business capability-centric management of services and business process models

Business Capability-centric Management of Services and Business Process Models

Supervisors: Dr. Edward Curry and Dr. Sami Bhiri

Examiners: Prof. Jan Mendling,Prof. François Charoy,and Prof. Dietrich Rebholz-Schuhmann

In fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at the National University of Ireland, Galway – College of Engineering and Informatics

December 2016

byWassim Derguech

Thesis Overview• ResearchProblem

– DescriptionsofITCapabilititesofservicesandprocessesareverydifficulttomanagebybusinessusers

• ProposedSolution– Buinesscapabilitiesconceptmodelofservicesandprocessesusedin3scenarios:(1)

indexinganddiscovery,(2)aggregationand(3)designofconfigurableprocessmodels• ResearchContributions

C1- Businesscapabilitymetamodel• Model’sconstructsvalidatedviaanontologicalevaluation• Intuitiveappealofthemodelevaluatedviainterviewswithdomainexperts

C2- Validationoftheapplicabilityofformalconceptanalysisfortime-efficientindexinganddiscoveryofbusinesscapabilitities

• Quantitativeevaluationshowstheindexinganddiscoveryperformsinlessthan200msoverasetof5000sensorcapabilitites

C3– Algorithmforbusinesscapabilityaggregation• StepsofthealgorithmareverifiedforbasicworkflowpatternsusingPetriNets• Usefulnessoftheapproachisevaluatedviainterviewswithdomainexperts

C4- Algorithmfordesigningcapability-enrichedconfigurableprocessmodels• Createsmodelsviamergeoperationinfewmsandreachacompressionrateof50%

2

• Context and Motivation

• Research Problem and Proposed Solution

C1 - Business Capability Meta Model• Limits of current approaches, solution and evaluation

C2 - Business Capability Indexing and Discovery• Limits of current approaches, solution and evaluation

C3 - Business Capability Aggregation• Limits of current approaches, solution and evaluation

C4 - Business Capability in Configurable process models• Limits of current approaches, solution and evaluation

• Summary, Limitations, and Future Work

Outline

4

1

DesigningBPsandServices

Context

5

1


A Business process is “a set of tasks, roles, and resources working in concert to achieve a business objective or goal.”[Business Process Modeling Languages and Tools, Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, 3rd Edt, 2015]

Context

6

1


2Softwareengineer

ImplementationofBPsandServices

3

Context

7

1


2Softwareengineer


3

End Users

Discovery

Reuse

Context

Problem

8

1


2Softwareengineer


3

End Users

Discovery

Reuse

IT Expert IT Capability

IT Capability

IT E

xper

t

9

1


2Softwareengineer


3

End Users

Discovery

Reuse

IT Expert IT Capability

IT Capability

IT E

xper

tBusiness Expert Business Expert

Business & IT Capability

Problem

10

1


2Softwareengineer


3

End Users

Discovery

Reuse

Problem

11

1


2Softwareengineer


3

End Users

Discovery

Reuse

Business Processes and Servicesare not properly described froma business perspective

DiscoveryandComposition/aggregationofservicesis

basedonlyonITcapabilities,thusdifficulttounderstandbyBusiness

Experts

Reuse of services and processmodels requires extensive ITknowledge

Problem

12

1


2Softwareengineer


3

End Users

Discovery

Reuse

1.BusinessCapabilitymet-modelfordescribingservicesandbusinessprocessesusingbusinessproperties

2.IndexingandDiscoveryofServicesusingBusinessProperties

3.AggregationofBusinessCapabilities

4.Designingconfigurableprocessmodelsfeaturingbusinessproperties

Proposed Solution

Contributions and Requirements

13

Business Capability

Meta-Model

BusinessCapabilityMeta-Model

- Expressiveness- Inferences- Use-Of-Ontologies- Configuration

C1


14

Business Capability

Meta-Model

C2


BusinessCapabilityIndexing&Discovery


- Ontology-based- Timeefficient

C1


15

Business Capability

Meta-Model

C2 C3



BusinessCapabilityAggregation



C1- DetailedDescription


16

Business Capability

Meta-Model

C2 C3

C4BusinessCapabilityMeta-Model



BusinessCapabilityinConfigurableProcessModels



- DetailedDescription

- IntegrateBusinessCapabilitiesinprocessmodels

- Quickdesign- Compactmodels

C1








Outline

18

Scenario 1: Modeling and Discovery of Services and Business Processes

Address check service

Tracking service

Utility services: customer identification, payment

processing, etc.

