Role-based Reference Model Adaptation (Print) · Role-based Reference Model Adaptation Hendrik Schön Status Talk, 30.11.2018 Slide 2 Reference Models for Business Knowledge. Structured

Role-based Adaptation of Structural Reference Models to Application Models

Role-based Reference Model AdaptationHendrik SchönStatus Talk, 30.11.2018

Slide 2

Reference Models for Business Knowledge

Structured / Object OrientationLanguages: UML, SysML, MARTE, xUML, ER, …

• Represent the unique composition of the enterprise’s system parts

• Necessary for implementation

Chained / State OrientationLanguages: BPMN, BPEL, Petri Nets, EPC, Activity Diagrams, …

• Display the unique workflow execution of an enterprise system

• Frequently used as requirement specification

Procedural ModelsKnowledge by processes.

Structural ModelsKnowledge by objects.

→ Composition of the system → Behavior of the system

“Reference models are generic conceptual models thatformalize state-of-the-art knowledge of a certain domain.Adaptation mechanisms can assist to tailor referencemodels to specific business or project needs.” [Becker2007]


Slide 3

Structural Reference Modeling in Practice

1. Start: industry standard reference model2. Enterprise specific requirements and workflows3. Domain adaptation of the reference model4. End: final application model (and implementation)

Structural ModelsKnowledge by objects.

Challenge 1: reuse of the structureChallenge 2: implement the specific business logic

Icons: https://www.flaticon.com/authors/eucalyp


Slide 4

Adaptation Problems with Object-Orientation

Challenge 1Reuse and tailoring of the structural RM.

InflexibilityStructural characteristics may limit the application of the template RM

Adhere to the template?

Invasive ChangesThe adaptation is not separated and future RM evolutions are hard to trace back

Challenge 2Modeling towards existent business logic.[Kühn2018]

MultitaskingMultiple entities associated for the same tasks

Multi-classificationAn entity is classified with several features

State-dependencyAn entity is dependent on its state


Slide 5

Roles as a Solution

Business Object

Adaptations


Slide 6

Customer

Waiter

Pizza

Chef

eat

bake

Take Order

Pizza

Customer

Chef

WaiterClient Service

Meal

Ordering a pizza

Domain: Pizza Restaurant

Business Logic: Ordering a Pizza, …


Slide 7

Research Hypothesis

… combine structure and behavior of the model elements in a simple way, leading to more

expressiveness.

… provide a structured and traceable way of business object adaptation for industry standard

reference models.

… enable multiple viewpoints and adaptations of single model

elements in different ways for more flexibility.

With role-based reference model adaptation, we …


Slide 8

Research Questions

How can the use of roles help to better adapt structural reference models?

1. Roles: How can a role represent a business object in (conceptual) modeling?

2. Adaptation: How do we adapt a structural reference model in a systematic way?

3. Dynamics: How may we model the dynamics of a system in structural reference models?


Slide 9

Research Scopes

Adaptation Dynamics

RolesMy Ph.D. Topic

Roles(the new modeling mechanism)

Adaptation(use-case specification)

Dynamics(behavior specification)

Behavior-aware Adaptation

Roles as a Tool for Adaptation

Roles and the Dynamic Behavior

Ph.D.


Slide 10

State of the Art


Slide 11

Roles

The RoSI Roles

Roles as an Enterprise Modeling Concept

Designing Application Domain Models with Roles

Further Work• Bera, P., Burton-Jones, A., Wand, Y.: Improving the representation of

roles in conceptual modeling: theory, method, and evidence. Requirements Eng. (2017).

• Colman, A.: Role Oriented Adaptive Design, (2006).

• Cesare, S. de, Henderson-Sellers, B., Partridge, C., Lycett, M.: Improving Model Quality Through Foundational Ontologies: Two Contrasting Approaches to the Representation of Roles. In: Advances in Conceptual Modeling. pp. 304–314. Springer Cham, (2015).

• Almeida, J.P.A., Guizzardi, G., Santos, P.S.J.: Applying and extending a semantic foundation for role-related concepts in enterprise modelling. In: Proceedings of the 12th IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference, EDOC. pp. 31–40. IEEE (2009).


Slide 12

The RoSI Roles

• basically the RoSI subjects related to SWE• General semantics and syntax• CROM• SCROLL• RSQL• RSUM• …

• known authors within this area• Steimann• Riehle• Guizzardi• Almeida• …

We are here.


