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Process-AwareInformation Systems

Dumas, van der Aalst, ter Hofstede

UC San DiegoCSE 294

December 3, 2009Barry Demchak

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Agenda

What is a PAIS? … and why are they important

What is in this book? Process Modeling using UML

Actions and control flow Data and object flow Organizational structure Interaction-centric views on business process System-specific models

Looking aside at ORC

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PAIS Definition

A software system that manages and executes operational processes involving people, applications, and/or information sources on the basis of process models

Advantages of models over tasks Models invite input from multiple stakeholders Changing a system may not involve recoding Workflow verification and simulation Management support at control level Process element reuse P2P, P2A, A2A, A2P

Organization of work and resources to accomplish an aim – a workflow is an operating instance of a process

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History and status of PAIS Early work in ’70s and ’80s use Petri Nets

Poor technology support Organizations focused on tasks, not processes Lack of unified modeling

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) in ’90s Factoring overspecialized tasks into coherent and

globally visible processes Maturation of tools: modeling & workflow management

Enterprise process architecture in ’00s Missing standards for BPM Constrained tools emphasize serial processing

Still about people, processes, and systems

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Tool Support for PAIS

Process-aware collaboration (P2P) Project management Incident tracking Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Customer relationship management (CRM) Case handling Business process design/engineering Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) suites Web integration servers

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PAIS Types vs Development Tools

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Book Contents – Essays & Cites Concepts

Modeling Languages

Techniques

Standards and Tools

P2A: Workflow Management

P2P: Collaborative Work

A2A: Enterprise Application Integration

Process Modeling (UML)Process Modeling (EPC)

Process Modeling (Petri)

Process Modeling PatternsProcess Redesign

Process MiningTransactional Processes

Standards: Workflow Definition & Execution

BPL4WS

Workflow Management (Staffware)

FLOWer Case-handling

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Workflow Modeling Perspectives (ch2)

Resources and resource management Organizational units Tasks and task management Data and data flow Temporal aspects Applications Business rules Exception handling Interorganizational cooperation

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Focus: UML Workflow Expression

Chapter 5: Process Modeling Using UML Engels, Förster, Heckel, Thöne (Paderborn)

Observation: UML metamodel contributes to consistency

between UML diagram types Actions and control flow Data and object flow Organizational structure Interaction-centric views on business process System-specific models

Focus

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Actions and Control Flow

Action Node

Sequence

Control Node(Decision)

Focus on sequencing an abstract token along control edges ORC: o > CO > o > (let(o,r) < o < SO < (GP > p > (GP > p >

((if(p=C) > p > TC) | (if(p=M) > p > TM) > r > let(r)))) > (o,p,r) > AB > b

Control(Merge)

Guard(OCL…)

Control Node(Fork)

Initial

Final

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<<Precondition>> and <<postcondition>> Edge weights {weight=10} Hierarchical process composition Connectors Process interaction/signaling

Exception handling

Actions and Control Flow Addons

A Asend signal A await

signal A

[…]

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Data and Object Flows

Models Data structures, object types, & relationships Individual objects & concrete properties Dependencies between objects & actions

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Data and Object Flows – Class

Association Name

Aggregation Name

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Data and Object Flows - Object

Composite

Object Name Object TypeAttributes

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Data and Object Flows - Object

Object-enriched Activity Diagrams

Object node w/attribute

Object node w/constraints

Object pins

Object node in sequence

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Data and Object Flows - Enriched

Activity parameter

node

Exception Order duplicated

Stream pin

Single pinBuffer weighting

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Organizational Structure

Individuals – Object diagram Structure – Class diagram Connect organizational and activity models –

activity partitions & swim lanes

AnnotatedNodes

Partitions& Swim Lanes

HierachicalPartitioning

MatrixPartitioning

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Organizational Structure - Object

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Organizational Structure - Class

Matrix organization: change Department and CompanyMember multiplicities

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Organizational Structure - ActivityInstance Class

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Modeling Business Partner Interactions

Sequence diagram focuses on role interactions

Roles need not be bound to instances Intra-role interactions need not be

represented Must be consistent with (but not identical to)

other models

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Modeling Business Partner Interactions

Parameter Class

Action

Interaction operator

Guard expression

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System-specific Models

Focus on fine grained implementation Structure diagram Interface specifications System-specific Activity diagram

Service

Interface

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System-specific Models - Services

Function signatures

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System-specific Models - Activity

API calls

Activity parameter

node

Activity parameter

node

API parameters

Interruptable

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Summary

But … There are gaps How to verify completeness and correctness? Activity diagrams ↔ ORC is unclear

o > CO > o > (let(o,r) < o < SO < (GP > p > (GP > p > ((if(p=C) > p > TC) | (if(p=M) > p > TM) > r > let(r)))) > (o,p,r) > AB > b

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Future Topics Compare WebLogic, WebSphere, BizTalk, Office

Integration regarding system integration support for EAI & B2B p77

Present DAML-S, WSMO, WSML, and WSMX (semantic service execution) p77

Patterns of process modeling vs ORC p181 Process mining p237 Transactional business processes p257 Standard workflow definition and execution vs ORC

p281 Workflow Management Coalition standards p30

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References

Orc: Orchestrating services. http://orc.csres.utexas.edu/userguide/html/ch01s03.html