Rate query service

Findservicesthat“deliverapackage”inprogrammableweb.comResultsundertheshippingcategory[June2012]

Limits of current approaches (Modeling)

19

Expressiveness [Sycara] Inferences [Sycara]

Use-of-Ontologies [Sycara]

Configuration

Action Performed

Functional and non-functional

features

Simple and Complex

Types

Relationships between

capabilities

Use of domain and

general ontologies

Describe configurable capabilities

[Sycara]P.K.Sycara etal.,Larks:DynamicMatchmakingAmongHeterogeneousSoftwareAgentsinCyberspace.AutonomousAgentsandMulti-AgentSystems.2002

Chap.2p.36


20

*IOPE:Input,Output,PreconditionsandEffect[Sycara]P.K.Sycara etal.,Larks:DynamicMatchmakingAmongHeterogeneousSoftwareAgentsinCyberspace.AutonomousAgentsandMulti-AgentSystems.2002



Configuration

Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types


capabilities

Use of domain and

general ontologies


Semantic Web Services Models: WSMO and OWL-S

Part. Ful.

(categories)

Part. Ful.

(IOPE*) Fulfilled Part. Ful. Fulfilled Not Fulfilled

Semantic Annotation of services: SA-WSDLand SA-REST

Part. Ful.

(categories in modelReference)

Not Ful.

(Interactioninterfaces)

Fulfilled Not Ful. Fulfilled Not Fulfilled

Frame-based Models Fulfilled Not Ful. Fulfilled Part. Ful. Part. Ful. Not Fulfilled

Chap.2p.38


21



Configuration

Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types


capabilities

Use of domain and

general ontologies



Part. Ful.

(categories)

Part. Ful.



Part. Ful.


Not Ful.





Chap.2p.38


22



Configuration

Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types


capabilities

Use of domain and

general ontologies



Part. Ful.

(categories)

Part. Ful.



Part. Ful.


Not Ful.





Chap.2p.38

Solution: Frame-based modeling

23

• I model a business capability as an action category enriched by (zero or many) functional or non-functional properties

• An action category is the most abstract business capability

• Related properties refine the given category by giving more details about the corresponding action.

Capability1:ActionCategory=Shipping

Capability2:ActionCategory=ShippingItem=Package[MaxWeight=65Kg]

Capability3:ActionCategory=ShippingItem=Package[MaxWeight=65Kg]Area=Europe

Chap.3p.73

Thisworkhasbeenpublishedin:WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:Modelling,interlinkinganddiscoveringcapabilities.AICCSA2013(bestpaper)WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:CapabilityModelling- CaseofLogisticsCapabilities.BusinessProcessManagementWorkshops2012SamiBhiri,WassimDerguech,MaciejZaremba:WebServiceCapabilityMetaModel.WEBIST2012SamiBhiri,WassimDerguech,MaciejZaremba:ModellingCapabilitiesasAttribute-FeaturedEntities.WEBIST(SelectedPapers)2012