Slide 13

Delegation: An important concept for the appropriate design of object models

• Shows the difference between aggregation and delegation

• States the delegation as must-have in conceptual modeling

• Role properties• Delegation = role object + role filler object • Role dispatches unknown messages to object• Role represents the objects services and state

• *Roles are classes with special relationship

• Limitations of role usage:• *Not every object may be an filler

(must be of a specific “role” class kind)

• *A role may only be used by a single filler(model integrity > flexibility)

• Deep roles: yes, cyclic associations: no

Frank, U.: Delegation: An important concept for the appropriate design of object models. J. Object Oriented Program. 13, 13–17 (2000).


Slide 14

Designing Application Domain Models with Roles

• “Task” as a collaboration of involved roles

• Roles represent business logic:• Conceptual modeling (UML)• RRC cards• Sequence diagram

• *Lifetime and runtime behavior of roles

• States four role characteristics• Responsibility-driven• Separation of concerns• Dynamic and flexible• Reusable and adaptable

• *Role “collaboration” limited to message flows sequences

Zhao, L.: Designing Application Domain Models with Roles. In: Assmann, U., Akşit, M., and Rensink, A. (eds.) Model Driven Architecture. pp. 1–16. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Twente, The Netherlands (2005).


Slide 15

Adaptation

Reference Model Adaptation Classification

On the Syntax of Reference Model Configuration

Configurable Workflow Models

Customization of Domain-Specific Reference Models for Data Warehouses

Utilizing domain models for application design and validation

Further Work• Fettke, P., Loos, P.: Using Reference Models for Business

Engineering - State-of-the-Art and Future Developments. Innov. Inf. Technol. (2006).

• Damiani, F., Schaefer, I.: Dynamic delta-oriented programming. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Software Product Line Conference, SPLC. ACM, New York, New York, USA (2011).


Slide 16

Reference Model Adaptation Classification

Configurationby selection

Instantiationby embedding

Specializationby revising

Aggregationby combination

Analogyby creativity

Hofreiter, B., Huemer, C., Kappel, G., Mayrhofer, D., vom Brocke, J.: Inter-organizational Reference Models – May Inter-organizational Systems Profit from Reference Modeling? In: Ardagna, C.A., Damiani, E., Maciaszek, L.A., Missikoff, M., and Parkin, M. (eds.) Business System Management and Engineering: From Open Issues to Applications. pp. 32–47. Springer Berlin Heidelberg (2012).

The application domain can be described fully in design time.

The application domain can be covered by a general framework.

The application domain can be covered by a core solution.

The application domain can be described partly.

The application domain can be described by certain patternsrecurring in each application.


Slide 17

On the Syntax of Reference Model Configuration

Recker, J.C., Rosemann, M., van der Aalst, W.M.P., Mendling, J.: On the Syntax of Reference Model Configuration – Transforming the C-EPC into Lawful EPC Models. In: Bussler, C. and Haller, A. (eds.) Business Process Management Workshops. pp. 60–75. Springer, Nancy, France (2005).

• Based on C-EPC’s, mapping to EPC’s[Dreiling2005, Rosemann2007]

• Configurable elements• Functions

(on, off, optional)

• Connectors(OR, XOR, AND)

• Requirements(if A = OFF then OR = AND)

• Guidelines(if D = ON then E = ON)

• Syntactical validation via EPC markup language (“EMPL”, XML based)


Slide 18

Configurable Workflow Models

Gottschalk, F., Van Der Aalst, W.M.P., Jansen-Vullers, M.H., La Rosa, M.: Configurable workflow models. Int. J. Coop. Info. Syst. 17, 177–221 (2008).

• C-YAWL = event workflow (EWF) graph, based on petri nets

• Process consists of:• Tasks (like petri net transitions)

• Conditions (like petri net places)

• Tasks consists of:• Inputs/Outputs (constraints like AND, OR, …)

• Ports (variability point for specialization)

• Ports can be activated, blocked or hidden

Travel agency

Internet shop


Slide 19

Customization of Domain-Specific Reference Models for Data Warehouses

Schütz, C., Schrefl, M.: Customization of Domain-Specific Reference Models for Data Warehouses. In: Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference, EDOC. pp. 61–70. IEEE, Ulm, Germany (2014).

• “Reference Multidimensional Models” (RMDM)

• Adaptation method for data objects

• Adaptation by customizing/revising (add, remove)

• Attributes• Measurement• Data Classes, Levels, Hierarchies• Dimensions

• SQL syntax for schema creation with respect to the customization

• No customization of workflows, business logic, …


Slide 20

Utilizing domain models for application design and validation

Reinhartz-Berger, I., Sturm, A.: Utilizing domain models for application design and validation. Information and Software Technology. 51, 1275–1289 (2009).

