@book{Luebbe2011, author = {L{\"u}bbe, Alexander}, title = {The effect of tangible media on individuals in business process modeling : a controlled experiment = Der Einfluss greifbarer Medien auf einzelne Personen bei der Gesch{\"a}ftsprozessmodellierung : ein kontrolliertes Experiment}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-108-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-49001}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {42}, year = {2011}, abstract = {In current practice, business processes modeling is done by trained method experts. Domain experts are interviewed to elicit their process information but not involved in modeling. We created a haptic toolkit for process modeling that can be used in process elicitation sessions with domain experts. We hypothesize that this leads to more effective process elicitation. This paper brakes down "effective elicitation" to 14 operationalized hypotheses. They are assessed in a controlled experiment using questionnaires, process model feedback tests and video analysis. The experiment compares our approach to structured interviews in a repeated measurement design. We executed the experiment with 17 student clerks from a trade school. They represent potential users of the tool. Six out of fourteen hypotheses showed significant difference due to the method applied. Subjects reported more fun and more insights into process modeling with tangible media. Video analysis showed significantly more reviews and corrections applied during process elicitation. Moreover, people take more time to talk and think about their processes. We conclude that tangible media creates a different working mode for people in process elicitation with fun, new insights and instant feedback on preliminary results.}, language = {en} } @book{MeyerPufahlFahlandetal.2013, author = {Meyer, Andreas and Pufahl, Luise and Fahland, Dirk and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Modeling and enacting complex data dependencies in business processes}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-245-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-65103}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {40}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Enacting business processes in process engines requires the coverage of control flow, resource assignments, and process data. While the first two aspects are well supported in current process engines, data dependencies need to be added and maintained manually by a process engineer. Thus, this task is error-prone and time-consuming. In this report, we address the problem of modeling processes with complex data dependencies, e.g., m:n relationships, and their automatic enactment from process models. First, we extend BPMN data objects with few annotations to allow data dependency handling as well as data instance differentiation. Second, we introduce a pattern-based approach to derive SQL queries from process models utilizing the above mentioned extensions. Therewith, we allow automatic enactment of data-aware BPMN process models. We implemented our approach for the Activiti process engine to show applicability.}, language = {en} } @article{HerzbergMeyerWeske2015, author = {Herzberg, Nico and Meyer, Andreas and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Improving business process intelligence by observing object state transitions}, series = {Data \& knowledge engineering}, volume = {98}, journal = {Data \& knowledge engineering}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0169-023X}, doi = {10.1016/j.datak.2015.07.008}, pages = {144 -- 164}, year = {2015}, abstract = {During the execution of business processes several events happen that are recorded in the company's information systems. These events deliver insights into process executions so that process monitoring and analysis can be performed resulting, for instance, in prediction of upcoming process steps or the analysis of the run time of single steps. While event capturing is trivial when a process engine with integrated logging capabilities is used, manual process execution environments do not provide automatic logging of events, so that typically external devices, like bar code scanners, have to be used. As experience shows, these manual steps are error-prone and induce additional work. Therefore, we use object state transitions as additional monitoring information, so-called object state transition events. Based on these object state transition events, we reason about the enablement and termination of activities and provide the basis for process monitoring and analysis in terms of a large event log. In this paper, we present the concept to utilize information from these object state transition events for capturing process progress. Furthermore, we discuss a methodology to create the required design time artifacts that then are used for monitoring at run time. In a proof-of-concept implementation, we show how the design time and run time side work and prove applicability of the introduced concept of object state transition events. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{MeyerPufahlBatoulisetal.2015, author = {Meyer, Andreas and Pufahl, Luise and Batoulis, Kimon and Fahland, Dirk and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Automating data exchange in process choreographies}, series = {Information systems}, volume = {53}, journal = {Information systems}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2015.03.008}, pages = {296 -- 329}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Communication between organizations is formalized as process choreographies in daily business. While the correct ordering of exchanged messages can be modeled and enacted with current choreography techniques, no approach exists to describe and automate the exchange of data between processes in a choreography using messages. This paper describes an entirely model-driven approach for BPMN introducing a few concepts that suffice to model data retrieval, data transformation, message exchange, and correlation four aspects of data exchange. For automation, this work utilizes a recent concept to enact data dependencies in internal processes. We present a modeling guideline to derive local process models from a given choreography; their operational semantics allows to correctly enact the entire choreography from the derived models only including the exchange of data. Targeting on successful interactions, we discuss means to ensure correct process choreography modeling. Finally, we implemented our approach by extending the camunda BPM platform with our approach and show its feasibility by realizing all service interaction patterns using only model-based concepts. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{LeopoldMendlingGuenther2016, author = {Leopold, Henrik and Mendling, Jan and Guenther, Oliver}, title = {Learning from Quality Issues of BPMN Models from Industry}, series = {IEEE software}, volume = {33}, journal = {IEEE software}, publisher = {Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers}, address = {Los Alamitos}, issn = {0740-7459}, doi = {10.1109/MS.2015.81}, pages = {26 -- 33}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Many organizations use business process models to document business operations and formalize business requirements in software-engineering projects. The Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), a specification by the Object Management Group, has evolved into the leading standard for process modeling. One challenge is BPMN's complexity: it offers a huge variety of elements and often several representational choices for the same semantics. This raises the question of how well modelers can deal with these choices. Empirical insights into BPMN use from the practitioners' perspective are still missing. To close this gap, researchers analyzed 585 BPMN 2.0 process models from six companies. They found that split and join representations, message flow, the lack of proper model decomposition, and labeling related to quality issues. They give five specific recommendations on how to avoid these issues.