The Software as a Service (SaaS) paradigm is particularly interesting for situations where many organizations need to support similar processes. For example, municipalities, courts, rental agencies, etc. support highly similar processes. However, despite these similarities, there is also the need to allow for local variations in a controlled manner. Therefore, cloud infrastructures should provide configurable services such that products and processes can be customized while sharing commonalities. Configurable and executable process models are essential to realize such infrastructures. This will finally transform reference models from "paper tigers" (reference modeling a la SAP, ARIS, etc.) into an "executable reality". Moreover, "configurable services in the cloud" enable cross-organizational process mining. This way, organizations can learn from each other and improve their processes.

1. Configurable Services in the Cloud
Supporting variability
while enabling
cross-organizational
process mining
Wil van der Aalst

2. Acknowledgements
• Marcello La Rosa
• Florian Gottschalk
• CoSeLoG: Joos Buijs, Jan Vogelaar, Boudewijn van
Dongen, Eric Verbeek, Hajo Reijers.
• Marlon Dumas, Arthur ter Hofstede, Niels Lohmann,
Michael Rosemann, Jan Mendling, …
• ProM team (www.processmining.org)
• YAWL team (www.yawlfoundation.org)
PAGE 1

3. The need for configurable process
models: CoSeLoG project
+/- 430 Dutch
PAGE 2
municipalities

4. The need for configurable process
models: Suncorp case
End to end process has between 250-1000 process steps
Product
Sales Service Claims 500
Dev steps
• 25+ steps • 50+ steps • 75+ steps • 100+ steps
Sources: Guidewire reference models, GIO CISSS Project, CI US&S P4PI Project
Home      
Motor         30
Commercial      variations
Liability     
CTP / WC     
PAGE 3

5. Two variants of the same process …
PAGE 4

6. Variation points … in the cloud
PAGE 5

7. Cloud computing
PAGE 6

8. Traditional Situation
IS1 IS2 ISn
E1 M1 E2 M2 ... En Mn
Processes Processes Processes
Organization 1 Organization 2 Organization n
IS = Information System
E = Event log
M = Models
PAGE 7

9. Example
Acknowledgement of
an Unborn Child
• Same but different …
• “Couleur Locale”
• Different from NVVB
models.
• Configurable process
models!
PAGE 8

10. Using SaaS Technology
IS-SaaS
E CM
C1 C2 Cn
Processes
Municipality 1
Processes
Municipality 2 ... Processes
Municipality n
IS-SaaS = Information System (using a SaaS-based BPMS)
E = Event log
CM = Configurable Models
C = Configuration PAGE 9

11. Process Mining: Before
IS1 IS2 ISn
E1 M1 E2 M2 ... En Mn
Processes Processes Processes
Municipality 1 Municipality 2 Municipality n
PAGE 10

12. Process Mining: After
cross-organizational process mining PAGE 11

13. Configuration

14. Positioning of Configuration
Some quotes from Michelangelo
• “Every block of stone has a statue
inside it and it is the task of the
sculptor to discover it.”
• “I saw the angel in the marble and
carved until I set him free.”
• “Carving is easy, you just go
down to the skin and stop.”
Michelangelo's David

15. Life is about making choices …
PAGE 14

16. Time and artifacts
• Design time (generic model, i.e., is
not released for instantiation)
• Configuration time (specific model,
i.e., can be instantiated)
• Instantiation time (specific model +
instance)
• Run time (specific model + instance +
state/partial trace)
• Auditing time (specific model +
instance + full trace)
PAGE 15

17. Continuum
• In The Netherlands, …
• In Brisbane, …
• When the sun shines, …
• On Sunday, …
• When very busy, …
• For these customers, … Branching structure
• …
PAGE 16

18. Hiding and blocking
Configuration = limiting behavior !
Activate
Hide/skip
Block
Blocking Hiding Blocking
Action
Activating
PAGE 17

