@article{YousfiWeske2019, author = {Yousfi, Alaaeddine and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Discovering commute patterns via process mining}, series = {Knowledge and Information Systems}, volume = {60}, journal = {Knowledge and Information Systems}, number = {2}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {London}, issn = {0219-1377}, doi = {10.1007/s10115-018-1255-1}, pages = {691 -- 713}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Ubiquitous computing has proven its relevance and efficiency in improving the user experience across a myriad of situations. It is now the ineluctable solution to keep pace with the ever-changing environments in which current systems operate. Despite the achievements of ubiquitous computing, this discipline is still overlooked in business process management. This is surprising, since many of today's challenges, in this domain, can be addressed by methods and techniques from ubiquitous computing, for instance user context and dynamic aspects of resource locations. This paper takes a first step to integrate methods and techniques from ubiquitous computing in business process management. To do so, we propose discovering commute patterns via process mining. Through our proposition, we can deduce the users' significant locations, routes, travel times and travel modes. This information can be a stepping-stone toward helping the business process management community embrace the latest achievements in ubiquitous computing, mainly in location-based service. To corroborate our claims, a user study was conducted. The significant places, routes, travel modes and commuting times of our test subjects were inferred with high accuracies. All in all, ubiquitous computing can enrich the processes with new capabilities that go beyond what has been established in business process management so far.}, language = {en} } @article{BaierDiCiccioMendlingetal.2018, author = {Baier, Thomas and Di Ciccio, Claudio and Mendling, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Matching events and activities by integrating behavioral aspects and label analysis}, series = {Software and systems modeling}, volume = {17}, journal = {Software and systems modeling}, number = {2}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Heidelberg}, issn = {1619-1366}, doi = {10.1007/s10270-017-0603-z}, pages = {573 -- 598}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Nowadays, business processes are increasingly supported by IT services that produce massive amounts of event data during the execution of a process. These event data can be used to analyze the process using process mining techniques to discover the real process, measure conformance to a given process model, or to enhance existing models with performance information. Mapping the produced events to activities of a given process model is essential for conformance checking, annotation and understanding of process mining results. In order to accomplish this mapping with low manual effort, we developed a semi-automatic approach that maps events to activities using insights from behavioral analysis and label analysis. The approach extracts Declare constraints from both the log and the model to build matching constraints to efficiently reduce the number of possible mappings. These mappings are further reduced using techniques from natural language processing, which allow for a matching based on labels and external knowledge sources. The evaluation with synthetic and real-life data demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach and its robustness toward non-conforming execution logs.}, language = {en} } @article{MendlingWebervanderAalstetal.2018, author = {Mendling, Jan and Weber, Ingo and van der Aalst, Wil and Brocke, Jan Vom and Cabanillas, Cristina and Daniel, Florian and Debois, Soren and Di Ciccio, Claudio and Dumas, Marlon and Dustdar, Schahram and Gal, Avigdor and Garcia-Banuelos, Luciano and Governatori, Guido and Hull, Richard and La Rosa, Marcello and Leopold, Henrik and Leymann, Frank and Recker, Jan and Reichert, Manfred and Reijers, Hajo A. and Rinderle-Ma, Stefanie and Solti, Andreas and Rosemann, Michael and Schulte, Stefan and Singh, Munindar P. and Slaats, Tijs and Staples, Mark and Weber, Barbara and Weidlich, Matthias and Weske, Mathias and Xu, Xiwei and Zhu, Liming}, title = {Blockchains for Business Process Management}, series = {ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems}, volume = {9}, journal = {ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems}, number = {1}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York}, issn = {2158-656X}, doi = {10.1145/3183367}, pages = {1 -- 16}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Blockchain technology offers a sizable promise to rethink the way interorganizational business processes are managed because of its potential to realize execution without a central party serving as a single point of trust (and failure). To stimulate research on this promise and the limits thereof, in this article, we outline the challenges and opportunities of blockchain for business process management (BPM). We first reflect how blockchains could be used in the context of the established BPM lifecycle and second how they might become relevant beyond. We conclude our discourse with a summary of seven research directions for investigating the application of blockchain technology in the context of BPM.}, language = {en} } @book{MeyerSmirnovWeske2011, author = {Meyer, Andreas and Smirnov, Sergey and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Data in business processes}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-144-8}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-53046}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {40}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Process and data are equally important for business process management. Process data is especially relevant in the context of automated business processes, process controlling, and representation of organizations' core assets. One can discover many process modeling languages, each having a specific set of data modeling capabilities and the level of data awareness. The level of data awareness and data modeling capabilities vary significantly from one language to another. This paper evaluates several process modeling languages with respect to the role of data. To find a common ground for comparison, we develop a framework, which systematically organizes process- and data-related aspects of the modeling languages elaborating on the data aspects. Once the framework is in place, we compare twelve process modeling languages against it. We generalize the results of the comparison and identify clusters of similar languages with respect to data awareness.