Semantic lifting of business process models (original) (raw)

Linking ontologies to business process schemas

IASI-CNR, Technical Report, 2010

This report intends to lay the formal foundations of a framework for the semantic augmentation of BP schemas, in order to provide a declarative representation of workflow models, enriched with domain knowledge encoded by means of computational ontologies. The proposed framework is centered around BPAL (Business Process Abstract Language), a logic-based language for modeling and reason with both the structural specification and the dynamic behavior of a business process from a workflow perspective. BPAL relies on a formalism, logic programming, that is particularly well-suited for its use within a wider knowledge representation framework, in particular in conjunction with rule based ontology languages to capture the semantics of a business scenario. The resulting Business Process Knowledge Base provides a uniform and formal representation framework, suited for automatic reasoning and equipped with a powerful inference mechanism supported by the solutions developed in the area of Logic Programming. At the same time it has been conceived to be used in conjunction with the existing BP management tools as an "add-on" facility, by supporting BPMN, in particular its XPDL linear form, as a modeling notation, and OWL, for the definition of the reference ontologies.

Semantically-aided business process modeling

The Semantic Web- …, 2009

Enriching business process models with semantic annotations taken from an ontology has become a crucial necessity both in service provisioning, integration and composition, and in business processes management. In our work we represent semantically annotated business processes as part of an OWL knowledge base that formalises the business process structure, the business domain, and a set of criteria describing correct semantic annotations. In this paper we show how Semantic Web representation and reasoning techniques can be effectively applied to formalise, and automatically verify, sets of constraints on Business Process Diagrams that involve both knowledge about the domain and the process structure. We also present a tool for the automated transformation of an annotated Business Process Diagram into an OWL ontology. The use of the semantic web techniques and tool presented in the paper results in a novel support for the management of business processes in the phase of process modeling, whose feasibility and usefulness will be illustrated by means of a concrete example.

An Ontology-Enabled Approach for Modelling Business Processes

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2014

Coloured Petri Nets (CPNs) have formal semantics and can describe any type of workflow system, behavioral and syntax wise simultaneously. They are widely studied and successfully applied in modelling of workflows and workflow systems. There is an inherent problem regarding business processes modelled with CPNs sharing and subsequently their reuse need to be considered. The Semantic Web technologies, such as ontologies, with their characteristics demonstrate that they can play an important role in this scenario. In this paper, we propose an ontological approach for representing business models in a meta-knowledge base. Firstly, the CPN ontology is defined to represent CPNs with OWL DL. Secondly, we introduce four basic types of manipulation operations on process models used to develop and modify business workflow patterns. To the best of our knowledge, representing business process definitions and business workflow patterns as knowledge based upon ontologies is a novel approach.

Mapping Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language to OWL-S

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006

The need for more sophisticated web-based support tools has become apparent with the fastadvancement of the World Wide Web and the Semantic Web technologies. Enterprise Modelling methods, such as Business Process Modelling (BPM) methods, on the other hand, are more established and have been successfully used in practice for describing organisational needs. It would therefore be most fitting for the more mature BPM methods to be extended to Semantic Web Services so as to facilitate communication between applications and to enable further cooperation between them. This project lays out a conceptual mapping framework between a formal and visually rich BPM language, Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language (FBPML), to the Web Services Ontology (OWL-S), thus narrowing the gap between Enterprise Modelling methods and Semantic Web Services. The framework is divided into a data model (ontology) mapping and a process model mapping. An implementation of the process model mapping is demonstrated, along with a theoretical evaluation of the translated models. Suggestions for improvement and future directions for OWL-S are also provided.

Organisational Ontology Framework for Semantic Business Process Management

2009

The field of Semantic Business Process Management (SBPM) has refuelled interest in using ontologies for the representation of the static and dynamic aspects of an enterprise and value chains. Putting the SBPM vision into practice, however, requires a consistent and operational network of ontologies reflecting the various spheres of enterprise structures and operations. Consistent means that the ontologies are based on compatible paradigms, have a compatible degree of detail, and include at least partial sets of alignment relations which allow data interoperability. Operational means that the ontology specifications are available in a single, current ontology formalism for which scalable repositories, reasoning support, APIs, and tools are available. In this paper, we describe a set of ontologies for SBPM that follows the mentioned requirements, and compare our work with the related efforts.

The business process modelling ontology

2009

Abstract In this paper we describe the Business Process Modelling Ontology (BPMO), which is part of an approach to modelling business processes at the semantic level, integrating knowledge about the organisational context, workflow activities and Semantic Web Services.

Transformation of BPMN Model into an OWL2 Ontology

2021

Each enterprise needs to have a clear vision of its business processes in order to increase the quality of its products/services. To fulfil this need, many enterprises rely on an Information System (IS). Most of the previous systems were previously framed by applying business process model. In addition, the current trend expresses a growing demand of reusing data from older information systems, which is very beneficial for the implementation of semantic knowledge. The transformation of a BPMN model into an ontology leads to reduce cost by reusing older systems. Although many studies are elaborated for transforming BPMN model into ontology, they have not fully proposed the transformation rules. This paper suggests the addition of rules for transforming annotated BPMN models to ontologies by accounting for the semantics of the BPMN model, and providing for all business objects and activities. In addition, the transformations have the merit of generating the OWL2 graphical representation.

Based Ontology for Business Process Representation

2019

Any industrial company has its own business processes, which is a number of related tasks that have to be executed to reach well-defined goals. In order to analyze, improve, simulate and automate these processes, it is essential to represent them in a formal way. The activity of representing business processes is known as Business Process Modelling (BPM); it is an active research area that attracts more and more attention with the emergence of Industry 4.0. Semantic Web technologies, especially ontologies, are promising means to advance BPM and to realize the Industry 4.0 vision. In this scope, we developed the BBO (BPMN 2.0 Based Ontology) ontology for business process representation, by reusing existing ontologies and meta-models like BPMN 2.0, the state-of-the-art meta-model for business process representation. We evaluated BBO using schema metrics, which showed that it was a deep and rich ontology with a variety of relationships. Thanks to a use case, we illustrated the ability ...