A method for providing a search result list. The method includes receiving a search request from a searcher (12). In a database of search listings (24) in which each search listing is associated with an advertiser (30) and includes at least one search term and a bid amount by the advertiser, search listings generating a match with the search request are identified. A predetermined number of identified search listings (38) are selected according to bid amount for display to the searcher (16). The identified search listings are arranged for display in a random order as the search result list. The search result list is then communicated to the searcher.

Improved system and method for influencing a position on a search result list generated by a computer network search engine

Business Process Management (BPM) research resulted in a plethora of methods, techniques, and tools to support the design, enactment, management, and analysis of operational business processes. This survey aims to structure these results and provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in BPM. In BPM the concept of a process model is fundamental. Process models may be used to configure information systems, but may also be used to analyze, understand, and improve the processes they describe. Hence, the introduction of BPM technology has both managerial and technical ramifications and may enable significant productivity improvements, cost savings, and flow-time reductions. The practical relevance of BPM and rapid developments over the last decade justify a comprehensive survey.

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Business Process Management: A Comprehensive Survey

The Workflow Patterns Initiative was established with the aim of delineating the fundamental requirements that arise during business process modelling on a recurring basis and describe them in an imperative way. The first deliverable of this research project was a set of twenty patterns describing the control-flow perspective of workflow systems. Since their release, these patterns have been widely used by practitioners, vendors and academics alike in the selection, design and development of workflow systems [vdAtHKB03]. This paper presents the first systematic review of the original twenty control-flow patterns and provides a formal description of each of them in the form of a Coloured Petri-Net (CPN) model. It also identifies twenty three new patterns relevant to the control-flow perspective. Detailed context conditions and evaluation criteria are presented for each pattern and their implementation is assessed in fourteen commercial offerings including workflow and case handling systems, business process modelling formalisms and business process execution languages.

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Workflow control-flow patterns : a revised view

Process mining techniques use event data to discover process models, to check the conformance of predefined process models, and to extend such models with information about bottlenecks, decisions, and resource usage. These techniques are driven by observed events rather than hand-made models. Event logs are used to learn and enrich process models. By replaying history using the model, it is possible to establish a precise relationship between events and model elements. This relationship can be used to check conformance and to analyze performance. For example, it is possible to diagnose deviations from the modeled behavior. The severity of each deviation can be quantified. Moreover, the relationship established during replay and the timestamps in the event log can be combined to show bottlenecks. These examples illustrate the importance of maintaining a proper alignment between event log and process model. Therefore, we elaborate on the realization of such alignments and their application to conformance checking and performance analysis. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Replaying history on process models for conformance checking and performance analysis

Companies increasingly adopt process-aware information systems (PAISs), which offer promising perspectives for more flexible enterprise computing. The emergence of different process support paradigms and the lack of methods for comparing existing approaches enabling PAIS changes have made the selection of adequate process management technology difficult. This paper suggests a set of 18 change patterns and seven change support features to foster the systematic comparison of existing process management technology in respect to process change support. While the proposed patterns are all based on empirical evidence from several large case studies, the suggested change support features constitute typical functionalities provided by flexible PAISs. Based on the proposed change patterns and features, we provide a detailed analysis and evaluation of selected approaches from both academia and industry. The presented work will not only facilitate the selection of technologies for realizing flexible PAISs, but can also be used as a reference for implementing flexible PAISs.

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Change patterns and change support features - Enhancing flexibility in process-aware information systems

In the main, the attention of workflow researchers and workflow developers has focussed on the process perspective, i.e., control-flow. As a result, issues associated with the resource perspective, i.e., the people and machines actually doing the work, have been largely neglected. Although the process perspective is of most significance, appropriate consideration of the resource perspective is essential for successful implementation of workflow technology. Previous work has identified recurring, generic constructs in the control-flow and data perspectives, and presented them in the form of control-flow and data patterns. The next logical step is to describe workflow resource patterns that capture the various ways in which resources are represented and utilised in workflows. These patterns include a number of distinct groupings such as push patterns (“the system pushes work to a worker”) and pull patterns (“the worker pulls work from the system”) to describe the many ways in which work can be distributed. By delineating these patterns in a form that is independent of specific workflow technologies and modelling languages, we are able to provide a comprehensive treatment of the resource perspective and we subsequently use these patterns as the basis for a detailed comparison of a number of commercially available workflow management systems.

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Workflow resource patterns: identification, representation and tool support

In this paper we examine the suitability of the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) for business process modelling, using the Workflow Patterns as an evaluation framework. The Workflow Patterns are a collection of patterns developed for assessing control-flow, data and resource capabilities in the area of Process Aware Information Systems (PAISs). In doing so, we provide a comprehensive evaluation of the capabilities of BPMN, and its strengths and weaknesses when utilised for business process modelling. The analysis provided for BPMN is part of a larger effort aiming at an unbiased and vendor-independent survey of the suitability and the expressive power of some mainstream process modelling languages. It is a sequel to previous work in which languages including BPEL and UML Activity Diagrams were evaluated.

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On the suitability of BPMN for business process modelling

Business processes provide a means of coordinating interactions between workers and organisations in a structured way. However the dynamic nature of the modern business environment means these processes are subject to a increasingly wide range of variations and must demonstrate flexible approaches to dealing with these variations if they are to remain viable. The challenge is to provide flexibility and offer process support at the same time. Many approaches have been proposed in literature and some of these approaches have been implemented in flexible workflow management systems. However, a comprehensive overview of the various approaches has been missing. In this paper, we take a deeper look into the various ways in which flexibility can be achieved and we propose an extensive taxonomy of flexibility. This taxonomy is subsequently used to evaluate a selection of systems and to discuss how the various forms of flexibility fit together.

Process flexibility: A survey of contemporary approaches

Topics covered include: The fundamentals of business process modeling, including workflow patterns, an in-depth treatment of process flexibility, including approaches to dealing with on-the-fly changes, unexpected exceptions, and constraint-based processes, Technological aspects of a modern BPM environment, including its architecture, process design environment, process engine, resource handler and other support services,a comparative insight into current approaches to business process modeling and execution such as BPMN, EPCs, BPEL, jBPM, OpenWFE, and Enhydra Shark, process mining, verification, integration and configuration; and case studies in health care and screen business. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the field of Business Process Management (BPM) with a focus on Business Process Automation. It achieves this by covering a wide range of topics, both introductory and advanced, illustrated through and grounded in the YAWL (Yet Another Workflow Language) language and corresponding open-source support environment. In doing so it provides the reader with a deep, timeless, and vendor-independent understanding of the essential ingredients of business process automation. The BPM field is in a continual state of flux and is subject to both the ongoing proposal of new standards and the introduction of new tools and technology. Its fundamentals however are relatively stable and this book aims to equip the reader with both a thorough understanding of them and the ability to apply them to better understand, assess and utilize new developments in the BPM field. As a consequence of its topic-based format and the inclusion of a broad range of exercises, the book is eminently suitable for use in tertiary education, both at the undergraduate and the postgraduate level, for students of computer science and information systems. BPM researchers and practitioners will also find it a valuable resource. The book serves as a unique reference to a varied and comprehensive collection of topics that are relevant to the business process life-cycle.

Nick Russell

Papers

Workflow control-flow patterns : a revised view

Workflow resource patterns: identification, representation and tool support

On the suitability of BPMN for business process modelling

Process flexibility: A survey of contemporary approaches

Modern Business Process Automation: YAWL and its Support Environment