}, language = {de} } @book{KunzeWeske2016, author = {Kunze, Matthias and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Behavioural Models}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-44958-6}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {279}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This textbook introduces the basis for modelling and analysing discrete dynamic systems, such as computer programmes, soft- and hardware systems, and business processes. The underlying concepts are introduced and concrete modelling techniques are described, such as finite automata, state machines, and Petri nets. The concepts are related to concrete application scenarios, among which business processes play a prominent role. The book consists of three parts, the first of which addresses the foundations of behavioural modelling. After a general introduction to modelling, it introduces transition systems as a basic formalism for representing the behaviour of discrete dynamic systems. This section also discusses causality, a fundamental concept for modelling and reasoning about behaviour. In turn, Part II forms the heart of the book and is devoted to models of behaviour. It details both sequential and concurrent systems and introduces finite automata, state machines and several different types of Petri nets. One chapter is especially devoted to business process models, workflow patterns and BPMN, the industry standard for modelling business processes. Lastly, Part III investigates how the behaviour of systems can be analysed. To this end, it introduces readers to the concept of state spaces. Further chapters cover the comparison of behaviour and the formal analysis and verification of behavioural models. The book was written for students of computer science and software engineering, as well as for programmers and system analysts interested in the behaviour of the systems they work on. It takes readers on a journey from the fundamentals of behavioural modelling to advanced techniques for modelling and analysing sequential and concurrent systems, and thus provides them a deep understanding of the concepts and techniques introduced and how they can be applied to concrete application scenarios.}, language = {en} } @book{Weske2007, author = {Weske, Mathias}, title = {Business Process Management : Concepts, Languages, Architectures}, publisher = {Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg}, address = {Berlin, Heidelberg}, isbn = {978-3-540-73521-2}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-73522-9}, pages = {368 S.}, year = {2007}, language = {en} } @article{PerniciWeske2006, author = {Pernici, Barbara and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Business process management}, issn = {0169-023X}, year = {2006}, language = {en} } @article{WeskevanderAalstVerbeek2004, author = {Weske, Mathias and van der Aalst, Wil M. P. and Verbeek, H. M. W.}, title = {Advances in business process management}, issn = {0169-023X}, year = {2004}, language = {en} } @book{SmirnovReijersNugterenetal.2010, author = {Smirnov, Sergey and Reijers, Hajo A. and Nugteren, Thijs and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Business process model abstraction : theory and practice}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-054-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-41782}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {17}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Business process management aims at capturing, understanding, and improving work in organizations. The central artifacts are process models, which serve different purposes. Detailed process models are used to analyze concrete working procedures, while high-level models show, for instance, handovers between departments. To provide different views on process models, business process model abstraction has emerged. While several approaches have been proposed, a number of abstraction use case that are both relevant for industry and scientifically challenging are yet to be addressed. In this paper we systematically develop, classify, and consolidate different use cases for business process model abstraction. The reported work is based on a study with BPM users in the health insurance sector and validated with a BPM consultancy company and a large BPM vendor. The identified fifteen abstraction use cases reflect the industry demand. The related work on business process model abstraction is evaluated against the use cases, which leads to a research agenda.}, language = {en} } @book{HerzbergWeske2013, author = {Herzberg, Nico and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Enriching raw events to enable process intelligence : research challenges}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-241-4}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-64012}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {30}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Business processes are performed within a company's daily business. Thereby, valuable data about the process execution is produced. The quantity and quality of this data is very dependent on the process execution environment that reaches from predominantly manual to fullautomated. Process improvement is one essential cornerstone of business process management to ensure companies' competitiveness and relies on information about the process execution. Especially in manual process environments data directly related to the process execution is rather sparse and incomplete. In this paper, we present an approach that supports the usage and enrichment of process execution data with context data - data that exists orthogonally to business process data - and knowledge from the corresponding process models to provide a high-quality event base for process intelligence subsuming, among others, process monitoring, process analysis, and process mining. Further, we discuss open issues and challenges that are subject to our future work.}, language = {de} } @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{YousfiHeweltBaueretal.2018, author = {Yousfi, Alaaeddine and Hewelt, Marcin and Bauer, Christine and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Toward uBPMN-Based patterns for modeling ubiquitous business processes}, series = {IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics}, volume = {14}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics}, number = {8}, publisher = {Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers}, address = {Piscataway}, issn = {1551-3203}, doi = {10.1109/TII.2017.2777847}, pages = {3358 -- 3367}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Ubiquitous business processes are the new generation of processes that pervade the physical space and interact with their environments using a minimum of human involvement. Although they are now widely deployed in the industry, their deployment is still ad hoc . They are implemented after an arbitrary modeling phase or no modeling phase at all. The absence of a solid modeling phase backing up the implementation generates many loopholes that are stressed in the literature. Here, we tackle the issue of modeling ubiquitous business processes. We propose patterns to represent the recent ubiquitous computing features. These patterns are the outcome of an analysis we conducted in the field of human-computer interaction to examine how the features are actually deployed. The patterns' understandability, ease-of-use, usefulness, and completeness are examined via a user experiment. The results indicate that these four indexes are on the positive track. Hence, the patterns may be the backbone of ubiquitous business process modeling in industrial applications.