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2006, 14th Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed, and Network-Based Processing (PDP'06)
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.
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.
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.
Journal of Software Engineering and Applications
Workflow-based systems are typically said to lead to better use of staff and better management and productivity. The first phase in building a workflow-based system is capturing the real-world process in a conceptual representation suit-able for the following phases of formalization and implementation. The specification may be in text or diagram form or written in a formal language. This paper proposes a flow-based diagrammatic methodology as a tool for workflow specification. The expressiveness of the method is appraised though its ability to capture a workflow-based application. Here we show that the proposed conceptual diagrams are able to express situations arising in practice as an alternative to tools currently used in workflow systems. This is demonstrated by using the proposed methodology to partial build demo systems for two government agencies.
Handbook of Research on Business Process Modeling
Due to the absence of commonly accepted conceptual and formal foundations for workflow management, and more generally Business Process Management (BPM), a plethora of approaches to process modelling and execution exists both in academia and in industry. The introduction of workflow patterns provided a deep and language independent understanding of modelling issues and requirements encountered in business process specification. They provide a comparative insight into various approaches to process specification and serve as guidance for language and tool development. YAWL (Yet Another Workflow Language) is a novel and formally defined workflow language based on workflow patterns and Petri nets, thus leveraging off both practical and theoretical insights in the field of BPM. This chapter provides an overview of this language and its corresponding open source support environment.
1998
Abstract This paper presents a workflow specification language developed in the WIDE project. The language provides a rich organisation model, an information model including presentation details, and a sophisticated process model. Workflow application developers should find the language a useful and compact means to capture and investigate design details.
Computing Research Repository, 2009
BPMN represents an industrial standard created to offer a common and user friendly notation to all the participants to a business process. The present paper aims to briefly present the main features of this notation as well as an interpretation of some of the main patterns characterizing a business process modeled by the working fluxes.
Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2020, 2020
Administrative workflows refer to variable business processes in which all cases are known; tasks are predictable and their sequencing rules are simple and clearly defined. When such processes are collaboratively executed by several actors, it may be desirable, for security reasons (confidentiality), that each of them has at all times, only a partial perception (this is what we call "actor's view") of the current process state. This concern seems sufficiently important to be considered when specifying such workflows. However, traditional workflow specification languages (BPMN, BPEL, YAWL) only partially address it. This is why we present in this paper, a new language for specifying administrative workflows that allows us not only to simply model all of the processes tasks and their sequence, but also and especially to explicitly express the rights of the various actors with respect to each of them, in order to guarantee a certain degree of security. The proposed model is an executable grammatical specification that allows to express using decorated productions, the different types of basic flows (sequential, parallel, alternative and iterative) that are found in workflow specification languages; moreover, it also allows to specify the rights of each actor in each process and on its data in a formalism similar to that used in UNIX-like operating systems.
OOER'95: Object-Oriented and Entity …, 1995
Abstract. Workflow management is emerging as a challenging area for databases, stressing database technology beyond its current capabilities. Workflow management systems need to be more integrated with data management technology, in particular as it concerns the ...
2011
Abstract. Previously we provided two formal behavioural semantics for Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) in the process algebra CSP. By exploiting CSP's refinement orderings, developers may formally compare their BPMN models. However, BPMN is not a specification language, and it is difficult and sometimes impossible to use it to construct behavioural properties against which BPMN models may be verified. This paper considers a pattern-based approach to expressing behavioural properties.
This paper presents a methodology to bridge the gap between business process modeling and workflow specification. While the first is concerned with intuitive descriptions that are mainly used for communication, the second is concerned with configuring a process-aware information system, thus requiring a more rigorous language less suitable for communication. Unlike existing approaches the gap is not bridged by providing formal semantics for an informal language. Instead it is assumed that the desired behavior is just a subset of the full behavior obtained using a liberal interpretation of the informal business process modeling language. Using a new correctness criterion (relaxed soundness), it is verified whether a selection of suitable behavior is possible. The methodology consists of five steps and is illustrated using event-driven process chains as a business process modeling language and Petri nets as the workflow specification language.
