Agenda

1. Agenda • Challenges & Basic Notions • Part I: Large Process Models • Part II: Large Process Model Collections • Part III: Large Process Structures • References

2. Business Process RepositoriesBasic Challenge: Dealing with Large Model Collections

3. Business Process Repositories • Standard repository features • Check-in / check- out, access control, simple search queries • Advanced repository features • Extract, transformandcomposeprocessinformation • Filtering (i.e., clone, detection, similarity search, querying) • Managing processvariants • Merging • Navigating in repositories • … (La Rosa et al. 2011)

4. Business Process Repositories:Extract, Transform, and Compose Process Fragments Process fragment composition Instance data correlation & integration Process data transformation (Bobrik 2008)

5. Business Process Repositories:Extract, Transform, and Compose Process Fragments

6. Business Process RepositoriesFiltering • Filtering • Clone detection • finding exact matches • Similarity search • finding close matches • Querying • looking for patterns

7. Business Process RepositoriesFiltering: Similarity Search • Searching for similar process models / process fragments • Given a query graph, find all process models in the process model collection that are similar When are two process models similar? (Dijkman et al. 2011)

8. Business Process RepositoriesFiltering: Similarity Search When are two process models similar? • Similarity measure defines when two process models are similar • Value between 0 and 1 • 0 indicates no similarity and 1 indicates identical elements (Dijkman et al. 2011)

9. Business Process RepositoriesFiltering: Similarity Search When are two process models similar? • Label matching similarity • Similarity based on the labels of business process model elements • Structural similarity • Measures similarity based on the labels of a business process model element, as well as the relations between these elements • Behavior similarity • Measure similarity based on the intended behavior of process models (Dijkman et al. 2011)

10. Business Process RepositoriesFiltering: Querying Process Models • Querying a process model for patterns • Given a query graph, find all matching sub-graphs in the process model collection • Example of such a query language • BPMN-Q (Awad 2007): Queries expressed in BPMN; usage of wildcard nodes and arcs possible • Efficient querying of process fragments • Index for efficient querying (Yan, Dijkman, and Grefen 2012)

11. Business Process RepositoriesFiltering: Querying Process Models • Looking for patterns in a process model • What happens between A and E? (Awad 2007, Awad et al. 2008)

12. Business Process RepositoriesFiltering: Querying Process Models • Looking for patterns in a process model • What happens from the start until B is reached? (Awad 2007, Awad et al. 2008)

13. Agenda • Challenges & Basic Notions • Part I: Large Process Models • Part II: Large Process Model Collections • Part III: Large Process Structures • References

14. VariabilitySources of Variations Imperishable Quality control Luxury Normal Durable Types of goods Services Christianity Inferior Delicate renting Drugs administration Hinduism Buying and Selling Country-specific regulations Religious Food packaging Professional qualification Judaism Kid Intellectual property protection New customer Types of customers Loyal customer race Handicapped VIP Language history Cultural differences aesthetics Money transfer gender Use of the language Impulsive customers location taboo nationality

15. Industrial ExampleFlight Check-in • Generic process: • Variations due to: • Airline policies (e.g., check-in opening time) • Type of passenger (e.g., adult, child, handicapped) • Type of ticket (e.g., economy, business) • Type of carried items (e.g., pet) • etc. Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat Drop off luggage Boarding card »Hundreds of variants

16. Industrial ExampleFlight Check-in • Variant 1: • Online check-in • Adult flying with a business class ticket • International flight from EU to USA Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat Web system v 23 hours before departure Electronic Boarding card Counter desk v Fill in ESTA form Drop off luggage

17. Industrial ExampleFlight Check-in • Variant 2: • Counter desk check-in • Unaccompanied Minor (UM) + Assign UM seat Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat Drop off luggage + Counter desk v 3 hours before departure Boarding card Localize staff to accompany passenger Fill in UM form

18. Industrial ExampleFlight Check-in • Variant 3: • Online check-in • Adult carrying overweight Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat 23 hours before departure Web system v Boarding card Counter desk v Drop off luggage Pay extra fee

19. Business Process Variability How are Business Processes whicharesubject to variabilitycharacterized?

20. Representing VariabilityConcepts • Variable parts • Parts being subject to variation (commonly known as variation point) Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat Drop off luggage Different timer start events Boarding card Different seat assignment according to the passenger needs Different types of boarding card (paper, sms)

21. Representing VariabilityConcepts • Alternatives that exist for each variable parts • Alternatives that fit in each variable part • Relationship constraints between such alternatives 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Assign seat (wheelchair) Different timer start events Different seat assignment according to the passenger needs

22. Representing VariabilityConcepts • Application context for each alternative • Conditions that make these variables being applied • Usually represented by a set of variables 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Assign seat (wheelchair) • Passenger needs? • No needs • Unaccompanied minor • Carrying a pet • wheelchair • Check-in type? • on-line • counter desk

23. Process Perspectives • Where can we find variability in a BP? • Behavioural • Functional • Informational • Organizational • Temporal • Operational

24. Process Perspectives • Behavioural It captures the dynamic behavior of a BP model and corresponds to the control flow between the activities. A control flow schema includes information about the order of the activities or the constraints for their execution. 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Assign seat (wheelchair)

25. Process Perspectives • Functional It specifies the decomposition of BPs, i.e., it represents the activities to be performed. While an atomic activity is associated with a single action, a complex activity refers to a subprocess or, more precisely, a sub-process model. 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Assign seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Fill in ESTA form Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Assign seat (wheelchair) Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) Assign seat (wheelchair)