}, language = {en} } @article{NikajWeskeMendling2019, author = {Nikaj, Adriatik and Weske, Mathias and Mendling, Jan}, title = {Semi-automatic derivation of RESTful choreographies from business process choreographies}, series = {Software and systems modeling}, volume = {18}, journal = {Software and systems modeling}, number = {2}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Heidelberg}, issn = {1619-1366}, doi = {10.1007/s10270-017-0653-2}, pages = {1195 -- 1208}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Enterprises reach out for collaborations with other organizations in order to offer complex products and services to the market. Such collaboration and coordination between different organizations, for a good share, is facilitated by information technology. The BPMN process choreography is a modeling language for specifying the exchange of information and services between different organizations at the business level. Recently, there is a surging use of the REST architectural style for the provisioning of services on the web, but few systematic engineering approach to design their collaboration. In this paper, we address this gap in a comprehensive way by defining a semi-automatic method for the derivation of RESTful choreographies from process choreographies. The method is based on natural language analysis techniques to derive interactions from the textual information in process choreographies. The proposed method is evaluated in terms of effectiveness resulting in the intervention of a web engineer in only about 10\% of all generated RESTful interactions.}, language = {en} } @article{PufahlWeske2019, author = {Pufahl, Luise and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Batch activity: enhancing business process modeling and enactment with batch processing}, series = {Computing}, volume = {101}, journal = {Computing}, number = {12}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Wien}, issn = {0010-485X}, doi = {10.1007/s00607-019-00717-4}, pages = {1909 -- 1933}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Organizations strive for efficiency in their business processes by process improvement and automation. Business process management (BPM) supports these efforts by capturing business processes in process models serving as blueprint for a number of process instances. In BPM, process instances are typically considered running independently of each other. However, batch processing-the collectively execution of several instances at specific process activities-is a common phenomenon in operational processes to reduce cost or time. Currently, batch processing is organized manually or hard-coded in software. For allowing stakeholders to explicitly represent their batch configurations in process models and their automatic execution, this paper provides a concept for batch activities and describes the corresponding execution semantics. The batch activity concept is evaluated in a two-step approach: a prototypical implementation in an existing BPM System proves its feasibility. Additionally, batch activities are applied to different use cases in a simulated environment. Its application implies cost-savings when a suitable batch configuration is selected. The batch activity concept contributes to practice by allowing the specification of batch work in process models and their automatic execution, and to research by extending the existing process modeling concepts.}, 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} } @misc{BazhenovaZerbatoWeske2018, author = {Bazhenova, Ekaterina and Zerbato, Francesca and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Data-Centric Extraction of DMN Decision Models from BPMN Process Models}, series = {Business Process Management Workshops}, volume = {308}, journal = {Business Process Management Workshops}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Berlin}, isbn = {978-3-319-74030-0}, issn = {1865-1348}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-74030-0_43}, pages = {542 -- 555}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Operational decisions in business processes can be modeled by using the Decision Model and Notation (DMN). The complementary use of DMN for decision modeling and of the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) for process design realizes the separation of concerns principle. For supporting separation of concerns during the design phase, it is crucial to understand which aspects of decision-making enclosed in a process model should be captured by a dedicated decision model. Whereas existing work focuses on the extraction of decision models from process control flow, the connection of process-related data and decision models is still unexplored. In this paper, we investigate how process-related data used for making decisions can be represented in process models and we distinguish a set of BPMN patterns capturing such information. Then, we provide a formal mapping of the identified BPMN patterns to corresponding DMN models and apply our approach to a real-world healthcare process.}, 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} } @misc{HaarmannBatoulisNikajetal.2018, author = {Haarmann, Stephan and Batoulis, Kimon and Nikaj, Adriatik and Weske, Mathias}, title = {DMN Decision Execution on the Ethereum Blockchain}, series = {Advanced Information Systems Engineering, CAISE 2018}, volume = {10816}, journal = {Advanced Information Systems Engineering, CAISE 2018}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-91563-0}, issn = {0302-9743}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-91563-0_20}, pages = {327 -- 341}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Recently blockchain technology has been introduced to execute interacting business processes in a secure and transparent way. While the foundations for process enactment on blockchain have been researched, the execution of decisions on blockchain has not been addressed yet. In this paper we argue that decisions are an essential aspect of interacting business processes, and, therefore, also need to be executed on blockchain. The immutable representation of decision logic can be used by the interacting processes, so that decision taking will be more secure, more transparent, and better auditable. The approach is based on a mapping of the DMN language S-FEEL to Solidity code to be run on the Ethereum blockchain. The work is evaluated by a proof-of-concept prototype and an empirical cost evaluation.}, language = {en} } @article{YousfiBatoulisWeske2019, author = {Yousfi, Alaaeddine and Batoulis, Kimon and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Achieving Business Process Improvement via Ubiquitous Decision-Aware Business Processes}, series = {ACM Transactions on Internet Technology}, volume = {19}, journal = {ACM Transactions on Internet Technology}, number = {1}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {New York}, issn = {1533-5399}, doi = {10.1145/3298986}, pages = {19}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Business process improvement is an endless challenge for many organizations. As long as there is a process, it must he improved. Nowadays, improvement initiatives are driven by professionals. This is no longer practical because people cannot perceive the enormous data of current business environments. Here, we introduce ubiquitous decision-aware business processes. They pervade the physical space, analyze the ever-changing environments, and make decisions accordingly. We explain how they can be built and used for improvement. Our approach can be a valuable improvement option to alleviate the workload of participants by helping focus on the crucial rather than the menial tasks.