19. Configurable Process Models
C-EPC
Purchase Service is Goods receipt Invoice
order created accepted posted received
V
V
Consignment/
pipeline
Consignment/
pipeline
a b
Goods liability is liabilities are
Invoicing
receipts created to be settled
plans require
to be settled
c
settlement
automatically V
GUIDELINE
C-Petri Net
ERS = ON, if
Evaluated
- long term REQUIRED: Consignment/
Receipt Process Invoicing Plan
contract IPS = ON Pipeline
Settlement Invoice Settlement
- goods and
(ERS) ⇒ ERS = ON Settlement
conditions are
d e j l
specified
V
V XOR
Consignment/
pipeline
Invoice XOR settlement
transmitted document
for vendor’s transmitted
C-YAWL f g
records
Material is
released
Invoice posted
and blocked
for release
XOR
Invoice posted
and not
blocked for
release
k m
n
V
Release
Invoice
manually
Release
Invoice
automatically
h i C-LTS
C-BPEL XOR
Payment must
be effectes o p
Configuration Blocking Hiding
EPC Purchase
order created
Service is
accepted
V
Goods receipt
posted
V
Invoice
received
a b
c
Petri Net Process
Invoice
XOR
e l
Invoice posted
Invoice posted
Material is and not
and blocked
released blocked for
YAWL g m
for release
release
V
n LTS
Release Release
i
Invoice Invoice
manually automatically
XOR
BPEL Payment must
be effectes
o p
PAGE 18

20. Inheritance of dynamic behavior
Inheritance Inheritance
a a b a b
c c c
d e d e j l e j l
f g f g k m g k m
h i n n
h i i
o Configuration o p Configuration o p
Variant A
Superclass Subclass Superclass
Variant B
Reference Model
PAGE 19

21. Configuration Techniques
• Blocking
a b a b
(removing an option)
c c
• Hiding
(skipping activities)
d e j l d e j l
l
f g f τ
g k τ
k m m
Blocking and hidinghare ithe n h ii τ
n
essential concepts of configuration.
o p o p
“Every block of stone has a statue inside
it and it is the task of the sculptor to
discover it.”
PAGE 20

22. Cross-organizational
mining
PAGE 21

23. Process Mining =
(RM,RD)
c11
modify
conditions
(YE,RD)
check_A c5
(RM,RD) c2 check_A c8
(E,SD) needed? (RM,RD) (E,RD)
Smoker
c6(YE,RD)
No start register c1 initial c3 check_B check_B c9 asses c12 decline
conditions needed? risk
Yes
c7(FE,FD)
Drinker c4 check_C check_C c10
needed?
Short
(91/10)
<81.5
Yes
Weight
≥81.5
No
Long
(30/1)
+ (SM,SD) (E,SD) c13
(E,FD)
(E,SD)
make c14 handle c15 handle c16 send
offer response payment insurance
documents (E,SD)
Long Short
(150/20) (321/25) c17
withdraw
timeout1 timeout2
offer
Data Mining Process Analysis PAGE 22

24. Process mining: Linking events to models
supports/
“world” controls
business software
processes
people machines system
components
organizations records
events, e.g.,
messages,
specifies transactions,
models
configures etc.
analyzes
implements
analyzes
discovery
(process) event
conformance
model logs
extension
PAGE 23

25. Example: WMO Harderwijk
• Process related to the execution of “Wet
Maatschappelijke Ondersteuning” (WMO) Harderwijk
• Handling WMO applications
• WMO: supporting citizens of municipalities (illness,
handicaps, elderly, etc.).
• Examples:
• wheelchair, scootmobiel, ...
• adaptation of house (elevator), ...
• household help, ...
PAGE 24

26. Event log
(796 applications, 5187 events)
PAGE 25

27. Helicopter view of 1.5 years
PAGE 26

28. Process discovered using Genetic Miner
PAGE 27

29. Various
representations
PAGE 28

30. Seamless abstraction
more detailed more abstract PAGE 29

31. Fuzzy Replay
PAGE 30

32. Conformance checking
using Replay
= should not have happened but did
= should have happened but did not PAGE 31

33. Performance analysis using Replay
PAGE 32

34. Prediction based
on Replay
“Your application is
expected to be
finalized in 65 days”
PAGE 33

35. From one to many organizations
• More than 80,000 organizations are using Salesforce
• More than 1 million organizations are using Google Apps
• All 430 Dutch municipalities are implementing the same set of
processes
• All 94 U.S. District Courts in the United States share the same
set of workflows
• All car-rental offices of Hertz, Avis, …
• …
PAGE 34

