Showing papers on "Business Process Model and Notation published in 2021"

IoT‐fog‐cloud based architecture for smart systems: Prototypes of autism and COVID‐19 monitoring systems

Abstract: Making resources closer to the user might facilitate the integration of new technologies such as edge, fog, cloud computing, and big data. However, this brings many challenges shall be overridden when distributing a real?time stream processing, executing multiapplication in a safe multitenant environment, and orchestrating and managing the services and resources into a hybrid fog/cloud federation. In this article, first, we propose a business process model and notation (BPMN) extension to enable the Internet of Things (IoT)?aware business process (BP) modeling. The proposed extension takes into consideration the heterogeneous IoT and non?IoT resources, resource capacities, quality of service constraints, and so forth. Second, we present a new IoT?fog?cloud based architecture, which (i) supports the distributed inter and intralayer communication as well as the real?time stream processing in order to treat immediately IoT data and improve the entire system reliability, (ii) enables the multiapplication execution within a multitenancy architecture using the single sign?on technique to guarantee the data integrity within a multitenancy environment, and (iii) relies on the orchestration and federation management services for deploying BP into the appropriate fog and/or cloud resources. Third, we model, by using the proposed BPMN 2.0 extension, smart autistic child and coronavirus disease 2019 monitoring systems. Then we propose the prototypes for these two smart systems in order to carry out a set of extensive experiments illustrating the efficiency and effectiveness of our work.

A systematic literature review of process modeling guidelines and their empirical support

Abstract: Process modeling guidelines are a valuable instrument for increasing the quality of process models. Since finding and selecting suitable guidelines are challenging, this paper aims to find and select suitable guidelines because they are scattered across the many studies of the literature. Also, not all of them are supported by empirical studies.,The authors conducted a systematic literature review to collect and analyze process modeling guidelines present in the literature and the empirical evidence that supports them.,The authors investigated a total of 793 articles and identified a total of 45 process modeling guidelines in five different categories. For each of these guidelines, the authors report empirical evidence together with corresponding measures, such as comprehension accuracy and error probability.,Compared to the prior literature reviews on process model quality and process modeling guidelines, this article extends current knowledge by analyzing the empirical evidence and variables associated with each guideline. This analysis provides guidance for practitioners and scholars on which guidelines to use while modeling a process and perform further research on.

The Role of Industry 4.0 and BPMN in the Arise of Condition-Based and Predictive Maintenance: A Case Study in the Automotive Industry

Abstract: This article addresses the evolution of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) in the automotive industry, exploring its contribution to a shift in the maintenance paradigm. To this end, we firstly present the concepts of predictive maintenance (PdM), condition-based maintenance (CBM), and their applications to increase awareness of why and how these concepts are revolutionizing the automotive industry. Then, we introduce the business process management (BPM) and business process model and notation (BPMN) methodologies, as well as their relationship with maintenance. Finally, we present the case study of the Renault Cacia, which is developing and implementing the concepts mentioned above.

Process modeling for smart factories: using science mapping to understand the strategic themes, main challenges and future trends

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationships between process modeling and Industry 4.0, the strategic themes and the most used process modeling language in smart factories. The study also presents the growth of the field of study worldwide, the perspectives, main challenges, trends and suggestions for future works. Design/methodology/approach: To do this, a science mapping was performed using the software SciMAT, supported by VOS viewer. Findings: The results show that the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Petri Net are the most relevant languages to smart manufacturing. The authors also highlighted the need to develop new languages or extensions capable of representing the dynamism, interoperability and multiple technologies of smart factories. Originality/value: It was possible to identify the most used process modeling languages in smart environments and understand how these languages assist control and manage smart processes. Besides, the authors highlighted challenges, new perspectives and the need for future works in the field.