• “Application Domain Modeling” (ADOM)

• Based on UML profiles

• Specifies three layers:• Language (specifies UML 2.0 as meta-model)

• Application (models of particular systems)

• Domain (specification of application families)

• Domain layer enforces constraints on the application layer

• application model elements derived via UML stereotypes from domain model (however, they are type-safe)

• Possible combination with sequence diagram (that is, in fact, structure + behavior) …<<Sensor>>

Infrared<<Sensor>>Temperature

DomainApplication


Slide 21

Dynamics

Towards an Ontology of Scenes and Situations

Modeling events as entities in object-oriented conceptual modeling languages

Temporal Modeling and ORM

Representing Temporal Information in UML

Further Work• Guizzardi, G., Wagner, G., Falbo, R. de A., Guizzardi, R.S.S., Almeida,

J.P.A.: Towards Ontological Foundations for the Conceptual Modeling of Events. In: Ng, W., Storey, V.C., and Trujillo, J.C. (eds.) Conceptual Modeling. pp. 327–341. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Hong Kong, China (2013).

• Graf, S., Ober, I., Ober, I.: A real-time profile for UML. Int J SoftwTools Technol Transfer. 8, 113–127 (2006).

• Selic, B., Gérard, S.: Modeling and Analysis of Real-Time and Embedded Systems with UML and MARTE. The MK/OMG Press (2014)


Slide 22

Towards an Ontology of Scenes and Situations

Almeida, J.P.A., Costa, P.D., Guizzardi, G.: Towards an Ontology of Scenes and Situations. In: 2018 IEEE Conference on Cognitive and Computational Aspects of Situation Management (CogSIMA). pp. 29–35 (2018).

• Semantic for “things that happen”

• Introduces scene and situation into the UFO ontology• Scene is an overall entity of

“something”, that is composed by situations

• Situations are manifestations of scenes and composite entities,characterized by its inner elements(state of the objects and their relations)

• Occurrences are events that influence a scene and characterizes a situation

• Only foundational (no method, implementation, …)


Slide 23

Modeling events as entities in object-oriented conceptual modeling languages

Olivé, A., Raventós, R.: Modeling events as entities in object-oriented conceptual modeling languages. Data & Knowledge Engineering. 58, 243–262 (2006).

• Events as UML profile stereotypes• Structural Events

(change in population of something)

• Domain Events(sum of structural events changes character of the domain)

• Action Request Events(an event that enforces reaction)- explicit

(initiated explicitly by users)- temporal

(an event that occurs due the passing of time)- generated

(occurs when condition C is fulfilled)

• Event conditions and effects as OCL statements (e.g., “paper.submissionDate = time”)

• Events are still typed UML classes(no “first-class citizen” temporal modeling construct)

• No implementable operations/attributes


Slide 24

Temporal Modeling and ORM

Halpin, T.: Temporal Modeling and ORM. In: On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2008 Workshops. pp. 688–698. Springer Berlin Heidelberg (2008).

• Temporal information for structural models, esp. “Object-Role Modeling” (ORM)

• Uses and expands Allen’s operators [Allen1990] for describing temporal period information in OWL time

• Entities as temporal object type• Definitional (true by default)

• Once-only• Repeatable

• Only implicit events

• Time only as information, no “real” object life cycle


Slide 25

Representing Temporal Information in UML

Cabot, J., Olivé, A., Teniente, E.: Representing Temporal Information in UML. In: Stevens, P., Whittle, J., and Booch, G. (eds.) «UML» 2003 - The Unified Modeling Language. Modeling Languages and Applications. pp. 44–59. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, San Francisco, USA (2003).

• Based on UML profiles(still UML classes)

• Temporal as stereotype for objects and relationships• Durability

(constant, permanent, durable, instantaneous)

• Frequency(single, intermittent = roles)

• Temporal constraints specified in OCLself.salaryAt(t_today)>=self.salaryAtOrBefore(t_today-1)

• Historical entity types consist of lifespans(for storing within the system)

• Temporal specification without events but objects (e.g., “sell” as object)


Slide 26

ComparisonApproaches for Reference Model Adaptation

ApproachAdaptation Dynamics

Basis Mechanism ProfileCnf / Ins / Spc / Agg / Alg

Entitiesobject or activity

Relationshipsassoc. or flow

Supportmethod / tool

Timelogical / physical

Business Logicrule / process

ObjectLife Cycle

C-EPC [Recker2005] Proc ⬛ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜ ⬛ ⬛ / ◪ ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜ / ⬛ ◪

C-YAWL [Gottschalk2008] Proc ⬛ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜ ⬛ ⬜ / ⬛ ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜ / ⬛ ◪

