Characterization and Tool Supported Selection of Business Process Modeling Methodologies (original) (raw)
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Patterns-based evaluation of open source BPM systems: The cases of jBPM, OpenWFE, and Enhydra Shark
Information and …, 2009
In keeping with the proliferation of free software development initiatives and the increased interest in the business process management domain, many open source workflow and business process management systems have appeared during the last few years and are now under active development. This upsurge gives rise to two important questions: What are the capabilities of these systems? and How do they compare to each other and to their closed source counterparts? In other words: What is the state-of-the-art in the area?. To gain an insight into these questions, we have conducted an in-depth analysis of three of the major open source workflow management systems -jBPM, OpenWFE and Enhydra Shark, the results of which are reported here. This analysis is based on the workflow patterns framework and provides a continuation of the series of evaluations performed using the same framework on closed source systems, business process modelling languages, and web-service composition standards. The results from evaluations of the three open source systems are compared with each other and also with the results from evaluations of three representative closed source systems: Staffware, WebSphere MQ and Oracle BPEL PM. The overall conclusion is that open source systems are targeted more toward developers rather than business analysts. They generally provide less support for the patterns than closed source systems, particularly with respect to the resource perspective, i.e. the various ways in which work is distributed amongst business users and managed through to completion. specific focus on their underlying modelling languages . The goal was to examine the expressive power of the underlying languages and identify similarities and differences between them. During this research effort, 20 control-flow patterns were experientially derived . These patterns identify recurring, generic behaviours with respect to a specific aspect of process control. They range from simple characteristics to complex scenarios and provide a taxonomy for the control-flow perspective of processes.
Considerations on the particular features for process and workflow modeling
2008
Modeling processes and workflow for complex systems constitutes a challenge for designers. The resources that are used in systems are in limited amounts and these must be shared between the processes and workflow instances activities. Our considerations refer to the need of a data base in that the workflow constituents: instances and activities must be represented in a data base and also their time evolution. Concerning the resources that are used in the processes and in the workflow instances execution must be adequately represented. Two important classes of information systems, Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, have been used to support e-business process redesign, integration, and management. We intend to propose a model for resource representation and allocation and as conclusion propose considerations concerning the design of processes, workflows and workflow management systems. This paper is partially supported by the project P...
Towards Selecting Among Business Process Modeling Methodologies
Proceedings of 9th …, 2006
The problem o f selecting the business process modeling methodology best suited for the business process modeling task at hand is often hampered by the conditions under which t he selection is made. In this paper we sketch the foundations of a framework for selecting business process modeling methods. We base this framework on the Analytic Hierarchy P rocess. We therefore use a hierarchy of characteristics of business process modeling methodologies for our selection approach. To demonstrate how our approach works we discuss its application to two business p rocess modeling tasks. We have developed a software tool that implements our framework. We describe this tool briefly in this paper.
A hybrid approach to workflow modelling
Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 2010
PurposeThe 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. Existing process modelling tools tend to be biased to either the informational, behavioural or object‐oriented aspect of the workflow. Because of this, models can often miss important aspects of a workflow. As well as managing the relationship between the types of model it is important to consider who will be using it, as process models are useful in various ways. The paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reports on a case study in a manufacturing company, where users were surveyed to see which are the notations that are most c...
Modelling business processes with workflow systems: an evaluation of alternative approaches
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.
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.
Ontology-versus pattern-based evaluation of process modeling languages: a comparison
2007
Selecting an appropriate process modeling language forms an important task for organizations engaging in Business Process Management initiatives. A plethora of process modeling languages has been developed over the last decades, leading to a need for rigorous theory to assist in the evaluation and comparison of the capabilities of these languages. While substantial academic progress in the area of process modeling language evaluation has been made in at least two areas, using an ontology-based theory of representation or the framework of workflow patterns, it remains unclear how these frameworks relate to each other. We use a generic framework for language evaluation to establish similarities and differences between these acknowledged reference frameworks and discuss how and to what extent they corroborate each other. Our line of investigation follows the case of the popular BPMN modeling language, whose evaluation from the perspectives of representation theory and workflow patterns is comparatively assessed in this paper. We also show which tenets of modeling quality these Communications of the Association for Information Systems 2 frameworks address and that further research is needed, especially in the area of evaluating the pragmatic quality of modeling.
Identifying the workflow potential of business processes
Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers
Though the activities of business organizations in the field of workflow management are facing an enormous growth, a methodical solution for an essential problem occurring in many workflow projects is still lacking: the identification of those processes that can be supported by workflow applications in a profitable way. In this paper we present a structured framework, which can serve as a guideline for the evaluation of processes during the selection and introduction of a workflow management system. This framework contains three groups of criteria: technical, organizational and economic. Designed as a scoring model, this approach enables the user to evaluate the workflow potential of business processes systematically. First, the underlying concepts and design of the framework are outlined. In the following we describe, how the framework can be adjusted to individual needs through a three-step aggregation process. In order to demonstrate the practical relevance its application within an industrial workflow project is described.
Representation theory versus workflow patterns–the case of BPMN
2006
Abstract. Selecting an appropriate process modeling language forms an important task within business process management projects. A wide range of process modeling languages has been developed over the last decades, leading to an obvious need for rigorous theory to assist in the evaluation and comparison of the capabilities of these languages.