Model-Driven Engineering for Multi-Party Business Processes on Multiple Blockchains

Abstract: As a disruptive technology, the blockchain is continuously finding novel application contexts, bringing new opportunities and radical changes. In this paper, we use blockchain as a communication infrastructure to support multi-party business processes. In particular, through smart contracts specifically generated by the mentioned business process, it is possible to derive a trustable infrastructure enabling the interaction among parties. Moreover, the emergence of different blockchain technologies, satisfying different characteristics, gives the possibility to support the same business process dealing with different non-functional needs. In this paper, we propose a novel engineering methodology supported by a practical framework called Multi-Chain. It permits to derive, using a model-driven strategy, a blockchain-based infrastructure, that can be deployed over a specific blockchain technology (e.g. Ethereum or Hyperledger Fabric). The objective is to permit the single definition and multiple deployments of the business process, to deliver the same functionalities, but satisfying different non-functional needs. In such a way, organisations willing to cooperate can select the multi-party business process and the blockchain technology they would like to use to satisfy their needs. Using Multi-Chain, they will be able to automatically derive from a BPMN choreography diagram a blockchain infrastructure ready to be used. This overcomes the need to get acquainted with many details of the specific technology.

Dynamic Multilevel Workflow Management Concept for Industrial IoT Systems

Abstract: Workflow management is implemented in manufacturing at many levels. The nature of processes varies at each level, hindering the use of a standard modeling or implementation solution. The creation of a flexible workflow management framework that overarches the heterogeneous business process levels is challenging. Still, one of the promises of the Industry 4.0 initiative is precisely this: to provide easy-to-use models and solutions that enable efficient execution of enterprise targets. By addressing this challenge, this article proposes a workflow execution model that integrates information and control flows of these levels while keeping their hierarchy. The overall model builds on the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) for modeling at the enterprise level and recipe modeling based on colored Petri net (CPN) at the production level. Models produced with both alternatives are implemented and executed in a framework supported by an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). Loosely coupled, late-bound system elements are connected through the Arrowhead framework, which is built upon the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) concept. To prove its feasibility, this article presents the practical application of the model via an automotive production scenario. Note to Practitioners —The methodology detailed in this article can serve as a basis for experts who are dealing with industrial workflows. Reacting to the requirements of Industry 4.0, i.e., the virtualization, decentralization, modularity, real-time capability, and service orientation, this article provides a concept that can answer all the defined criteria. First, it adopts a new two-level approach to workflow management, which makes the understanding and control of workflows easier, enhancing transparency. Furthermore, it demonstrates how—even completely different—applications and modeling languages can be integrated into a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The presented composition and the used tools are all tried and tested. Behind the solution described in this article, there is a genuine, working code wherewith the presented end-to-end workflow management can be achieved. Following the methodology detailed in this article, the readers can construct their workflow management composition. In order to report on the performance of the created solution, this article presents different measurement compositions that allow the investigation of the essential components separately, demonstrating the scalability and temporal parameters.

An end-to-end approach and tool for BPMN process discovery

Abstract: Information systems daily register a large amount of data in event logs. All these data can be used for the organizations to automatically discover their process models. However, the automatic construction of simple process models with consistently high and balanced fitness and precision remains a challenging task, which has attracted the attention in the scientific and organizational communities to develop suitable methods for creating high-quality business process models. In this paper, we present an approach to discover the model of a business process based on the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard from its behavior observed in event logs. Particularly, we propose: (1) a method to detect outlier behavior in a given event log; (2) a set of heuristic rules to discover join gateways associated with the closing of each of the split gateways in conformance with the rules of BPMN models; and (3) P-Miner, a tool that realizes our proposed approach to automatically discover and visualize process models. We use a state of the art process discovery technique as a basis for discovering XOR/AND gateways in the models. A set of experiments was carried out on real and artificial event logs for evaluating our proposal, considering the fitness and precision metrics to determine the quality of the built models. The amount of gateways in the resulting BPMN model and the time required to build the process models were estimated. The results reveal that the process models derived by our proposed approach exhibited competitive and more balanced results in fitness and precision than those derived with other discovery techniques.