Capability meta-model

24

Property_declaration

Property_entry

Property_value

defined.w.r.t

propertyValueCapability

Action_Category

achieves

hasProperty

Expressiveness Inferences Use-of-Ont Configuration

Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types

Relationships between capabilities

Use of domain and general ontologies


Configurable:bool

Chap.3p.73



25

Property_declaration

Property_entry

Property_value

defined.w.r.t

propertyValueCapability

Action_Category

achieves

hasProperty


Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types




Configurable:bool

Most_General_ValueSpecification_Relation

superValuespecificationRelation

isa

Chap.3p.73



26


Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types




Property_value

Range_value

Enumeration_value Single_value

Function_value

Constrained_value

Conditional_value

Expression

has_Valuehas_Element

has_Conditionhas_Function

has_Constraint

Chap.3p.75



27


Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types




CapabilityAActionCategory=Shipping

From=InternationalTo=International

CapabilityCActionCategory=Shipping

From=InternationalTo=InternationalMinWeight =68KgMaxWeight =1t

CapabilityBActionCategory=Shipping

From=InternationalTo=InternationalMaxWeight =68Kg

CapabilityDActionCategory=Shipping

From=EuropeTo=Europe

MaxWeight =68Kg

extends

extends

Chap.3p.77



28


Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types












MaxWeight =68Kg

extends

extends

Given two capabilitites C1 and C2, C1 extends C2 if:1. ∀pr in C2.properties, pr in C1.properties2. ∀pr in C2.properties ∩ C1.properties,

C1.pr = C2.pr3. ∃pr’ in C1. properties and pr’ not in C2.properties

Chap.3p.77



29


Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types












MaxWeight =68Kg

extends

extends

specifies

Given two capabilitites C1 and C2, C1 specifies C2 if:1. ∀pr in C2.properties, pr in C1.properties2. ∀pr in C2.properties ∩ C1.properties,

C1.pr = C2.pr or C1.pr variantOf C2.pr3. ∃pr’ / C1.pr’ variantOf C2.pr’

Chap.3p.77



30


Action Performed


features

Simple and Complex

Types












MaxWeight =68Kg

extends

extends

specifies

Ontological Evaluation

31

• Objective: Verify that the model’s constructs are suitable for modeling (no ambiguity and no redundancy)

• Methodology [Bunge, Wand]

• Results:• The model does not generate semantic ambiguity• It avoids constructs overload and redundancy

[Bunge]M.Bunge.TreatiseonBasicPhilosophy.OntologyI:TheFurnitureoftheWorld.1977[Wand]Y.WandAnontologicalanalysisoftherelationshipconstructinconceptualmodeling.ACMTrans.DatabaseSyst.1999

Step 1:Map each of the model constructs to ontological concepts [Wand]

Step 2:Verify that the model verifies a set of rules [Wand]

Capability : ClassAction Category: Classachieves: Attribute…

Rule 6: null attributes have no meaning…

Chap.3p.91

Evaluation: Tool Support

32

2

1

3

ExtendedversionofEPCTools:abusinessprocessmodelingtoolusingEvent-drivenProcessChains(EPC)

Chap.3p.87

33

Evaluation: Interviews with domain expertsObjective:• Assess the intuitive appeal to end-

users?

Participants:• 5 experts: 2 project managers, 2

service providers and consumers, and 1 IT Engineer

Approach (1 hour per participant)• Introduction• Design capabilities in RDF• Demo of the tool support• Open discussion

Results:Positive feedback+ Current languages do not give much importance to business capabilities

+ The proposed model is seen as an addition rather than a substitution

+ Frame-based modeling is a good option

+ Extend current model to cover IT perspective

Negative feedback- RDF is not necessary the best implementation language

Chap.3p.96

Summary

34

Business Capability

Meta-Model

C2 C3





- RDF-basedmodel- Ontologicalevaluation- ExtendedversionofEPCTools

toannotateprocessactivitieswithcapabilities

- Interviews withdomainexperts

C1








Outline

36

Limits of current approaches (Discovery)

Indexing Technique Ontology-based Discovery Time Performance

Inheritance between OWL-SServices [Elenius] NotFulfilled N/A

Topic Extraction and FCA [Aznag] Fulfilled 1088 service, query response time between 300 and 3000 ms

Reasoning-based Matchmaking [Srinivasan] Fulfilled 50 services, indexing + query in 4 s

Numerical Encoding of Ontological Concepts [Mokhtar] Fulfilled 100 services, indexing + query in 500

ms

Business Capability and FCA Fulfilled 5000 capabilities, indexing and discovery in 200 ms