}, language = {en} } @misc{PufahlWongWeske2018, author = {Pufahl, Luise and Wong, Tsun Yin and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Design of an extensible BPMN process simulator}, series = {Business Process Management Workshops (BPM 2017)}, volume = {308}, journal = {Business Process Management Workshops (BPM 2017)}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Berlin}, isbn = {978-3-319-74030-0}, issn = {1865-1348}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-74030-0_62}, pages = {782 -- 795}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Business process simulation is an important means for quantitative analysis of a business process and to compare different process alternatives. With the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) being the state-of-the-art language for the graphical representation of business processes, many existing process simulators support already the simulation of BPMN diagrams. However, they do not provide well-defined interfaces to integrate new concepts in the simulation environment. In this work, we present the design and architecture of a proof-of-concept implementation of an open and extensible BPMN process simulator. It also supports the simulation of multiple BPMN processes at a time and relies on the building blocks of the well-founded discrete event simulation. The extensibility is assured by a plug-in concept. Its feasibility is demonstrated by extensions supporting new BPMN concepts, such as the simulation of business rule activities referencing decision models and batch activities.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mandal2019, author = {Mandal, Sankalita}, title = {Event handling in business processes}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44170}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-441700}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xix, 151}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Business process management (BPM) deals with modeling, executing, monitoring, analyzing, and improving business processes. During execution, the process communicates with its environment to get relevant contextual information represented as events. Recent development of big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) enables sources like smart devices and sensors to generate tons of events which can be filtered, grouped, and composed to trigger and drive business processes. The industry standard Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) provides several event constructs to capture the interaction possibilities between a process and its environment, e.g., to instantiate a process, to abort an ongoing activity in an exceptional situation, to take decisions based on the information carried by the events, as well as to choose among the alternative paths for further process execution. The specifications of such interactions are termed as event handling. However, in a distributed setup, the event sources are most often unaware of the status of process execution and therefore, an event is produced irrespective of the process being ready to consume it. BPMN semantics does not support such scenarios and thus increases the chance of processes getting delayed or getting in a deadlock by missing out on event occurrences which might still be relevant. The work in this thesis reviews the challenges and shortcomings of integrating real-world events into business processes, especially the subscription management. The basic integration is achieved with an architecture consisting of a process modeler, a process engine, and an event processing platform. Further, points of subscription and unsubscription along the process execution timeline are defined for different BPMN event constructs. Semantic and temporal dependencies among event subscription, event occurrence, event consumption and event unsubscription are considered. To this end, an event buffer with policies for updating the buffer, retrieving the most suitable event for the current process instance, and reusing the event has been discussed that supports issuing of early subscription. The Petri net mapping of the event handling model provides our approach with a translation of semantics from a business process perspective. Two applications based on this formal foundation are presented to support the significance of different event handling configurations on correct process execution and reachability of a process path. Prototype implementations of the approaches show that realizing flexible event handling is feasible with minor extensions of off-the-shelf process engines and event platforms.}, language = {en} } @article{BazhenovaZerbatoOlibonietal.2019, author = {Bazhenova, Ekaterina and Zerbato, Francesca and Oliboni, Barbara and Weske, Mathias}, title = {From BPMN process models to DMN decision models}, series = {Information systems}, volume = {83}, journal = {Information systems}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2019.02.001}, pages = {69 -- 88}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The interplay between process and decision models plays a crucial role in business process management, as decisions may be based on running processes and affect process outcomes. Often process models include decisions that are encoded through process control flow structures and data flow elements, thus reducing process model maintainability. The Decision Model and Notation (DMN) was proposed to achieve separation of concerns and to possibly complement the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) for designing decisions related to process models. Nevertheless, deriving decision models from process models remains challenging, especially when the same data underlie both process and decision models. In this paper, we explore how and to which extent the data modeled in BPMN processes and used for decision-making may be represented in the corresponding DMN decision models. To this end, we identify a set of patterns that capture possible representations of data in BPMN processes and that can be used to guide the derivation of decision models related to existing process models. Throughout the paper we refer to real-world healthcare processes to show the applicability of the proposed approach. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{CombiOliboniWeskeetal.2021, author = {Combi, Carlo and Oliboni, Barbara and Weske, Mathias and Zerbato, Francesca}, title = {Seamless conceptual modeling of processes with transactional and analytical data}, series = {Data \& knowledge engineering}, volume = {134}, journal = {Data \& knowledge engineering}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0169-023X}, doi = {10.1016/j.datak.2021.101895}, pages = {14}, year = {2021}, abstract = {In the field of Business Process Management (BPM), modeling business processes and related data is a critical issue since process activities need to manage data stored in databases. The connection between processes and data is usually handled at the implementation level, even if modeling both processes and data at the conceptual level should help designers in improving business process models and identifying requirements for implementation. Especially in data -and decision-intensive contexts, business process activities need to access data stored both in databases and data warehouses. In this paper, we complete our approach for defining a novel conceptual view that bridges process activities and data. The proposed approach allows the designer to model the connection between business processes and database models and define the operations to perform, providing interesting insights on the overall connected perspective and hints for identifying activities that are crucial for decision support.}, language = {en} }