Decentralized collaborative business process execution using blockchain

Abstract: Blockchain technology enables several untrustworthy parties to execute inter-organizational business processes in a tamper-proof manner. Existing approaches are based on smart contract code generation. Although the smart contract immutability guarantees that the process model is followed by each participant, any change in the process model makes the existing process instance smart contract not compliant with the process model and therefore, the deployment of a new smart contract becomes a requirement. In this paper, we propose CoBuP, a decentralized Collaborative Business Process execution architecture using blockchain. To address the inflexibility issue, this paper presents an interpreter of BPMN process models, supporting the instantiating, execution, monitoring of process instances. For this reason, one generic smart contract is deployed once, which helps generate a process instance, create BPMN elements by invoking the process instance predefined functions, and dynamically update the adaptation of a process at run time. For validation purposes, two use cases have permitted to carry out different experiments that demonstrate the technical feasibility of our approach. The obtained results of the experimental evaluation shows that our approach cost is similar or lower than that of the existing approaches.

A New Framework to Address BIM Interoperability in the AEC Domain from Technical and Process Dimensions

Abstract: Building information modelling (BIM) is an integrated informational process and plays a key role in enabling efficient planning and control of a project in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) domain. Industry foundation classes- (IFC-) based BIM allows building information to be interoperable among different BIM applications. Different stakeholders take different responsibilities in a project and therefore keep different types of information to meet project requirements. In this paper, the authors proposed and adopted a six-step methodology to support BIM interoperability between architectural design and structural analysis at both AEC project level and information level, in which (1) the intrinsic and extrinsic information transferred between architectural models and structural models was analyzed and demonstrated by a business process model and notation (BPMN) model that the authors developed; (2) the proposed technical routes with different combinations and their applications to different project delivery methods provided new instruments to stakeholders in industry for efficient and accurate decision making; (3) a new material-centered invariant signature with portability can improve information exchange between different data formats and models to support interoperable BIM applications; and (4) a newly developed formal material information representation and checking method was tested on a case study where its efficiency was demonstrated to outperform (i) proprietary representations and information checking method based on a manual operation, and (ii) the model view definition (MVD)-based information checking method. The proposed invariant signature-based material information representation and checking method brings a better efficiency for information transfer between architectural design and structural analysis, which can have significant positive effects on a project delivery due to the frequent and iterative update of a project design. This improves the information transfer and coordination between architects and structural engineers and therefore the efficiency of the whole project. The proposed method can be extended and applied to other application phases and functions such as cost estimation, scheduling, and energy analysis.

Knowledge-based engineering in the context of railway design by integrating BIM, BPMN, DMN and the methodology for knowledge-based engineering applications (MOKA)

Abstract: Designing railway infrastructure is a knowledge-intensive task. Although there are a number of mature design authoring systems available, their support for dynamically incorporating domain-specific engineering knowledge is very limited. At the same time, a standardized digital representation of railway engineering knowledge (such as building codes and best practice) does not exists. To overcome this deficiency, this paper proposes the use of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) to automate routine design tasks by considering multiple knowledge sources. In this scenario, KBE is used to support a Railway design authoring system. To ensure maximum transparency in the design of the developed KBE application, graphical ‘Business Process Model and Notation’ (BPMN) has been used in combination with ‘Decision Model and Notation’ (DMN) to formalize the underlying engineering knowledge. The KBE application has been developed according to the Methodology for Knowledge-Based Engineering Applications (MOKA). An evaluation of the BPMN/DMN approach shows that it meets up to 58% of the acceptance criteria found in the literature. In addition, BPMN and DMN can already be used in the early capture phase of MOKA and its workflows can be developed into an executable KBE application in the subsequent phases. The results of the test example discussed here show that time savings of up to 97.5% can be achieved in the execution of the KBE application.