[Elenius]D.Elenius etal.,TheOWL-Seditor- Adevelopmenttoolforse- manticwebservices.ESWC2005[Aznag]M.Aznag etal.,Leveragingformalconceptanalysiswithtopiccorrelationforserviceclusteringanddiscovery.ICWS2014[Srinivasan]N.Srinivasanetal.AddingOWL-StoUDDI,ImplementationandThroughput.SWSWPC2004[Mokhtar]A.BenMokhtaretal.EASY:EfficientsemAntic ServicediscoverY inpervasivecomputingenvironmentswithQoS andcontextsupport.JournalofSystemsandSoftware.2008

Reasoning-basedsolutions

Chap.2p.51

Solution based in Formal Concept Analysis

37

•FCA [Ganter] is a technique that evolves form mathematical lattice theory used for data analysis

•A tool for identifying meaningful relationships within a set of objects that share common properties

•It provides a theoretical model to build from a formal context a partially ordered structure called concept lattice

Active Storage Option

Digital Display

Accessible

SensorCap1 X X X X

SensorCap2 X X X

SensorCap3 X X X

SensorCap4 X X X

SensorCap5 X

[Ganter]B.Ganter andR.Wille.Formalconceptanalysis- mathematicalfoundations.1999Chap.5p.132

Evaluation (1) à Applicability

38

• Objective: Assess the applicability of the approach in interpreting the identified classes and relations between them

• Dataset:• Real world sensors deployed within the Linked Energy Intelligence (LEI)

dataspace [Curry] realised in Insight building

• Sensors deployed :• 50 energy sensors• 20 light and heater energy consumption• 8 temperature and motion detection

• Properties: Active, Phenomenon Observed, Protocol, Electricity Phases and Location

[Curry]E.Curryetal.,Enterpriseenergymanagementusingalinkeddataspace forenergyintelligence.SustainIT 2012

Thisworkhasbeenpublishedin:WassimDerguech,SouleimanHasan,SamiBhiri,EdwardCurry:OrganizingCapabilitiesUsingFormalConceptAnalysis.WETICE2013

Chap.5p.139

39

Evaluation (1) à Applicability

Allthesensorsareactive

Thesetofalltemperature sensors

Thesetofallmotion sensors

Thisworkhasbeenpublishedin:WassimDerguech,SouleimanHasan,SamiBhiri,EdwardCurry:OrganizingCapabilitiesUsingFormalConceptAnalysis.WETICE2013

Chap.5p.145

Evaluation (2) à Time Performance

40

Indexingofupto1000sensorcapabilities• Measurethesizeofresultingconceptlattice

Indexingstructurereducesthesearchspaceifthepropertiesarecarefullychosen Indexingtimeislessthan200ms

Contextsize

Latticesiz

eIndexing5000sensorcapabilities• Measuretherequiredtimetoconstructand

parsethelattice

Syntheticdatasetofsensorcapabilititeswithupto16properties

Thisworkhasbeenpublishedin:

WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri,SouleimanHasan,EdwardCurry:UsingFormalConceptAnalysisforOrganizingandDiscoveringSensorCapabilities.ComputerJournal,2015(nominatedforbestpaperaward2016)

Chap.5p.146

Summary

41

Business Capability

Meta-Model

C2 C3





- FCA-basedsolution

- Timeefficient:5000capabilitiesindexedin200ms

C1








Outline

43

Scenario 2: What do Business Processes Achieve?

What is being achieved? What are the parameters? 102

pages!!!

44

Scenario 2: What do Business Processes Achieve?

What is being achieved? What are the parameters? 102

pages!!!

45

What is the business capability of an entire Process (atomic vs. aggregated capabilities)?

Abst

ract

ion

cap1 cap2

cap3

cap4

AggregatedCapability?

ActionCategory? Properties?