}, language = {en} } @article{LadleifWeske2021, author = {Ladleif, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Which event happened first?}, series = {Frontiers in blockchain}, volume = {4}, journal = {Frontiers in blockchain}, publisher = {Frontiers in Blockchain}, address = {Lausanne, Schweiz}, issn = {2624-7852}, doi = {10.3389/fbloc.2021.758169}, pages = {1 -- 16}, year = {2021}, abstract = {First come, first served: Critical choices between alternative actions are often made based on events external to an organization, and reacting promptly to their occurrence can be a major advantage over the competition. In Business Process Management (BPM), such deferred choices can be expressed in process models, and they are an important aspect of process engines. Blockchain-based process execution approaches are no exception to this, but are severely limited by the inherent properties of the platform: The isolated environment prevents direct access to external entities and data, and the non-continual runtime based entirely on atomic transactions impedes the monitoring and detection of events. In this paper we provide an in-depth examination of the semantics of deferred choice, and transfer them to environments such as the blockchain. We introduce and compare several oracle architectures able to satisfy certain requirements, and show that they can be implemented using state-of-the-art blockchain technology.}, language = {en} } @article{DeckerKoppLeymannetal.2009, author = {Decker, Gero and Kopp, Oliver and Leymann, Frank and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Interacting services : from specification to execution}, issn = {0169-023X}, doi = {10.1016/j.datak.2009.04.003}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Interacting services play a key role to realize business process integration among different business partners by means of electronic message exchange. In order to provide seamless integration of these services, the messages exchanged as well as their dependencies must be well-defined. Service choreographies are a means to describe the allowed conversations. This article presents a requirements framework for service choreography languages, along which existing choreography languages are assessed. The requirements framework provides the basis for introducing the language BPEL4Chor, which extends the industry standard WS-BPEL with choreography-specific concepts. A validation is provided and integration with executable service orchestrations is discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{LuebbeWeske2012, author = {Luebbe, Alexander and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Determining the effect of tangible business process modeling}, year = {2012}, language = {en} } @article{LuebbeWeske2011, author = {Luebbe, Alexander and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Bringing design thinking to business process modeling}, isbn = {978-3-642-13756-3}, year = {2011}, language = {en} } @unpublished{WeskeRinderleMaToumanietal.2013, author = {Weske, Mathias and Rinderle-Ma, Stefanie and Toumani, Farouk and Wolf, Karsten}, title = {Special section on BPM 2011 conference. - Special Issue}, series = {Information systems}, volume = {38}, journal = {Information systems}, number = {4}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2013.01.003}, pages = {545 -- 546}, year = {2013}, language = {en} } @unpublished{WeskeYangMaglio2012, author = {Weske, Mathias and Yang, Jian and Maglio, Paul P.}, title = {Special issue service oriented computing (ICSOC) guest editors' introduction}, series = {International journal of cooperative information systems}, volume = {21}, journal = {International journal of cooperative information systems}, number = {1}, publisher = {World Scientific}, address = {Singapore}, issn = {0218-8430}, doi = {10.1142/S0218843012020017}, pages = {1 -- 2}, year = {2012}, language = {en} } @article{WeidlichMendlingWeske2011, author = {Weidlich, Matthias and Mendling, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Efficient consistency measurement based on behavioral profiles of process models}, series = {IEEE transactions on software engineering}, volume = {37}, journal = {IEEE transactions on software engineering}, number = {3}, publisher = {Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers}, address = {Los Alamitos}, issn = {0098-5589}, doi = {10.1109/TSE.2010.96}, pages = {410 -- 429}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Engineering of process-driven business applications can be supported by process modeling efforts in order to bridge the gap between business requirements and system specifications. However, diverging purposes of business process modeling initiatives have led to significant problems in aligning related models at different abstract levels and different perspectives. Checking the consistency of such corresponding models is a major challenge for process modeling theory and practice. In this paper, we take the inappropriateness of existing strict notions of behavioral equivalence as a starting point. Our contribution is a concept called behavioral profile that captures the essential behavioral constraints of a process model. We show that these profiles can be computed efficiently, i.e., in cubic time for sound free-choice Petri nets w.r.t. their number of places and transitions. We use behavioral profiles for the definition of a formal notion of consistency which is less sensitive to model projections than common criteria of behavioral equivalence and allows for quantifying deviation in a metric way. The derivation of behavioral profiles and the calculation of a degree of consistency have been implemented to demonstrate the applicability of our approach. We also report the findings from checking consistency between partially overlapping models of the SAP reference model.}, language = {en} } @unpublished{DumasReckerWeske2012, author = {Dumas, Marlon and Recker, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Management and engineering of process-aware information systems: Introduction to the special issue}, series = {INFORMATION SYSTEMS}, volume = {37}, journal = {INFORMATION SYSTEMS}, number = {2}, publisher = {PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD}, address = {OXFORD}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2011.09.003}, pages = {77 -- 79}, year = {2012}, language = {en} } @article{PolyvyanyyWeidlichWeske2011, author = {Polyvyanyy, Artem and Weidlich, Matthias and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Connectivity of workflow nets the foundations of stepwise verification}, series = {Acta informatica}, volume = {48}, journal = {Acta informatica}, number = {4}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0001-5903}, doi = {10.1007/s00236-011-0137-8}, pages = {213 -- 242}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Behavioral models capture operational principles of real-world or designed systems. Formally, each behavioral model defines the state space of a system, i.e., its states and the principles of state transitions. Such a model is the basis for analysis of the system's properties. In practice, state spaces of systems are immense, which results in huge computational complexity for their analysis. Behavioral models are typically described as executable graphs, whose execution semantics encodes a state space. The structure theory of behavioral models studies the relations between the structure of a model and the properties of its state space. In this article, we use the connectivity property of graphs to achieve an efficient and extensive discovery of the compositional structure of behavioral models; behavioral models get stepwise decomposed into components with clear structural characteristics and inter-component relations. At each decomposition step, the discovered compositional structure of a model is used for reasoning on properties of the whole state space of the system. The approach is exemplified by means of a concrete behavioral model and verification criterion. That is, we analyze workflow nets, a well-established tool for modeling behavior of distributed systems, with respect to the soundness property, a basic correctness property of workflow nets. Stepwise verification allows the detection of violations of the soundness property by inspecting small portions of a model, thereby considerably reducing the amount of work to be done to perform soundness checks. Besides formal results, we also report on findings from applying our approach to an industry model collection.