36. Consider n organizations
event process
process 1
log 1 model 1
event process
process 2
log 2 model 2
... ... ...
event process
process n
log n model n
PAGE 35

37. Cross-organizational process mining
event process
process 1
log 1 model 1 C
event process (configurable)
process 2 C
log 2 model 2 process model
... ... ...
event process
process n C
log n model n
event log
PAGE 36

38. Pure model-based
event process
process 1
log 1 model 1 C
event process (configurable)
process 2 C
log 2 model 2 process model
... ... ...
event process
process n C
log n model n
PM1 + PM2 + … + PMn = CM
PAGE 37

39. Pure log-based
α(EL1 + EL2 + … + ELn) = CM
event process
process 1
log 1 model 1 C
event process (configurable)
process 2 C
log 2 model 2 process model
... ... ...
event process
process n C
log n model n
event log
PAGE 38

40. How to find and
How to merge
Questions
characterize
process models into a
differences among
single configurable
processes using What are the effects of
model?
event logs? these differences on the
event performance of a
process
process 1
log 1 process?1
model C
How to find and
event process (configurable)
characterize differences
process 2
log 2 model 2 process model C
using models /
How to derive the
...
configurations? ... ...
configuration for a
process given a
configurable model?
event process
process n C
log n model n
How to discover a
configurable model
from a collection of
event log
event logs?
PAGE 39

41. Evidence-based “best practices”
• Organizations can learn from each other.
• Configuration support and diagnostics.
• Software vendors/service providers can improve
their products/services.
PAGE 40

42. Correctness
PAGE 41

43. Remember …
Configuration = limiting behavior !
Activate
Hide/skip
Block
Blocking Hiding Blocking
Action
Activating
PAGE 42

44. Correctness of configurations
+ =
Configurable Model + Configuration = Configured model
• Question 1:
Is a particular configuration correct?
• Question 2:
Is there a correct configuration?
• Question 3:
How to characterize the set of all correct configurations?
• Question 4:
How to auto-complete a configuration?
PAGE 43

45. Transition Flow
Place XOR-split
Can t3 be blocked? AND-split
AND-join
XOR-join
Token
pI
pI
t1 t2
t1 t2
p2 p3 p4 p2 p3 p4
t5 t6 t5 t6
t3 t4 t4
p6 p6
p5 t8 p5 t8
p7 p7
t7 t7
pO pO
PAGE 44

46. Transition Flow
Place XOR-split
Block t1 and hide t3 ? AND-split
AND-join
XOR-join
Token
p1 p1
Prepare Prepare Prepare
Travel Form t1 t2 Travel Form
t2 Travel Form
(Secretary) (Employee) (Employee
p2 p2
Arrange
p3 t3 travel p4 p3 τ p4
insurance t3
(Employee)
p5 p5
Request for Check & Update
t7 t4 Travel Form t5 τ Request for Check & Update
change
(Admin) (Employee) change t7 t4 Travel Form t5 τ
(Admin) (Employee)
p6
p6
Submit
Travel Form Submit
t6 Travel Form
for Approval t6 for Approval
(Employee)
(Employee)
p7
p7
Approve Reject
Travel Form t8 Travel Form t9 Approve Reject
(Admin) (Admin) Travel Form t8 Travel Form t9
(Admin) (Admin)
p8
p8
PAGE 45