Limits of current approaches (BP Abstraction)

46

Aggregation Technique Aggregated Capability

Elimination of Activities [Reichert] No Capability

Using Structural Patterns [Reichert, Eshuis, Polyvyanyy ] No Capability

Similarity Measures [Smirnov1] No Capability

Lexical Relationship between Words [Leopold] Activity Labels only

Using Meronymy Trees [Smirnov2] Activity Labels only

Propagation of IOPEs [Vulcu] IOPE

Business Capability Aggregation Algorithm Business Capability

[Reichert]M.Reichertetal.,Enablingper- sonalized visualizationoflargebusinessprocessesthroughparameterizable views.SAC2012[Eshuis]R.Eshuis etal.Transactional processviews.OTM2011[Polyvyanyy]A.Polyvyanyy etal.,ReducingcomplexityoflargeEPCs.GI2008[Smirnov1]S.Smirnovetal.Asemanticapproachforbusinessprocessmodelabstraction.CAiSE2011[Smirnov12]S.Smirnovetal.Meronymy-basedaggregationofactivitiesinbusinessprocessmodels.ER2010[Vulcu]G.Vulcu etal.Semantically-enabledBusinessProcessModelsDiscovery.IJBPIM2011[Leopold]H.Leopold etal.,Simplifying process modelabstraction:Techniques for generating modelnames.Inf.Syst., 2014

Chap.2p.47

Determining the Action Category

47

cap2

cap3

cap4cap1

ActionCategory=LowestCommonAncestorofalltheActionCategories ofthecomponentcapabilities.


WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:BusinessProcessModelOverview:DeterminingtheCapabilityofaProcessModelUsingOntologies.BIS2013

Chap.4p.109

Determining the Properties

48

• Idea: propagate the properties starting from initial node to the end node.

• Each fired node introduces some changes on the propagated properties.

• The set of propagated attributes is marked on the edges of the model.

• Valid for all basic workflow patterns è I use the token propagation game similar to colored PetriNets


WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:BusinessProcessModelOverview:DeterminingtheCapabilityofaProcessModelUsingOntologies.BIS2013

Chap.4p.112


49

1

2

3


Chap.4p.123

50

Objective:• Assess the usefulness of the

approach by end-users?

Participants:• 5 experts: 2 system architects, 1

project manager, 1 IT Engineer, and 1 Consultant and trainer

Approach (1 hour per participant)• Introduction• Manual aggregation• Demo of the tool support• Open discussion

Evaluation: Interviews with domain experts

Results:Positive feedback+ Promising direction towards users understanding (influenced by the tool support)

+ Use of ontologies is widely accepted in industry

+ Results of the aggregations can be used for generating the documentation of processes

Negative feedback- The proposed work needs to be adapted to currently used modeling languages to be adopted

Thisworkhasbeensubmittedto:WassimDerguech,EdwardCurry,SamiBhiri.AggregationofBusinessCapabilities:DeterminingtheActionsandPropertiesofKnowledge-CentricBusinessProcesses,ACMTrans.Internet Technology(underreview)

Chap.4p.124

Summary

51

Business Capability

Meta-Model

C2 C3





- Aggregationalgorithm- ColoredPetriNetforsteps’validation- Interviewwithdomainexperttoassessusefullness

C1








Outline

53

Reuse-oriented technique Integration of Business Cap. Quick Design Compact Model

Most BP repositories Labels,textualdescription(+semanticannotations) N/A Not Fulfilled

Placeholders Refinement: Late Modeling

Labels + textualdescriptions Not Fulfilled Fulfilled

Hierarchical ReferenceModels

Captured but not linked to the model Part. Fulfilled Fulfilled

Configurable Process Models

Captured in terms of questions but manually maintained

Fulfilled Fulfilled

Limits of current approaches (BP Reuse)

Thisworkhasbeenacceptedforpublicationin:WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri,EdwardCurry:TechniquesforReuseinBusinessProcessModelinginPublicAdministration.Government3.0-NextGenerationGovernmentTechnologyInfrastructureandServices(toappear)

Chap.2p.67

54

Limits of current approaches (BP Reuse)

Thisworkhasbeenacceptedforpublicationin:WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri,EdwardCurry:TechniquesforReuseinBusinessProcessModelinginPublicAdministration.Government3.0-NextGenerationGovernmentTechnologyInfrastructureandServices(toappear)