Employing resilience engineering in eliciting software requirements for complex systems: experiments with the functional resonance analysis method (FRAM)

Abstract: Resilience engineering provides concepts and methods for assessing the ability of socio-technical systems to adjust their functioning before, during, or after changes or disturbances. As such, this field of study has great potential to contribute to software engineering—particularly for the requirements specification for information systems—that deals with variability, unpredictability, and adaptation in complex contexts. Despite software engineers’ efforts, the requirements phase is still challenging, especially in complex socio-technical systems. In these systems, the software must be more resilient and adaptable to deal with uncertain situations. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the contributions of resilience engineering to requirements engineering to identify software requirements for complex systems. Two experiments were performed with software professionals to produce requirements specifications in healthcare. The participants used information from the functional resonance analysis method (FRAM) compared to business process modeling notation (BPMN). Both experiments were supported by a systematic approach called MacKnight. This study indicates innovative strategies to gather resilient software requirements from FRAM models for complex systems.

IoT-Driven Workflows for Risk Management and Control of Beehives

Abstract: The internet of things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 technologies are becoming widely used in the field of apiculture to enhance honey production and reduce colony losses using connected scales combined with additional data, such as relative humidity and internal temperature. This paper exploits beehive weight measurements and builds appropriate business rules using two instruments. The first is an IoT fixed scale installed on one hive, taking rich continuous measurements, and used as a reference. The second is a portable nomad scale communicating with a smartphone and used for the remaining hives. A key contribution will be the run and triggering of a business process model based on apicultural business rules learned from experience and system observed events. Later, the evolution of the weight of each individual hive, obtained by either measurement or inference, will be associated with a graphical workflow diagram expressed with the business process model and notation (BPMN) language, and will trigger events that inform beekeepers to initiate relevant action. Finally, the BPMN processes will be transformed into executable models for model driven decision support. This contribution improves amateur and professional user-experience for honeybee keeping and opens the door for interoperability between the suggested model and other available simulations (weather, humidity, bee colony behavior, etc.).

Semantic Representation and Rule Based Patterns Discovery and Verification in eProcurement Business Processes for eGovernment.

Abstract: Italian Public Administrations are adopting formalisms to describe their internal Business workflows, so that public processes become validable according to current legislation, and shareable among different offices. One of the most recurring Business Cases in Public Administration is represented by e-Procurement, that is the purchase of assets, through Public funds and supported by digital instruments, of material resources to be used within the administration. Validating e-Procurement workflows, formalized through BPMN, is an important step to augment the Public Admnistration transparency and to verify the respect of current laws, especially in consideration of possible evolutions and changes in available technologies and legislation. In this paper an e-Procurement BPMN, focused on the procedures related to “Framework agreement” (“Accordo Quadro”), has been taken in consideration, and semantic technologies have been applied to annotate it and test its validity against an existing knowledge base. Semantic annotation has been carried out through an already existing tool, which has been exploited to identify the main element of the BPMN. Annotations of BPM have been carried out against the PublicContract ontology produced by OntoPia. The Linked Open Data offered by Regione Campania have been used to test and verify the BPMN, and a set of Prolog rule has been applied to the semantically annotated BPMN in order to further evaluate the performances of the Process.

Executing Distributed Healthcare and Research Processes - The HiGHmed Data Sharing Framework.

Abstract: Several standards and frameworks have been described in existing literature and technical manuals that contribute to solving the interoperability problem. Their data models usually focus on clinical data and only support healthcare delivery processes. Research processes including cross organizational cohort size estimation, approvals and reviews of research proposals, consent checks, record linkage and pseudonymization need to be supported within the HiGHmed medical informatics consortium. The open source HiGHmed Data Sharing Framework implements a distributed business process engine for executing arbitrary biomedical research and healthcare processes modeled and executed using BPMN 2.0 while exchanging information using FHIR R4 resources. The proposed reference implementation is currently being rolled out to eight university hospitals in Germany as well as a trusted third party and available open source under the Apache 2.0 license.

Supporting Data-Aware Processes with MERODE

Abstract: Most data-aware process modelling approaches have been developed from a process perspective and lack a full-fledged data modelling approach. In addition, the evaluation of data-centric process approaches reveals that, even though their value is acknowledged, their usability is a point of concern. This paper presents a data-aware process modelling approach combining full-fledged domain modelling based on UML class diagrams and state charts with BPMN. The proof-of-concept has been implemented using the MERODE code generator, linking the resulting prototype application to a Camunda BPM engine, making use of RESTful web-services. The proof of concept is evaluated against 20 requirements for data-aware processes and demonstrates that the majority of these are already satisfied by this out-of-the-box prototyping approach.

