process Modelling Language should support (i.e. expressiveness, understandability, executability,…); 2) identify its major limitations and advantages and 3) propose a new UML2.0-based metamodel for software process modelling named: UML4SPM. It extends a subset of UML2.0 concepts-with no impact on the standard-in order to fit software process modelling.
Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, 2010
Generally, different companies use distinct software development process. Due to it, OMG has specified an architecture to can define a software development process. This architecture uses a metamodel which is able to be abstracted from particular characteristics and to give the possibility of defining the different software development processes. The Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) is a metamodel used for describing a concrete software development process. Also, the OMG specify a standardized language to model business processes. This language is called Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN).
1998
A Proposal of Indicators for the Selection of a Workflow Product For the purposes of this study, the indicators have been classified into two categories in order to group the technical and organization aspects separately. Technological variables cover all the features and functionality’s inherent to a Workflow product. Likewise, they include all technical requirements and documentation accompanying the product. Organization indicators encompass company aspects (such as the users using the tool, the implementation, the acceptance) as well as the supplying company (technical support, sales personnel). All these indicators were obtained from a study of each variable and indicator used to evaluate a Workflow tool, as defined as follows. A method is further proposed to examine these so as to obtain an integral evaluation on the Workflow software.
Lectures on Concurrency and Petri Nets, 2004
Over the last decade there has been a shift from "data-aware" information systems to "process-aware" information systems. To support business processes an enterprise information system needs to be aware of these processes and their organizational context. Business Process Management (BPM) includes methods, techniques, and tools to support the design, enactment, management, and analysis of such operational business processes. BPM can be considered as an extension of classical Workflow Management (WFM) systems and approaches. This tutorial introduces models, systems, and standards for the design, analysis, and enactment of workflow processes. Petri nets are used for the modeling and analysis of workflows. Using Petri nets as a formal basis, contemporary systems, languages, and standards for BPM and WFM are discussed. Although it is clear that Petri nets can serve as a solid foundation for BPM/WFM technology, in reality systems, languages, and standards are developed in an ad-hoc fashion. To illustrate this XPDL, the "Lingua Franca" proposed by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), is analyzed using a set of 20 basic workflow patterns. This analysis exposes some of the typical semantic problems restricting the application of BPM/WFM technology.
2000
Despite the great effort devoted to the development of Workflow models and Workflow Management Systems during the last decade, a strong foundation about workflow development is still to come. Assuming that a workflow is a complex software product, in this paper we argue that the principles and techniques of software development —in particular, methodological concerns— can help in the development
In the last two decades, software process modeling has been an area of interest within both academia and industry. Software process modeling aims at defining and representing software processes in the form of models. A software process model represents the medium that allows better understanding, management and control of the software process. Software process meta-modeling rather, provides standard metamodels which enable the defining of customized software process models for a specific project in hand by instantiation. Several software process modeling/meta-modeling languages have been introduced to formalize software process models. Nonetheless, none of them has managed to introduce a compatible yet precise language to include all necessary concepts and information for software process modeling. This paper presents Software Process Meta-Modeling and Notation (SP2MN); a meta-modeling language that provides simple and expressive graphical notations for the aim of software process modeling. SP2MN has been evaluated based upon the well-known ISPW-6 process example, a standard benchmark problem for software process modeling. SP2MN has proved that it presents a valid and expressive software process modeling language.
2008
In the domain of project management, PLM offers functionalities for enabling process definition and execution through the use of Workflow Management Systems (WMS). This paper presents the implementation of workflow module in a PLM application. We highlight the limits of workflow in a context of product development and the necessary difference between the processes identified and the workflow implemented. The research context, the workflow specification and the analysis of the results are presented. The specification is set using interviews and a process reference model is developed to enable the communication between the users and the IT-Support. The analysis describes the benefits of existing WMS in a context of product development.
Arxiv preprint cs/0607044, 2006
Use of UML and Model Transformations for Workflow Process Definitions Audris Kalnins, Valdis Vitolins1 University of Latvia, IMCS, 29 Raina blvd, LV-1459 Riga, Latvia Abstract. Currently many different modeling languages are used for workflow definitions in BPM systems. ...
1999
Abstract Meta-Languages for the definition of processes serve several purposes. They can be employed as an integration platform for the exchange of process models that are specified in proprietary languages, their expressiveness can serve as a benchmark for the selection of a application specific modeling language and they can be used for the application-independent specification of process models that can then be transformed into the language relevant for the domain-specific context.