2010
Purpose–The 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.
2001
This paper introduces definition and enactment models to characterize workflows. The proposed knowledge model provides concepts for modeling activities, data used by such activities, agents, and ordering operators and synchronization modes used for specifying activities dependencies. The behavior model provides dimensions that characterize workflow enactment. Both models are currently implemented in our workflow management system called AFLOWS.
International Journal of Computer Applications, 2011
In this paper, we define a new business process modeling approach based on the abstraction of the execution environment which is presented as a set of observers. The triggering condition of a task is linked to the state of the environment rather than a predefined order between tasks as suggested by other modeling approaches. Relying on the environment and the tasks, a formal framework of a business process is given. The modeling proposal presented in this paper is used to address three non dominant perspectives: context, semantics and goal; along with the usual controlflow perspective. The model defined in this paper does not deal with specific business processes and lack some analysis. This work can be extended by defining some case studies, carrying some analysis and developing a supporting tool. It will certainly allow enterprises to efficiently scope with the quality of service delivered to the customers and hence to deal with the competitive pressure of the network economy.
Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 2008
We present a framework for the simulation and formal analysis of workflow models. We discuss (i) how a workflow model, implemented in the BPEL language, can be transformed into a dataflow network model, (ii) how potentially incorrect execution paths can be incorporated, and (iii) how the properties of a workflow can be formally verified using the SPIN model checker. For the several model transformation steps from workflow to analysis models, we use graph transformations.
Understanding and specifying business processes is a challenge. Many different approaches have been developed, each with their own specific business process modelling languages designed to meet a business specific requirements. In practice, however, multiple business process languages are often being used within one and the same enterprise. This paper proposes a universal and language independent abstraction of the concepts of today's mainstream business process modelling languages, in a unified ontology based on an analysis of seven popular business process modelling approaches. Generic concepts are identified and a unified meta-model designed. An ontological analysis of the representational capability of this meta-model is examined in relation to the Bunge-Wand-Weber ontology. This meta-model is open to further extensions such as incorporating requirements or extending into a knowledge base.
2013
Understanding and specifying business processes is a challenge. Many different approaches have been developed, each with their own specific business process modelling languages designed to meet a business specific requirements. In practice, however, multiple business process languages are often being used within one and the same enterprise. This paper proposes a universal and language independent abstraction of the concepts of today's mainstream business process modelling languages, in a unified ontology based on an analysis of seven popular business process modelling approaches. Generic concepts are identified and a unified meta-model designed. An ontological analysis of the representational capability of this meta-model is examined in relation to the Bunge-Wand-Weber ontology. This meta-model is open to further extensions such as incorporating requirements or extending into a knowledge base.
2007
This paper describes a process-algebraic approach to specification and refinement of workflow processes. In particular, we model both specification and implementation of workflows as CSP processes. CSP's behavioural models and their respective refinement relations not only enable us to prove correctness properties of an individual workflow process against its behavioural specification but also allows us to design and develop workflow processes compositionally.
International Journal of Information Management, 2001
E!ective business process management necessitates a consistent information #ow between the participants in the process, the smooth integration of the #ow of work, the timely sharing of data and information during the planning and implementation phases and harmonious support for the collaborative aspects of work. The recent trends in the development of advanced work#ow management systems and technologies seem to be of crucial importance for facilitating these tasks within the process management context. However, work#ow management systems (WfMS) follow various approaches in modelling the #ow of work and hence present varying functionalities when supporting enterprise processes. The present paper examines the ways in which work#ow technology may facilitate the implementation of process management, reviews the pros and cons of adopting alternative work#ow representation techniques in modelling business processes and provides guidance to managers as to the characteristics, the similarities and di!erences of the various work#ow modelling schemes.
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.
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