Process aware information systems

1. 1
Process-Aware
Information Systems
Dumas, van der Aalst, ter Hofstede
UC San Diego
CSE 294
December 3, 2009
Barry Demchak

2. 2
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

3. 3
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

4. 4
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

6. 6
PAIS Types vs Development Tools

7. 7
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 Patterns
Process Redesign
Process Mining
Transactional 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 A
send 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
Annotated
Nodes
Partitions
& Swim Lanes
Hierachical
Partitioning
Matrix
Partitioning

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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 - Activity
Instance 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

24. 24
System-specific Models - Services
Function
signatures

25. 25
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/ch
01s03.html