Reuse-oriented technique Integration of Business Cap. Quick Design Compact Model

Most BP repositories Labels,textualdescription(+semanticannotations) N/A Not Fulfilled

Placeholders Refinement: Late Modeling

Labels + textualdescriptions Not Fulfilled Fulfilled

Hierarchical ReferenceModels

Captured but not linked to the model Part. Fulfilled Fulfilled

Configurable Process Models

Captured in terms of questions but manually maintained

Fulfilled Fulfilled

Business Capability-annotated ConfigrableProcess Models

Integrated + automatically generated

Automated algorithm merges in few milliseconds

Fulfilled

Chap.2p.67

Configurable Business Process Models

55

X-Rayvariant Advancedvariant

ConfigurableProcess Model

Register for checking

Check documents

Advanced check of goodsX-Ray scan

X-Ray Advanced

Integrated representation of multiple process variants for achieving the same goal in a given domain, which can be configured for a specific setting, leading to an individualized process model.

commonality

=variability

+ variationpoint

common practice forX-Ray checking of goods


Check documents

X-Ray Scan

common practice foradvanced checking of goods


Check documents

Advanced check of goods

[AdaptedfromM.LaRosa2009]

56

X-Rayvariant Advancedvariant

ConfigurableProcess Model


Check documents

Advanced check of goodsX-Ray scan

X-Ray Advanced

Integrated representation of multiple process variants for achieving the same goal in a given domain, which can be configured for a specific setting, leading to an individualized process model.

=+ variationpoint

common practice forX-Ray checking of goods


Check documents

X-Ray Scan

common practice foradvanced checking of goods


Check documents

Advanced check of goods

[AdaptedfromM.LaRosa2009]

Behaviour Subsumption:Output model shouldsubsume the behaviour of allinput models1Traceability: Elements of

the resulting model can be traced back to their original model1

Reversability: Resulting models can generate input models (as well as new ones)1

Configurable Business Process Models

1 LaRosaM.etal.,BusinessProcessModelMerging:AnApproachtoBusinessProcessConsolidation.ACMTrans.Softw.Eng.Methodol.2013

Chap.6p.152

57

Step 1/4: Identification of common elements

• Events have the same label• Distributional Semantics

can be used in case labels are not identical

• Functions have the same action category• I assume that models are

annotated with concepts from the same domain ontologies

• Otherwise ontology matching is required

Solution:Creatingconfigurablemodelsfrombusinesscapability-annotatedbusinessprocessmodels

Chap.6p.163

58

Step 2/4: creating configurable capabilities

:CHKRequestByManager_Cap_Aacmm:Capability ;cmm:achievesbt:CHKTravelRequestByManager;bt:decision bt:accept ,bt:reject.

+ =CHKRequestbyManager

CHKRequestbyManager

CHKRequestbyManager

:CHKRequestByManager_Cap_Macmm:Capability ;cmm:achievesbt:CHKTravelRequestByManager;bt:decision bt:accept ,bt:reject,bt:adjust.

:CHKRequestByManager_Cap_AMacap:ConfigurableCapability ;cmm:achievesbt:CHKTravelRequestByManager;bt:decision [acmm:ConfigurableValue ;

cmm:hasOption :option1,:option2.

:option1cmm:hasValuebt:accept ,bt:reject.

:option2cmm:hasValue bt:accept,bt:reject,bt:adjust.].