RMDM [Schütz2014] Struct ⬛ / ⬜ / ⬛ / ⬜ / ⬜ ⬛ ⬜ ⬜ / ⬛ ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜

ADOM-UML [Reinhartz2009] Struct ⬜ / ⬛ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ ⬛ ⬛ ⬜ / ⬛ ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜ / ◪ ⬜

UFO Scenes [Almeida2018] Struct ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬛ ⬜ ⬛ ⬜ / ⬜ ⬛ / ⬜ ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜

Event UML [Olivé2006] Struct ⬜ / ⬛ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ ⬜ ⬛ ⬜ / ⬛ ⬛ / ⬛ ⬛ / ⬜ ⬜

ORM [Halpin2008] Struct ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬛ / ⬛ / ⬜ ⬛ ⬛ ⬜ / ◪ ⬜ / ⬛ ⬜ / ⬜ ◪

Temporal UML [Cabot2003] Struct ⬜ / ⬛ / ⬜ / ⬜ / ⬜ ⬛ ⬛ ⬜ / ⬛ ⬛ / ⬛ ⬛ / ⬜ ⬛

Our Target Struct ⬛ / ⬜ / ⬛ / ⬛ / ⬜ ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ / ⬛ ⬛ / ◪ ⬛ / ◪ ⬛

⬛ supported ◪ partially supported ⬜ not included


Slide 27

Role-based Reference Modeling


Slide 28

• Instructions• Rules• Guidelines• Patterns

Reference Model Adaptation with RolesRAWR

Method Specification

Research Approach

Method

Tools Graphical Modeling Editor• Create, store, import, and export models• Method support• User support by common IDE features (error highlighting, auto completion, …)

• Entities• Relationships• Constraints• Properties

Business Role-Object SpecificationBROS

Language Specification


Slide 29


„All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players:they have their exits and their entrances;and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.“

– William Shakespeare

← Compartments← Naturals (Objects)← Events: modeling construct for controlling the temporal behavior of roles← Roles← Scenes: temporal collaboration of roles and events, related to common business logic

Method SpecificationLanguage Specification

Business Role-Object SpecificationBROS• Modeling of a systems structure• Roles as participants in business logic

[Colman2006]

• BROS meta-model influenced by CROM meta-model [Kühn2014]

• Provides a concept for features/applications


Slide 30




Slide 31

Ordering another pizza

Domain: Pizza Restaurant

Business Logic: Ordering a Pizza, …


Slide 32

Ordering another pizza

main model elements:• BROS model• Scenes• Roles• Players• Events• Global- and Sub-Scenes


Slide 33

Method Specification I

Reference Model

Application Model

Business Objects

Roles

standardized, prescribeduser made, adapted

feedback

……

(work in progress)

Reference Model Adaptation with RolesRAWR• User manual for reference model

adaptation• Leads to defined adaptation processes



Slide 34

Method Specification II

Reference Model Adaptation with RolesRAWR• Instruction set

• Determined instructions• Set of rules per instruction• Set of guidelines per instruction

• Patterns• Solutions to common modeling

issues• Based on role-event usage



Slide 35

Method Evaluation

Adaptation Use Case• Cooperation with

cloud service provider• Using “real world”

reference model• Adaptation towards a new

requirement:→ “Partnership” program→ 10% off when recruiting

a new customer→ Lasts 1 year or until

contract termination



Slide 36

Approach Overview

BROSBusiness Role-Object Specification

RAWRReference Model Adaptation with Roles

Role-basedReference

ModelAdaptation



Slide 37

Current Ph.D. Progress

?

Additional papers are done/planned in cooperation with C. Werner, T. Kühn, and M. Wutzler.

Role-based Adaptation of Domain Reference Models: Suggestion of a Novel Approach.In: Tagungsband Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik 2018. pp. 1447-1453. (2018)

Business Role-Object Specification: A Language for Behavior-aware Structural Modeling of Business Objects. Revision in review.(2018)

Structural Reference Model Adaptation using Business Role-Object Specification. Research in progress. (2018/2019)

(Final Evaluation and Application)Future work. (2019)


Slide 38

Open Issues and Outlook

Future Main Work

• Establish the BROS specification• SCROLL• CROM• RoleDiSCo• LTL (?)

• Finish the RAWR method• Instructions, rules and guidelines• Evaluation

• Further tool development (framed.io)

Timeline of 2019

Jan

RAWR Method (instruction set, evaluation)

Feb

Mar

AprStay Abroad at University of Stockholm (Jelena Zdravkovic)Department of Computer Science, Enterprise Modeling Group(work together, finish method, further evaluation)

May

Jun

Jul

Writing the thesis(side work: application/evaluation of BROS/RAWR)

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec


Slide 39

Thank you for your attention.