Comparative analysis of the main business process modeling methods: a bibliometric study

Abstract: The offer of business process modeling methodologies is quite extensive, making it difficult for scholars in the BPM area to choose properly. In this context, this paper has the objective to present the main modeling methodologies, with applications, examples and comparisons. A systematic bibliographic survey and the comparative analysis of these notations used in the implementation of BPM projects have been carried out. According to the bibliometric analysis, the modeling notations of the business process most portrayed in the works surveyed are: BPMN, UML, EPC and IDEF. From the construction of a consistent overview that allows the comparative analysis of the methodologies, in order to select the one that suits better its specificities it can be verified that, although they share the same objective, each notation has its specific characteristics. This study has the main purpose of providing a basis for the adequate indication of the application of studies in the field, especially those destined for papers, dissertations and theses.

Automatic derivation of conceptual database models from differently serialized business process models

Abstract: The existing tools that aim to derive data models from business process models are typically able to process the source models represented by one single notation and also serialized in one specific way. However, the standards (e.g., BPMN) enable different serialization formats and also provide serialization flexibility, which leads to various implementations of the standard in different modeling tools and results in differently serialized models in practice, which therefore significantly constraints usability of the existing model-driven tools. In this article, we present an approach to automatic derivation of conceptual database models from business process models represented by different notations, with particular focus on differently serialized process models. A deterministic rule-based approach is proposed to overcome the serialization specificities and to enable extraction of characteristic elements from differently serialized process models. Based on the proposed approach, we implemented an online web-based model-driven tool named AMADEOS, which is able to automatically derive conceptual database models from process models represented by different notations and also differently serialized. The experimental results show that the proposed approach and implemented tool enable successful extraction of specific elements from differently serialized process models and enable derivation of the target conceptual database models with very high completeness and precision.

Influence of diagram layout and scrolling on understandability of BPMN processes: an eye tracking experiment with BPMN diagrams

Abstract: Business process modeling is an important activity for developing software systems—especially within digitization projects and when realizing digital business models. Specifying requirements and building executable workflows is often done by using BPMN 2.0 process models. Although there are several style guides available for BPMN, e.g., by Silver and Richard (BPMN method and style, vol 2, Cody-Cassidy Press, Aptos, 2009), there has not been much empirical research done into the consequences of the diagram layout. In particular, layouts that require scrolling have not been investigated yet. The aim of this research is to establish layout guidelines for business process modeling that help business process modelers to create more understandable business process diagrams. For establishing benefits and penalties of different layouts, a controlled eye tracking experiment was conducted, in which data of 21 professional software developers was used. Our results show that horizontal layouts are less demanding and that as many diagram elements as possible should be put on the initially visible screen area because such diagram elements are viewed more often and longer. Additionally, diagram elements related to the reader’s task are read more often than those not relevant to the task. BPMN modelers should favor a horizontal layout and use a more complex snake or multi-line layout whenever the diagrams are too large to fit on one page in order to support BPMN model comprehension.

Trends on the Usage of BPMN 2.0 from Publicly Available Repositories

Abstract: Business Process Model and Notation is the de facto standard for graphically modelling business processes. Since its first release in 2004, it evolved until reaching the actual 2.0 version, which presents more than 85 elements. Despite the notation being rich in graphical elements, initial studies show that only a subset of the BPMN elements is actually used. This paper aims at investigating whether the BPMN vocabulary adopted nowadays by model designers shows some particular trends. We collected 25,590 models from six online repositories to conduct such an investigation, and we analysed them. We report and discuss the obtained results providing insights on the correlations in the BPMN vocabulary and the resulting complexity of BPMN models.