}, language = {en} } @article{WeidlichZiekowGaletal.2014, author = {Weidlich, Matthias and Ziekow, Holger and Gal, Avigdor and Mendling, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Optimizing event pattern matching using business process models}, series = {IEEE transactions on knowledge and data engineering}, volume = {26}, journal = {IEEE transactions on knowledge and data engineering}, number = {11}, publisher = {Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers}, address = {Los Alamitos}, issn = {1041-4347}, doi = {10.1109/TKDE.2014.2302306}, pages = {2759 -- 2773}, year = {2014}, abstract = {A growing number of enterprises use complex event processing for monitoring and controlling their operations, while business process models are used to document working procedures. In this work, we propose a comprehensive method for complex event processing optimization using business process models. Our proposed method is based on the extraction of behaviorial constraints that are used, in turn, to rewrite patterns for event detection, and select and transform execution plans. We offer a set of rewriting rules that is shown to be complete with respect to the all, seq, and any patterns. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated in an experimental evaluation with a large number of processes from an insurance company. We illustrate that the proposed optimization leads to significant savings in query processing. By integrating the optimization in state-of-the-art systems for event pattern matching, we demonstrate that these savings materialize in different technical infrastructures and can be combined with existing optimization techniques.}, language = {en} } @article{KunzeWeidlichWeske2015, author = {Kunze, Matthias and Weidlich, Matthias and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Querying process models by behavior inclusion}, series = {Software and systems modeling}, volume = {14}, journal = {Software and systems modeling}, number = {3}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Heidelberg}, issn = {1619-1366}, doi = {10.1007/s10270-013-0389-6}, pages = {1105 -- 1125}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Business processes are vital to managing organizations as they sustain a company's competitiveness. Consequently, these organizations maintain collections of hundreds or thousands of process models for streamlining working procedures and facilitating process implementation. Yet, the management of large process model collections requires effective searching capabilities. Recent research focused on similarity search of process models, but querying process models is still a largely open topic. This article presents an approach to querying process models that takes a process example as input and discovers all models that allow replaying the behavior of the query. To this end, we provide a notion of behavioral inclusion that is based on trace semantics and abstraction. Additional to deciding a match, a closeness score is provided that describes how well the behavior of the query is represented in the model and can be used for ranking. The article introduces the formal foundations of the approach and shows how they are applied to querying large process model collections. An experimental evaluation has been conducted that confirms the suitability of the solution as well as its applicability and scalability in practice.}, 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{BaierMendlingWeske2014, author = {Baier, Thomas and Mendling, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Bridging abstraction layers in process mining}, series = {Information systems}, volume = {46}, journal = {Information systems}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2014.04.004}, pages = {123 -- 139}, year = {2014}, abstract = {While the maturity of process mining algorithms increases and more process mining tools enter the market, process mining projects still face the problem of different levels of abstraction when comparing events with modeled business activities. Current approaches for event log abstraction try to abstract from the events in an automated way that does not capture the required domain knowledge to fit business activities. This can lead to misinterpretation of discovered process models. We developed an approach that aims to abstract an event log to the same abstraction level that is needed by the business. We use domain knowledge extracted from existing process documentation to semi-automatically match events and activities. Our abstraction approach is able to deal with n:m relations between events and activities and also supports concurrency. We evaluated our approach in two case studies with a German IT outsourcing company. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{WeidlichMendlingWeske2012, author = {Weidlich, Matthias and Mendling, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Propagating changes between aligned process models}, series = {The journal of systems and software}, volume = {85}, journal = {The journal of systems and software}, number = {8}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {New York}, issn = {0164-1212}, doi = {10.1016/j.jss.2012.02.044}, pages = {1885 -- 1898}, year = {2012}, abstract = {There is a wide variety of drivers for business process modelling initiatives, reaching from organisational redesign to the development of information systems. Consequently, a common business process is often captured in multiple models that overlap in content due to serving different purposes. Business process management aims at flexible adaptation to changing business needs. Hence, changes of business processes occur frequently and have to be incorporated in the respective process models. Once a process model is changed, related process models have to be updated accordingly, despite the fact that those process models may only be loosely coupled. In this article, we introduce an approach that supports change propagation between related process models. Given a change in one process model, we leverage the behavioural abstraction of behavioural profiles for corresponding activities in order to determine a change region in another model. Our approach is able to cope with changes in pairs of models that are not related by hierarchical refinement and show behavioural inconsistencies. We evaluate the applicability of our approach with two real-world process model collections. To this end, we either deduce change operations from different model revisions or rely on synthetic change operations.