DSV SU/IbisSoft1
Adaptive Case Management as a Process of Construction of and
Movement in a State Space
Ilia Bider - IbisSoft/DSV SU, Stockholm, SwedenAmin Jalali, Jens Ohlsson- DSV SU Stockholm, Sweden
Pre-proceedings: http://bit.ly/1elNT9e
Presentation at the workshop on “Adaptive Case Management and Other Non-workflow approaches to BPM”, Graz, Austria, September
2013 http://acm2013.blogs.dsv.su.se/
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Goal with presentation
Outline a theory/model that can be used for analysis, comparison and development of ACM systems.
Why do we need a theory
1. “There is nothing more practical than a good theory” - Kurt Levin
2. Existing theories are activities/task based, which does not satisfies the needs of ACM
Why the latter is not satisfactory?
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Activity-based CM theory outline VS …
From “Case handling: a new paradigm for business process support”
Activity is an integrated part and cannot be excluded from the CM/ACM system
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… VS Non-activity-based CM outline
A CM system does not mandatory need to support activities/tasks/ operations
Supporting progress of reaching goals and producing results has enough value on its own
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Corresponds to practice -form/template based CM
ApplicationForm
Decision-makingForm
Decisiondelivery
Form
Application/Decision-making/
Decision DeliveryForm
Quite common in Swedish municipalities and other public offices
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Example of a form
How a theory for form based CM and ACM should look like?
A form for BBiC case – social office of a Swedish municipalities
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Background for the theory: state-oriented view on business processes
Main notions (borrowed from the dynamical systems theory)
• Process instance - a trajectory in a multidimensional state space (+time)
• Process type/model – a set of allowed trajectories in the state space (+time)
• Goal - an end point of an allowed trajectory
• Activity –movement in the state space directed towards the goal
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Illustration of the main notions
• For each item Ordered = Delivered
• To pay = Total + Freight + Tax• Ordered > Delivered
shipment
• To pay > Invoiced invoicing
• Invoiced = To pay• Paid = Invoiced
State space
Goal definition
Activities
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Advantages of state-oriented view
• Allows both imperative and constraint-based definition of a process-type.
• Imperative – specify a set of valid trajectories via chain of movements
• Constraint-based – forbid movements between certain points of the state space
• Provide a tool of determining the progress achieved in the process instance independently of how it was historically achieved
• Can serve as a basis for developing process support system that does not understand the notion of activity. Defining a process state and its visualization give the user possibility to track the progress of each case
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Using state-oriented view as a theoretical backing of the form-based CM/ACM
• Possible to use in the following manner:• Forms – visualization of the state space.• Fields – visualization of dimensions
• Problems with Adaptive Case Management : • there can be many different forms related to the process
type, while only few is used for any particular instance/case
• The same form can be used multiple times
• Solution – consider the state space not fixed but constructed on the fly during the process instance/case life span
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Example: Course occasion in DSV SU
Forms to fill during preparation and giving a course
Could be a first occasion of a completely new course or a regular occasion of an existing course
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Example of a form
Form for lecture/lesson
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A course case in progress
Legend:• Blue – filled form• Green – partially filled form• White – form that can be filled• Gray – form that cannot be filled as yet
Restrictions on filling forms
Form synchronizations
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Synchronization
Form for lecture/lesson
Synchronized form for teacher feedback
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Specifying restrictions
A matrix that specifies dependencies between the forms
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Specifying synchronization
A matrix that specifies synchronization between the forms
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Interpretation fromstate-oriented view
Each form specifies a fragment of the state space
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Interpretation from state-oriented view• Field - a dimension of a state space
• Form – a fragment of the state space
• Picking a form - adding a fragment to the overall state-space of the given process instance/case
• Filling a form - moving in the sub-space defined by a form
• Form synchronization - restrictions on construction of the state space (an example – there can be others)
• Restrictions on the order of filling forms – restrictions on movements in the overall state-space
Summary handling a case in ACM is constructing and moving in the state space
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Possible usage & work to-do
Usage:
• Building ACM systems and/or tools for ACM system development
• Analyzing the existing ACM tools and systems, e.g.:• Whether they support form synchronization• Whether they supports restrictions on movement and
which types
To-do:• List of useful restrictions on state-space construction and
movement (similar to the workflow patterns)
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Thank you for your attention!
Q & A
Ilia Bider, DSV SU/IbisSoftEmail: [email protected]