47. Transition Flow
Place XOR-split
Block t4 also? AND-split
AND-join
XOR-join
Token
p1 p1
Prepare Prepare Prepare
Travel Form t1 t2 Travel Form t2 Travel F
(Secretary) (Employee) (Emplo
p2 p2
Arrange
p3 t3 travel p4 p3 t3 τ p4
insurance
(Employee)
p5 p5
Request for Check & Update Request for
change t7 t4 Travel Form t5 τ change t7 t5 τ
(Admin) (Employee) (Admin)
p6 p6
Submit Submit
Travel Form Travel Form
t6 for Approval
t6 for Approval
(Employee) (Employee)
p7 p7
Approve Reject Approve Reject
Travel Form t8 Travel Form t9 Travel Form t8 Travel Form t9
(Admin) (Admin) (Admin) (Admin)
p8 p8
PAGE 46

48. Existing approaches
• Most approaches only consider
the syntactical issues or simply
create the configured model and
analyze it (i.e., trail and error).
• Naïve approach: enumerate all
possibilities and check, or trail-
and-error at configuration time.
• Better approach based on partner
synthesis: construct a
configuration guideline at design
time!
W.M.P. van der Aalst, N. Lohmann, M. La Rosa, and J. Xu. Correctness Ensuring Process
Configuration: An Approach Based on Partner Synthesis. In BPM 2010, volume 6336 of Lecture Notes
PAGE 47
in Computer Science, pages 95-111. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2010.

49. Partner synthesis
p11
y t11 t12 x
desirable
property
p14 p12
= e.g. weakly
τ t13 t14 z partner?? terminating
p13 Given a service:
Ω ={[p13]}
• Is this a partner?
• Is there a partner?
• How to describe all partners?
PAGE 48

50. Partner synthesis
• Existing approaches can do the following:
− Check whether there exists a partner.
− Construct partners having desirable properties.
− Characterize all such partners.
cf. [Karsten Wolf. Does My Service Have Partners?. T. Petri Nets and Other
Models of Concurrency 2: 152-171 (2009)]
• These are implemented in Wendy.
cf. [Niels Lohmann, Daniela Weinberg. Wendy: A Tool to Synthesize Partners
for Services. Petri Nets 2010: 297-307.]
• How can this be used for ensuring the
correctness of a configurable model and its
configurations? PAGE 49

51. Configurable interface (allow by default)
PAGE 50

52. Configuration guideline (allow by default)
CG
PAGE 51

53. Configuration guideline (allow by default)
CG
PAGE 52

54. Configuration guideline (allow by default)
CG
PAGE 53

55. Configuration guideline (allow by default)
CG
PAGE 54

56. Configuration guideline (allow by default)
CG
PAGE 55

57. Tool support
• YAWL editor
− Creating C-YAWL models
− Configuring C-YAWL models
− Verification and auto-completion (using SAT solver
and/or Wendy)
• YAWL engine Configuration
model (.cml)
• YAWL services Quaestio
C-YAWL Editor
C-YAWL model
(.yawl)
Configured YAWL Engine
C-YAWL (.yawl) spec. (.yawl)
Questionnaire Mapping
Model (.qml) (.cmap)
Process
Mapper Process
Configured Individualizer EPC
Configurator C-EPC (.epml) (.epml)
C-EPC model
(.epml)
Questionnaire
Designer
C-EPC Designer Process Merger
cf. www.processconfiguration.com PAGE 56

58. C-YAWL
p1
Prepare Prepare
Travel Form t1 t2 Travel Form
(Secretary) (Employee)
p2
Arrange
p3 t3 travel p4
insurance
(Employee)
p5
Request for Check & Update
change t7 t4 Travel Form t5 τ
(Admin) (Employee)
p6
Submit
Travel Form
t6 for Approval
(Employee)
p7
Approve Reject
Travel Form t8 Travel Form t9
(Admin) (Admin)
p8
PAGE 57

59. C-YAWL
PAGE 58

60. Conclusion
• BPM in the cloud triggers the need for configurable
process models.
• Configuration is important, however, existing
reference models are crap!
• Challenges:
− Design of configurable models (language+approach)
− Analysis of configurable models, e.g., ensuring
correctness
− Discovering configurable models
− Cross-organizational process mining
PAGE 59