}, language = {en} } @article{DeckerWeske2011, author = {Decker, Gero and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Interaction-centric modeling of process choreographies}, series = {Information systems}, volume = {36}, journal = {Information systems}, number = {2}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2010.06.005}, pages = {292 -- 312}, year = {2011}, abstract = {With the rise of electronic integration between organizations, the need for a precise specification of interaction behavior increases. Information systems, replacing interaction previously carried out by humans via phone, faxes and emails, require a precise specification for handling all possible situations. Such interaction behavior is described in process choreographies. While many proposals for choreography languages have already been made, most of them fall into the category of interconnection models, where the observable behavior of the different partners is described and then related via message flow. As this article will show, this modeling approach fails to support fundamental design principles of choreographies and typically leads to modeling errors. This motivates an alternative modeling style, namely interaction modeling, for overcoming these limitations. While the main concepts are independent of a concrete modeling language, iBPMN is introduced as novel interaction modeling language. Formal execution semantics are provided and a comprehensive toolset implementing the approach is presented.}, language = {en} } @article{WeidlichDijkmanWeske2012, author = {Weidlich, Matthias and Dijkman, Remco and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Behaviour equivalence and compatibility of business process models with complex correspondences}, series = {The computer journal : a publication of the British Computer Society}, volume = {55}, journal = {The computer journal : a publication of the British Computer Society}, number = {11}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0010-4620}, doi = {10.1093/comjnl/bxs014}, pages = {1398 -- 1418}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Once multiple models of a business process are created for different purposes or to capture different variants, verification of behaviour equivalence or compatibility is needed. Equivalence verification ensures that two business process models specify the same behaviour. Since different process models are likely to differ with respect to their assumed level of abstraction and the actions that they take into account, equivalence notions have to cope with correspondences between sets of actions and actions that exist in one process but not in the other. In this paper, we present notions of equivalence and compatibility that can handle these problems. In essence, we present a notion of equivalence that works on correspondences between sets of actions rather than single actions. We then integrate our equivalence notion with work on behaviour inheritance that copes with actions that exist in one process but not in the other, leading to notions of behaviour compatibility. Compatibility notions verify that two models have the same behaviour with respect to the actions that they have in common. As such, our contribution is a collection of behaviour equivalence and compatibility notions that are applicable in more general settings than existing ones.}, language = {en} } @article{AwadWeidlichWeske2011, author = {Awad, Ahmed Mahmoud Hany Aly and Weidlich, Matthias and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Visually specifying compliance rules and explaining their violations for business processes}, series = {Journal of visual languages and computing}, volume = {22}, journal = {Journal of visual languages and computing}, number = {1}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {London}, issn = {1045-926X}, doi = {10.1016/j.jvlc.2010.11.002}, pages = {30 -- 55}, year = {2011}, abstract = {A business process is a set of steps designed to be executed in a certain order to achieve a business value. Such processes are often driven by and documented using process models. Nowadays, process models are also applied to drive process execution. Thus, correctness of business process models is a must. Much of the work has been devoted to check general, domain-independent correctness criteria, such as soundness. However, business processes must also adhere to and show compliance with various regulations and constraints, the so-called compliance requirements. These are domain-dependent requirements. In many situations, verifying compliance on a model level is of great value, since violations can be resolved in an early stage prior to execution. However, this calls for using formal verification techniques, e.g., model checking, that are too complex for business experts to apply. In this paper, we utilize a visual language. BPMN-Q to express compliance requirements visually in a way similar to that used by business experts to build process models. Still, using a pattern based approach, each BPMN-Qgraph has a formal temporal logic expression in computational tree logic (CTL). Moreover, the user is able to express constraints, i.e., compliance rules, regarding control flow and data flow aspects. In order to provide valuable feedback to a user in case of violations, we depend on temporal logic querying approaches as well as BPMN-Q to visually highlight paths in a process model whose execution causes violations.}, 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{WeidlichPolyvyanyyMendlingetal.2011, author = {Weidlich, Matthias and Polyvyanyy, Artem and Mendling, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Causal behavioural profiles - efficient computation, applications, and evaluation}, series = {Fundamenta informaticae}, volume = {113}, journal = {Fundamenta informaticae}, number = {3-4}, publisher = {IOS Press}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0169-2968}, doi = {10.3233/FI-2011-614}, pages = {399 -- 435}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Analysis of behavioural consistency is an important aspect of software engineering. In process and service management, consistency verification of behavioural models has manifold applications. For instance, a business process model used as system specification and a corresponding workflow model used as implementation have to be consistent. Another example would be the analysis to what degree a process log of executed business operations is consistent with the corresponding normative process model. Typically, existing notions of behaviour equivalence, such as bisimulation and trace equivalence, are applied as consistency notions. Still, these notions are exponential in computation and yield a Boolean result. In many cases, however, a quantification of behavioural deviation is needed along with concepts to isolate the source of deviation. In this article, we propose causal behavioural profiles as the basis for a consistency notion. These profiles capture essential behavioural information, such as order, exclusiveness, and causality between pairs of activities of a process model. Consistency based on these profiles is weaker than trace equivalence, but can be computed efficiently for a broad class of models. In this article, we introduce techniques for the computation of causal behavioural profiles using structural decomposition techniques for sound free-choice workflow systems if unstructured net fragments are acyclic or can be traced back to S-or T-nets. We also elaborate on the findings of applying our technique to three industry model collections.