Using Free-Choice Nets for Process Mining and Business Process Management

Abstract: Free-choice nets, a subclass of Petri nets, have been studied for decades. They are interesting because they have many desirable properties normal Petri nets do not have and can be analyzed efficiently. Although the majority of process models used in practice are inherently free-choice, most users (even modeling experts) are not aware of free-choice net theory and associated analysis techniques. This paper discusses free-choice nets in the context of process mining and business process management. For example, state-of-the-art process discovery algorithms like the inductive miner produce process models that are free-choice. Also, hand-made process models using languages like BPMN tend to be free-choice because choice and synchronization are separated in different modeling elements. Therefore, we introduce basic notions and results for this important class of process models. Moreover, we also present new results for free-choice nets particularly relevant for process mining. For example, we elaborate on home clusters and lucency as closely-related and desirable correctness notions. We also discuss the limitations of free-choice nets in process mining and business process management, and suggest research directions to extend free-choice nets with non-local dependencies.

Sketch2BPMN: Automatic Recognition of Hand-Drawn BPMN Models

Abstract: Despite the widespread availability of process modeling tools, the first version of a process model is often drawn by hand on a piece of paper or whiteboard, especially when several people are involved in its elicitation. Though this has been found to be beneficial for the modeling task itself, it also creates the need to manually convert hand-drawn models afterward, such that they can be further used in a modeling tool. This manual transformation is associated with considerable time and effort and, furthermore, creates undesirable friction in the modeling workflow. In this paper, we alleviate this problem by presenting a technique that can automatically recognize and convert a sketch process model into a digital BPMN model. A key driver and contribution of our work is the creation of a publicly available dataset consisting of 502 manually annotated, hand-drawn BPMN models, covering 25 different BPMN elements. Based on this data set, we have established a neural network-based recognition technique that can reliably recognize and transform hand-drawn BPMN models. Our evaluation shows that our technique considerably outperforms available baselines and, therefore, provides a valuable basis to smoothen the modeling process.

Adaptive and Resilient Business Architecture for the Digital Age

Abstract: The process of enterprise digitalization has become in recent years unstoppable. In the global competition, enterprises have to use all the means available in order to be able to respond to competitors’ innovations or to be able to implement innovations that would take them ahead of the competition. With the rising complexity of the used business and the information technologies, usage of enterprise architecture becomes inevitable so that the business-IT alignment is maintained. In this chapter we describe a method how to develop a resilient and adaptive minimal business architecture so that business requirements can be clearly defined, their support by the functionality of applications evaluated and the missing support resolved. The method is illustrated with the generally accepted EA standards TOGAF/ArchiMate, UML and BPMN and its benefits are discussed. We also provide the reader with a meta-model that specifies how these standards in the discussed areas match together.

Using a Process Approach to Pandemic Planning: A Case Study

Abstract: The purpose of this article was to demonstrate the difference between a pandemic plan’s textual prescription and its effective processing using graphical notation. Before creating a case study of the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) of the Czech Republic’s pandemic plan, we conducted a systematic review of the process approach in pandemic planning and a document analysis of relevant public documents. The authors emphasized the opacity of hundreds of pages of text records in an explanatory case study and demonstrated the effectiveness of the process approach in reengineering and improving the response to such a critical situation. A potential extension to the automation and involvement of SMART technologies or process optimization through process mining techniques is presented as a future research topic.

Uncovering data-flow anomalies in BPMN-based process-driven applications

Abstract: Process-Driven Applications flourish through the interaction between an executable BPMN process model, human tasks, and external software services. All these components operate on shared process data, so it is even more important to check the correct data flow. However, data flow is in most cases not explicitly defined but hidden in model elements, form declarations, and program code. This paper elaborates on data-flow anomalies acting as indicators for potential errors and how such anomalies can be uncovered despite implicit and hidden data-flow definitions. By considering an integrated view, it goes beyond other approaches which are restricted to separate data-flow analysis of either process model or source code. The main idea is to merge call graphs representing programmed services into a control-flow representation of the process model, to label the resulting graph with associated data operations, and to detect anomalies in that labeled graph using a dedicated data-flow analysis. The applicability of the solution is demonstrated by a prototype designed for the Camunda BPM platform.