61. More information
• www.processconfiguration.com
(various references to configuration literature and a comprehensive toolset)
• www.win.tue.nl/coselog
(webpage of the CoSeLoG project)
• www.processmining.org
(webpage for process mining)
• www.yawlfoundation.org
(C-YAWL)
• service-technology.org
(analysis of services)
PAGE 60

62. References
(Configurable Process Models)
• M. Rosemann and W.M.P. van der Aalst. A Configurable Reference
Modelling Language. Information Systems, 32(1):1-23, 2007.
• F. Gottschalk, W.M.P. van der Aalst, and M.H. Jansen-Vullers. SAP
WebFlow Made Configurable: Unifying Workflow Templates into a
Configurable Model. In BPM 2007, volume 4714 of Lecture Notes in
Computer Science, pages 262-270. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2007.
• F. Gottschalk, W.M.P. van der Aalst, M.H Jansen-Vullers, and M. La
Rosa. Configurable Workflow Models. International Journal of
Cooperative Information Systems, 17(2):177-221, 2008.
• M. La Rosa, W.M.P. van der Aalst, M. Dumas, and A.H.M. ter Hofstede.
Questionnaire-based Variability Modeling for System Configuration.
Software and Systems Modeling, 8(2):251-274, 2009.
• F. Gottschalk, W.M.P. van der Aalst, and H.M. Jansen-Vullers.
Configurable Process Models: A Foundational Approach. In F. Lehner,
H. Nosekabel, and P. Kleinschmidt, editors, Proceedings of the
Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik 2006 (MKWI '06). GITO-Verlag,
Berlin, 2006.
• …
PAGE 61

63. References
(Correctness Issues)
• W.M.P. van der Aalst, M. Dumas, F. Gottschalk, A.H.M. ter Hofstede, M.
La Rosa, and J. Mendling. Correctness-Preserving Configuration of
Business Process Models. In FASE 2008, volume 4961 of Lecture
Notes in Computer Science, pages 46-61. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2008.
• W.M.P. van der Aalst, M. Dumas, F. Gottschalk, A.H.M. ter Hofstede, M.
La Rosa, and J. Mendling. Preserving Correctness During Business
Process Model Configuration. Formal Aspects of Computing,
22(3):459-482, 2010.
• W.M.P. van der Aalst, N. Lohmann, M. La Rosa, and J. Xu. Correctness
Ensuring Process Configuration: An Approach Based on Partner
Synthesis. In BPM 2010, volume 6336 of Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, pages 95-111. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2010.
• M.T. Wynn, H.M.W. Verbeek, W.M.P. van der Aalst, A.H.M. ter Hofstede,
and D. Edmond. Business Process Verification: Finally a Reality!
Business Process Management Journal, 15(1):74-92, 2009.
• H.M.W. Verbeek, T. Basten, and W.M.P. van der Aalst. Diagnosing
Workflow Processes using Woflan. The Computer Journal, 44(4):246-
279, 2001.
PAGE 62

64. References
(Process Mining)
• M.H. Jansen-Vullers, W.M.P. van der Aalst, and M. Rosemann. Mining
Configurable Enterprise Information Systems. Data and Knowledge
Engineering, 56(3):195-244, 2006.
• F. Gottschalk, T. Wagemakers, M.H. Jansen-Vullers, W.M.P. van der
Aalst, and M. La Rosa. Configurable Process Models: Experiences
From a Municipality Case Study. In CAiSE'09, volume 5565 of Lecture
Notes in Computer Science, pages 486-500. Springer-Verlag, Berlin,
2009.
• W.M.P. van der Aalst, A.J.M.M. Weijters, and L. Maruster. Workflow
Mining: Discovering Process Models from Event Logs. IEEE
Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 16(9):1128-1142,
2004.
• W.M.P. van der Aalst, H.A. Reijers, A.J.M.M. Weijters, B.F. van Dongen,
A.K. Alves de Medeiros, M. Song, and H.M.W. Verbeek. Business
Process Mining: An Industrial Application. Information Systems,
32(5):713-732, 2007.
• …
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