}, language = {en} } @article{WeidlichPolyvyanyyDesaietal.2011, author = {Weidlich, Matthias and Polyvyanyy, Artem and Desai, Nirmit and Mendling, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Process compliance analysis based on behavioural profiles}, series = {Information systems}, volume = {36}, journal = {Information systems}, number = {7}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2011.04.002}, pages = {1009 -- 1025}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Process compliance measurement is getting increasing attention in companies due to stricter legal requirements and market pressure for operational excellence. In order to judge on compliance of the business processing, the degree of behavioural deviation of a case, i.e., an observed execution sequence, is quantified with respect to a process model (referred to as fitness, or recall). Recently, different compliance measures have been proposed. Still, nearly all of them are grounded on state-based techniques and the trace equivalence criterion, in particular. As a consequence, these approaches have to deal with the state explosion problem. In this paper, we argue that a behavioural abstraction may be leveraged to measure the compliance of a process log - a collection of cases. To this end, we utilise causal behavioural profiles that capture the behavioural characteristics of process models and cases, and can be computed efficiently. We propose different compliance measures based on these profiles, discuss the impact of noise in process logs on our measures, and show how diagnostic information on non-compliance is derived. As a validation, we report on findings of applying our approach in a case study with an international service provider.}, language = {en} } @article{RoggeSoltiWeske2015, author = {Rogge-Solti, Andreas and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Prediction of business process durations using non-Markovian stochastic Petri nets}, series = {Information systems}, volume = {54}, journal = {Information systems}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2015.04.004}, pages = {1 -- 14}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Companies need to efficiently manage their business processes to deliver products and services in time. Therefore, they monitor the progress of individual cases to be able to timely detect undesired deviations and to react accordingly. For example, companies can decide to speed up process execution by raising alerts or by using additional resources, which increases the chance that a certain deadline or service level agreement can be met. Central to such process control is accurate prediction of the remaining time of a case and the estimation of the risk of missing a deadline. To achieve this goal, we use a specific kind of stochastic Petri nets that can capture arbitrary duration distributions. Thereby, we are able to achieve higher prediction accuracy than related approaches. Further, we evaluate the approach in comparison to state of the art approaches and show the potential of exploiting a so far untapped source of information: the elapsed time since the last observed event. Real-world case studies in the financial and logistics domain serve to illustrate and evaluate the approach presented. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{PolyvyanyyGarciaBanuelosFahlandetal.2014, author = {Polyvyanyy, Artem and Garcia-Banuelos, Luciano and Fahland, Dirk and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Maximal structuring of acyclic process models}, series = {The computer journal : a publication of the British Computer Society}, volume = {57}, journal = {The computer journal : a publication of the British Computer Society}, number = {1}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0010-4620}, doi = {10.1093/comjnl/bxs126}, pages = {12 -- 35}, year = {2014}, abstract = {This article addresses the transformation of a process model with an arbitrary topology into an equivalent structured process model. In particular, this article studies the subclass of process models that have no equivalent well-structured representation but which, nevertheless, can be partially structured into their maximally-structured representation. The transformations are performed under a behavioral equivalence notion that preserves the observed concurrency of tasks in equivalent process models. The article gives a full characterization of the subclass of acyclic process models that have no equivalent well-structured representation, but do have an equivalent maximally-structured one, as well as proposes a complete structuring method. Together with our previous results, this article completes the solution of the process model structuring problem for the class of acyclic process models.}, language = {en} } @misc{WeskeSadiqSofferetal.2016, author = {Weske, Mathias and Sadiq, Shazia and Soffer, Pnina and Voelzer, Hagen}, title = {Preface to BPM 2014}, series = {Information systems}, volume = {56}, journal = {Information systems}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4379}, doi = {10.1016/j.is.2015.09.006}, pages = {233 -- 234}, year = {2016}, language = {en} } @book{PolyvyanyySmirnovWeske2008, author = {Polyvyanyy, Artem and Smirnov, Sergey and Weske, Mathias}, title = {The triconnected abstraction of process models}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-940793-65-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32847}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {17}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Contents: Artem Polyvanny, Sergey Smirnow, and Mathias Weske The Triconnected Abstraction of Process Models 1 Introduction 2 Business Process Model Abstraction 3 Preliminaries 4 Triconnected Decomposition 4.1 Basic Approach for Process Component Discovery 4.2 SPQR-Tree Decomposition 4.3 SPQR-Tree Fragments in the Context of Process Models 5 Triconnected Abstraction 5.1 Abstraction Rules 5.2 Abstraction Algorithm 6 Related Work and Conclusions}, language = {en} } @book{SmirnovWeidlichMendlingetal.2009, author = {Smirnov, Sergey and Weidlich, Matthias and Mendling, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Action patterns in business process models}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-009-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-33586}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {19}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Business process management experiences a large uptake by the industry, and process models play an important role in the analysis and improvement of processes. While an increasing number of staff becomes involved in actual modeling practice, it is crucial to assure model quality and homogeneity along with providing suitable aids for creating models. In this paper we consider the problem of offering recommendations to the user during the act of modeling. Our key contribution is a concept for defining and identifying so-called action patterns - chunks of actions often appearing together in business processes. In particular, we specify action patterns and demonstrate how they can be identified from existing process model repositories using association rule mining techniques. Action patterns can then be used to suggest additional actions for a process model. Our approach is challenged by applying it to the collection of process models from the SAP Reference Model.