2008
Modeling processes and workflow for complex systems constitutes a challenge for designers. The resources that are used in systems are in limited amounts and these must be shared between the processes and workflow instances activities. Our considerations refer to the need of a data base in that the workflow constituents: instances and activities must be represented in a data base and also their time evolution. Concerning the resources that are used in the processes and in the workflow instances execution must be adequately represented. Two important classes of information systems, Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, have been used to support e-business process redesign, integration, and management. We intend to propose a model for resource representation and allocation and as conclusion propose considerations concerning the design of processes, workflows and workflow management systems. This paper is partially supported by the project P...
2009
The objective of this paper is the construction of an Essential Object Model for Information Systems. This model is derived from the organization workflows representing the business processes and follows rules described by the methodology proposed. To achieve the desired results, the methodology proposes two phases: process specification, to produce the business model, and generation of the Essential Object Model based on the business model obtained before. The leading threads of this methodology are: requirement elicitation and specification based on business model knowledge and information flow; tool background, use of common methods, and RUP-based development. The end result is a conceptual Essential Object Model with application flow and control separated from application logics.
Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 2010
PurposeThe increase in business process management projects in the past decade has seen an increase in demand for business process modelling (BPM) techniques. A rapidly growing aspect of BPM is the use of workflow management systems to automate routine and sequential processes. Workflows tend to move away from traditional definitions of business processes that can often be forced to fit a model that does not suit its nature. Existing process modelling tools tend to be biased to either the informational, behavioural or object‐oriented aspect of the workflow. Because of this, models can often miss important aspects of a workflow. As well as managing the relationship between the types of model it is important to consider who will be using it, as process models are useful in various ways. The paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reports on a case study in a manufacturing company, where users were surveyed to see which are the notations that are most c...
WSEAS Transactions on …, 2007
The evolution of Enterprise Information Systems(EIS) has been shift from data-centric information systems to process-centric information systems in last decade. Business Process Management(BPM), extension of Workflow Management(WFM) contains methods, techniques and tools to support the design, enactment, management and analysis of business process. Petri Nets(PN) are used like standard for BPM and WFM technology. Our approach is to define a methodology for analyze, design, implement, maintain EIS only with Computer Aided Software Engineering(CASE) tools, according to Model Driven Architecture(MDA) from Platform Independent Models(PIMs) to Platform Specific Models(PSMs). In our approaches we proposed an extension of Object Constraint Language(OCL), Complete Constraint Language(CCL) in idea to use the Activity Diagram(AD) from Unified Modeling Language(UML) as formal basis for BPM and WFM technology, respectively Entity Relationship-Stored Procedures(ER-SP), an extension of ER(Entity Relationship) model for conceptual, syntactic and semantic modeling of relational databases in idea to create a link between external to physical models.
The main objective of this paper is to analyze the representativeness of the SPEM (Software Process Engineering Metamodel Specification) and the BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) standards in the software processes modeling context. To perform this analysis, it was adopted a standard structure to define a software process based upon a process ontology. Then, the SPEM and BPMN standards notations and their semantically corresponding elements in the default process were identified. This mapping also includes components of the CMMI-DEV (Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development) and MR-MPS (Reference Model for Software Process Improvement) quality models. This was necessary to assist in the mapping evaluation through a case study which models the best practices of these quality models. Finally, we carried out an analysis of these standards through specific characteristics considered necessary to model and to represent software processes.
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2000
Describing and managing activities, resources, and constraints of software development processes is a challenging goal for many organizations. A first generation of Software Process Modeling Languages (SPMLs) appeared in the 1990s but failed to gain broad industrial support. Recently, however, a second generation of SPMLs has appeared, leveraging the strong industrial interest for modeling languages such as UML. In this paper, we propose a comparison of these UML-based SPMLs. While not exhaustive, this comparison concentrates on SPMLs most representative of the various alternative approaches, ranging from UML-based framework specializations to full-blown executable metamodeling approaches. To support the comparison of these various approaches, we propose a frame gathering a set of requirements for process modeling, such as semantic richness, modularity, executability, conformity to the UML standard, and formality. Beyond discussing the relative merits of these approaches, we also evaluate the overall suitability of these UML-based SPMLs for software process modeling. Finally, we discuss the impact of these approaches on the current state of the practice, and conclude with lessons we have learned in doing this comparison.
14th Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing (PDP'06), 2006
The different approaches of emerging workflow modeling languages are manifold. Today, there exist many notations for workflow modeling with various specializations on different domains. In this paper we analyze three well known business process (workflow) modeling notations for their support for elaborated key aspects in workflow modeling. The aim of this paper is to discuss their differences and commonalities concerning these aspects.
2007
The specification of business processes is becoming a more and more critical aspect for organizations. Such processes are specified as workflow models expressing the logical precedence among the different business activities (ie the units of work). Up to now, workflow models have been commonly managed through specific subsystems, called workflow management systems. In this paper we advocate for the integration of the workflow specification in the system domain model.
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