“The reference model becomes a lessons-learned repository for all to share.”

Edward AverillReference Models and Standards, 1994


Slide 40

References

[Allen1990] Allen, J.F.: Maintaining Knowledge about Temporal Intervals. In: Readings in Qualitative Reasoning About Physical Systems. pp. 361–372. Elsevier (1990).

[Almeida2018] Almeida, J.P.A., Costa, P.D., Guizzardi, G.: Towards an Ontology of Scenes and Situations. In: 2018 IEEE Conference on Cognitive and Computational Aspects of Situation Management (CogSIMA). pp. 29–35 (2018).

[Becker2007] Becker, J., Knackstedt, R., Janiesch, C., Pfeiffer, D.: Configurative Method Engineering - On the Applicability of Reference Modeling Mechanisms in Method Engineering. In: Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS. pp. 1–12 (2007).

[Cabot2003] Cabot, J., Olivé, A., Teniente, E.: Representing Temporal Information in UML. In: Stevens, P., Whittle, J., and Booch, G. (eds.) «UML» 2003 - The Unified Modeling Language. Modeling Languages and Applications. pp. 44–59. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, San Francisco, USA (2003).

[Colman2006] Kühn, T., Leuthäuser, M., Götz, S.: A Metamodel Family for Role-Based Modeling and Programming Languages. In: Combemale, B., Pearce, D.J., Barais, O., and Vinju, J.J. (eds.) Software Language Engineering. pp. 141–160. Springer, Västerås, Sweden (2014).

[Dreiling2005] Dreiling, A., Rosemann, M., van der Aalst, W.M.P., Sadiq, W., Khan, S.: Model-Driven Process Configuration of Enterprise Systems. In: Ferstl, O.K., Sinz, E.J., Eckert, S., and Isselhorst, T. (eds.) Proceedings of Wirtschaftsinformatik 2005. pp. 687–706. Physica Heidelberg (2005).

[Gottschalk2008] Gottschalk, F., Van Der Aalst, W.M.P., Jansen-Vullers, M.H., La Rosa, M.: Configurable workflow models. Int. J. Coop. Info. Syst. 17, 177–221 (2008).

[Halpin2008] Halpin, T.: Temporal Modeling and ORM. In: On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2008 Workshops. pp. 688–698. Springer Berlin Heidelberg (2008).

[Hofreiter2012] Hofreiter, B., Huemer, C., Kappel, G., Mayrhofer, D., vom Brocke, J.: Inter-organizational Reference Models – May Inter-organizational Systems Profit from Reference Modeling? In: Ardagna, C.A., Damiani, E., Maciaszek, L.A., Missikoff, M., and Parkin, M. (eds.) Business System Management and Engineering: From Open Issues to Applications. pp. 32–47. Springer Berlin Heidelberg (2012).

[Kühn2014] Kühn, T., Leuthäuser, M., Götz, S.: A Metamodel Family for Role-Based Modeling and Programming Languages. In: Combemale, B., Pearce, D.J., Barais, O., and Vinju, J.J. (eds.) Software Language Engineering. pp. 141–160. Springer, Västerås, Sweden (2014).

[Kühn2018] Kühn, T.: Introducing Roles and the Family of Role-based Languages. Lecture Talk (2018)

[Olivé2006] Olivé, A., Raventós, R.: Modeling events as entities in object-oriented conceptual modeling languages. Data & Knowledge Engineering. 58, 243–262 (2006).

[Recker2005] Recker, J.C., Rosemann, M., van der Aalst, W.M.P., Mendling, J.: On the Syntax of Reference Model Configuration – Transforming the C-EPC into Lawful EPC Models. In: Bussler, C. and Haller, A. (eds.) Business Process Management Workshops. pp. 60–75. Springer, Nancy, France (2005).

[Reinhartz2009] Reinhartz-Berger, I., Sturm, A.: Utilizing domain models for application design and validation. Information and Software Technology. 51, 1275–1289 (2009).

[Rosemann2007] Rosemann, M., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: A configurable reference modelling language. Information Systems. 32, 1–23 (2007).

[Schütz2014] Schütz, C., Schrefl, M.: Customization of Domain-Specific Reference Models for Data Warehouses. In: Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference, EDOC. pp. 61–70. IEEE, Ulm, Germany (2014).

Documents

Role-based Reference Model Adaptation (Print) · Role-based Reference Model Adaptation Hendrik Schön Status Talk, 30.11.2018 Slide 2 Reference Models for Business Knowledge. Structured