Chap.6p.166

59

Step 3/4: Resolving syntactic issues

EPCRule:Eventnodeshaveasingleincoming/outgoingnode

EPCRule:Eventnodeshaveasingleincoming/outgoingnode


Chap.6p.169

60

Step 4/4: Reducing Connector chains


Chap.6p.171

• Objective: Measure the time required for merging process variants and the compression rate gained after applying the algorithm

• Methodology [La Rosa 2013]: 1. Measure the total number of nodes of input models2. Merge models and measure the required time (without interruption) 3. Measure the number of nodes of the resulting merged model before & after the

reduction

• Dataset [Gottschalk CAiSE09]: 4 real world business processes from Dutch municipalities:

1. Acknowledging an unborn child2. Registering a newborn3. Marriage4. Issuing a death certificate

• Each process has 5 variants è 5 x 4 = 20 models– Available in Protos [Protos] modelling notation è translated manually into EPC

61

[LaRosa2013]LaRosaM.etal.,BusinessProcessModelMerging:AnApproachtoBusinessProcessConsolidation.ACMTrans.Softw.Eng.Meth.2013[GottschalkCAiSE09]GottschalkF.etal.,ConfigurableProcessModels:ExperiencesfromaMunicipalityCaseStudy.CAiSE 2009[Protos]Protos ispartofPallasAthena'sBPMtoolsetBPM|one

Evaluation: Execution time and compression rate

Chap.6p.177

62

n Compression rate è Around 50%

n Execution Time è Millisecondsincontrastto130manhourformerging25%ofanenterpriseprocessmodels[LaRosa2010].

n Complexity è O(|S|*|N|2) where |S| is the number of the input models and |N| is the total number of nodes of the largest model.

Input sizeOutput size

before reduction

Output sizeafter

reduction

Execution time (ms)

P1 190 (29+56+52+29+24) 131 (31%) 71 (62%) 157P2 347(63+84+73+57+70) 276 (20%) 180 (48%) 235P3 507(76+127+127+114+63) 298 (41%) 214 (57%) 407P4 355(56+111+91+67+30) 266 (25%) 160 (54%) 282

[LaRosa2010]LaRosaM.etal.:MergingBusinessProcessModels.OTM2010Thisworkhasbeenpublishedin:WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:AnAutomationSupportforCreatingConfigurableProcessModels.WISE2011WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:MergingBusinessProcessVariants.BIS2011WassimDerguech,FengGao,SamiBhiri:ConfigurableProcessModelsforLogisticsCaseStudyforCustomsClearanceProcesses.BPM’11Workshops

Evaluation: Execution time and compression rate

Chap.6p.177

Chap.6p.174


63

1

2


Chap.6p.176

64

Objective:• Assess the usefulness of the

approach by end-users?

Participants:• 5 experts: 2 system architects, 1

project manager, 1 IT Engineer, and 1 Consultant and trainer

Approach (1 hour per participant)• Introduction• Manual merge• Demo of the tool support• Open discussion

Evaluation: Interviews with domain experts

Results:Positive feedback+ All experts are aware of the use of reference models, but configuring them from an IT perspective

+ Small models can be merged easily but large ones need support à the tool support was very appreciated

Neutral feedback+- Full automation is not always needed

Negative feedback- Single capability ontology was pointed as a weak point

Chap.6p.180

Objectives and Requirements

65

Business Capability

Meta-Model

C2 C3





- Algorithmforcreatingconfigurableprocessmodelswithcapabilities asconfigurationoptions

- Compressionratearound50%- Executiontimeinfewms- Evaluatedviainterviewswith

domainexperts

C1








Outline

Summary of Research Contributions

C3 - Business capability aggregation algorithm for determining the business capability of a process model

• Steps of the algorithm are verified for basic workflow patterns using PetriNets• Usefulness of the approach is evaluated via interviews with domain experts

67

C2 C3

C4

C1

C1- Businesscapabilitymetamodel• Modelconstructsarevalidatedviaanontological

evaluation• Intuitiveappealofthemodelisevaluatedviainterviews

withdomainexperts

C2- Validationoftheapplicabilityofformalconceptanalysisfortime-efficientindexinganddiscoveryofbusinesscapabilitities

• Quantitativeevaluationshowstheindexinganddiscoveryperformsinlessthan200msoverasetof5000sensorcapabilitites

C4- Algorithmfordesigningconfigurableprocessmodelscapturingconfigurationoptionsasbusinesscapabilityparameters

• Createsmodelsviamergeoperationinfewmsandreachacompressionrateof50%• Usefulnessoftheapproachisevaluatedviainterviewswithdomainexperts