26. Process Perspectives • Informational It concerns data and data flow, i.e., it represents the informational entities (e.g., data, artifacts, products, and objects) consumed or produced during the execution of BP activities. Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat Drop off luggage Printed Boarding card Mobile Boarding card

27. Process Perspectives • Organizational It deals with the assignment of resources to the activities of a BP model, i.e., it represents the actors, roles (i.e., humans or systems), within an organization being in charge of executing certain BP activities. Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat 23 hours before departure Web system v Fill in ESTA form Electronic Boarding card Counter desk v Drop off luggage

28. Process Perspectives • Temporal It deals with time issues and temporal constraints, i.e., it represents the occurrence of events during the course of a process, which affects the scheduling of activities from this process. Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat 23 hours before departure Web system v Fill in ESTA form Electronic Boarding card Counter desk v Drop off luggage

29. Process Perspectives • Operational It refers to the implementation of process activities, i.e., the application services to be executed when an atomic activity is performed. Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat 23 hours before departure Web system v Fill in ESTA form Electronic Boarding card Counter desk v Drop off luggage Self-service machine Counter desk Online

30. Limitations of Common BPMLs Are common BPML constructs sufficient to properly represent variability in BPs?

31. Limitations of Common BPMLs Could we use... • Conditional branching, • Separate process models, or • Sub-processes … for such purpose?

32. Limitations of Common BPMLs Could we use... • Conditional branching, • Separate process models, or • Sub-processes … for such purpose?

33. Limitations of Common BPMLsConditional Branching • BPMLs could be used to represent process variant alternatives 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Assign seat (wheelchair)

34. Limitations of Common BPMLsConditional Branching • (+) Allows visualizing all alternatives in one shoot Alternatives Alternatives 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Alternatives Assign seat (wheelchair)

35. Limitations of Common BPMLsConditional Branching • (-) Hinders identifying existing variants 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Assign seat (wheelchair)

36. Limitations of Common BPMLsConditional Branching • (-) Hinders differentiating between domain dependent and domain independent conditional branching Domain dependent Domain independent Pay-pal Assign seat + Bank transfer ... ... Fill in UM form Assign UM seat ... + Mobile phone Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) + Credit card Assign seat (wheelchair) +

37. Limitations of Common BPMLs Could we use... • Conditional branching, • Separate process models, or • Sub-processes … for such purpose?

38. Limitations of Common BPMLsSeparate process models • (+) Each process variant in a separate model Variant 1: Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat 23 hours before departure Fill in ESTA form Electronic Boarding card Web system Counter desk v v Drop off luggage

39. Limitations of Common BPMLsSeparate process models • (+) Each process variant in a separate model Variant 2: + Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign UM seat Drop off luggage 3 hours before departure Fill in UM form + Boarding card Counter desk v Localize staff to accompany passenger

40. Limitations of Common BPMLsSeparate process models • (-) Common fragments have to be replicated Variant 1: Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat 23 hours before departure Fill in ESTA form Electronic Boarding card Counter desk v + Drop off luggage Counter desk Web system v Variant 2: + Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign UM seat Drop off luggage Localize staff to accompany passenger 3 hours before departure Fill in UM form Boarding card

41. Limitations of Common BPMLsSeparate process models • (-) Changes need to be replicated in all variants Variant 1: Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign seat 23 hours before departure Sign airline form Fill in ESTA form Electronic Boarding card Counter desk v + Drop off luggage Counter desk Web system v Variant 2: + Print boarding card Identify passenger Assign UM seat Drop off luggage Localize staff to accompany passenger 3 hours before departure Sign airline form Fill in UM form Boarding card

42. Limitations of Common BPMLs Could we use... • Conditional branching, • Separate process models, or • Sub-processes … for such purpose?

43. Limitations of Common BPMLsSub-processes • (+) Promotes the reuse of common fragments • (+) Allows reducing the size of the model Variant 1: Start check-in Print boarding card Assign seat 23 hours before departure + Fill in ESTA form Electronic Boarding card Web system v Counter desk v Drop off luggage Sign airline form Identify passenger

44. Limitations of Common BPMLsSub-processes • (-) Variability related issues cannot be explicitly represented Variant 1: Start check-in Print boarding card Assign seat 23 hours before departure + Fill in ESTA form Electronic Boarding card Web system v Counter desk v Drop off luggage Sign airline form Identify passenger

45. Limitations of Common BPMLs Even thoughthesetechniques are supported by commercialBPM tools, they do notenabletransparentandexplicitmanagementofprocessvariants

46. Variability in other Domains • Is there something out in other domains that can be used?

47. Variability in the SPL domain • Software Product Line (SPL) Engineering • Put emphasis on Reusability and Flexibility by • Consolidating and capitalizingon commonality through the product line • Focusing on product variations • Objectives: • Create a collection of similar software systems from a shared set of software assets using a common means of production

48. Language requirements • Variation point • Alternative process element • Alternative process element context • Alternative process element relationship • Variation point resolution time

49. Language requirements • Variation point Variationpoint Precise position within a configurable process where different choices are possible depending on the current context or situation. Variationpoint 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Variationpoint Assign seat (wheelchair)

50. Language requirements • Alternative process element Particular option that may be instantiated at a specific variation point and may refer to any modelling element such as activities and their control flow, resources, data, events, or operations. 3 hours before departure Assign seat Fill in ESTA form ... Fill in UM form Identify passenger Assign UM seat Fill in pet form Assign seat (pet company) 23 hours before departure Assign seat (wheelchair)