Resultsofthisworkhavebeenpublishedin7conferences,2Workshops,1Journal,and1BookChapters

Limitations

C3. Business Capability Aggregation• Withoutbusinesscapabilityannotations,thealgorithmlimitsthe

resultstoactivitylabels• Theaggregationscanbecomputedonlyforwellstructuredmodels

68

C2 C3

C4

C1C1.BusinessCapabilityModelling:• BusinessCapabilitiesdescribeonlycoarse-grained

semantics,notapplicableinservicescomposition

C2.BusinessCapabilityIndexingandDiscovery• LimitedFCAscalingoperations,notusingalltypesof

properties

C4.BusinessCapabilityinConfigurableProcessModels• Allinputprocessmodelshavetobeannotatedwiththesamecapabilityontology

Future Research Directions

C3. On Business Capability Aggregation• Extend the approach to evaluate other aspects such as the cost of

processes

69

C2 C3

C4

C1C1.BusinessCapabilityModelling:• Inferringothertypesofrelationsbetween

capabilities• Automaticgenerationofcapabilitiesofservicesand

processesfromexistingdescriptions• Documentationgeneration

C2.CapabilityIndexingandDiscovery• Maintainabilityoftheindexingstructure

C4.BusinessCapabilityinConfigurableProcessModels• CovertheentirecycleofBusinessCapability-drivenconfiguration• Processminingforrecommendingconfigurationoptions

This work has been published in

C2.OnCapabilityIndexingandDiscovery1. WassimDerguech,Souleiman Hasan,SamiBhiri,EdwardCurry:Organizing

CapabilitiesUsingFormalConceptAnalysis.WETICE20132. WassimDerguech,Sami Bhiri,Souleiman Hasan,EdwardCurry:Using Formal

ConceptAnalysisforOrganizingandDiscoveringSensorCapabilities.ComputerJournal,2015(nominatedforbestpaperaward2016)

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C1.OnBusinessCapabilityModelling:1. WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:Modelling,interlinkingand

discoveringcapabilities.AICCSA2013(bestpaper)2. WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:CapabilityModelling - Caseof

LogisticsCapabilities.BusinessProcessManagementWorkshops2012

3. SamiBhiri,WassimDerguech,Maciej Zaremba:WebServiceCapabilityMetaModel.WEBIST2012

4. SamiBhiri,WassimDerguech,Maciej Zaremba:ModellingCapabilitiesasAttribute-FeaturedEntities.WEBIST(SelectedPapers)2012

This work has been published in

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C4.OnConfigurableProcessModelsDesign1. WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri,EdwardCurry:TechniquesforReusein

BusinessProcessModelinginPublicAdministration.Government3.0- NextGenerationGovernmentTechnologyInfrastructureandServices(toappear)

2. WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:AnAutomationSupportforCreatingConfigurableProcessModels.WISE2011

3. WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:MergingBusinessProcessVariants.BIS20114. WassimDerguech,Feng Gao,SamiBhiri:ConfigurableProcessModelsfor

Logistics:StudyforCustomsClearanceProcesses.BPM’11Workshops

C3.OnBusinessCapabilityAggregation1. WassimDerguech,SamiBhiri:BusinessProcessModel

Overview:DeterminingtheCapabilityofaProcessModelUsingOntologies.BIS2013

Other related publications

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C11. Wassim Derguech:Towardsaframeworkforbusinessprocessmodelsreuse.CAiSE DoctoralConsortium2010

2. Wassim Derguech,GabrielaVulcu,andSamiBhiri.Anindexingstructureformaintainingconfigurableprocessmodels.EMMSAD,2010

3. GabrielaVulcu,SamiBhiri,Wassim Derguech,andMariaIbanez.Semantically-enabledbusinessprocessmodelsdiscovery.IJBPIM2011

4. Wassim Derguech andSamiBhiri.Reuse-orientedbusinessprocessmodeleing basedonahierachical structure.BPM’10Workshops