}, language = {en} } @book{SmirnovZamaniFarahaniWeske2011, author = {Smirnov, Sergey and Zamani Farahani, Armin and Weske, Mathias}, title = {State propagation in abstracted business processes}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-130-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-51480}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {16}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Business process models are abstractions of concrete operational procedures that occur in the daily business of organizations. To cope with the complexity of these models, business process model abstraction has been introduced recently. Its goal is to derive from a detailed process model several abstract models that provide a high-level understanding of the process. While techniques for constructing abstract models are reported in the literature, little is known about the relationships between process instances and abstract models. In this paper we show how the state of an abstract activity can be calculated from the states of related, detailed process activities as they happen. The approach uses activity state propagation. With state uniqueness and state transition correctness we introduce formal properties that improve the understanding of state propagation. Algorithms to check these properties are devised. Finally, we use behavioral profiles to identify and classify behavioral inconsistencies in abstract process models that might occur, once activity state propagation is used.}, language = {en} } @misc{LadleifWeske2021, author = {Ladleif, Jan and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Which Event Happened First? Deferred Choice on Blockchain Using Oracles}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Reihe der Digital Engineering Fakult{\"a}t}, volume = {4}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Reihe der Digital Engineering Fakult{\"a}t}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55068}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-550681}, pages = {1 -- 16}, year = {2021}, abstract = {First come, first served: Critical choices between alternative actions are often made based on events external to an organization, and reacting promptly to their occurrence can be a major advantage over the competition. In Business Process Management (BPM), such deferred choices can be expressed in process models, and they are an important aspect of process engines. Blockchain-based process execution approaches are no exception to this, but are severely limited by the inherent properties of the platform: The isolated environment prevents direct access to external entities and data, and the non-continual runtime based entirely on atomic transactions impedes the monitoring and detection of events. In this paper we provide an in-depth examination of the semantics of deferred choice, and transfer them to environments such as the blockchain. We introduce and compare several oracle architectures able to satisfy certain requirements, and show that they can be implemented using state-of-the-art blockchain technology.}, language = {en} } @article{AndreeIhdeWeskeetal.2022, author = {Andree, Kerstin and Ihde, Sven and Weske, Mathias and Pufahl, Luise}, title = {An exception handling framework for case management}, series = {Software and Systems Modeling}, volume = {21}, journal = {Software and Systems Modeling}, number = {3}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Heidelberg}, issn = {1619-1366}, doi = {10.1007/s10270-022-00993-3}, pages = {939 -- 962}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In order to achieve their business goals, organizations heavily rely on the operational excellence of their business processes. In traditional scenarios, business processes are usually well-structured, clearly specifying when and how certain tasks have to be executed. Flexible and knowledge-intensive processes are gathering momentum, where a knowledge worker drives the execution of a process case and determines the exact process path at runtime. In the case of an exception, the knowledge worker decides on an appropriate handling. While there is initial work on exception handling in well-structured business processes, exceptions in case management have not been sufficiently researched. This paper proposes an exception handling framework for stage-oriented case management languages, namely Guard Stage Milestone Model, Case Management Model and Notation, and Fragment-based Case Management. The effectiveness of the framework is evaluated with two real-world use cases showing that it covers all relevant exceptions and proposed handling strategies.}, language = {en} } @book{PolyvyanyySmirnovWeske2008, author = {Polyvyanyy, Artem and Smirnov, Sergey and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Reducing the complexity of large EPCs}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32959}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Inhalt: 1 Introduction 2 Motivation and Goal 3 Fundamentals 4 Elementary Abstractions 5 Real World Example 6 Conclusions}, language = {en} } @article{BanoMichaelRumpeetal.2022, author = {Bano, Dorina and Michael, Judith and Rumpe, Bernhard and Varga, Simon and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Process-aware digital twin cockpit synthesis from event logs}, series = {Journal of computer languages}, volume = {70}, journal = {Journal of computer languages}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam [u.a.]}, issn = {2590-1184}, doi = {10.1016/j.cola.2022.101121}, pages = {19}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The engineering of digital twins and their user interaction parts with explicated processes, namely processaware digital twin cockpits (PADTCs), is challenging due to the complexity of the systems and the need for information from different disciplines within the engineering process. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate how to facilitate their engineering by using already existing data, namely event logs, and reducing the number of manual steps for their engineering. Current research lacks systematic, automated approaches to derive process-aware digital twin cockpits even though some helpful techniques already exist in the areas of process mining and software engineering. Within this paper, we present a low-code development approach that reduces the amount of hand-written code needed and uses process mining techniques to derive PADTCs. We describe what models could be derived from event log data, which generative steps are needed for the engineering of PADTCs, and how process mining could be incorporated into the resulting application. This process is evaluated using the MIMIC III dataset for the creation of a PADTC prototype for an automated hospital transportation system. This approach can be used for early prototyping of PADTCs as it needs no hand-written code in the first place, but it still allows for the iterative evolvement of the application. This empowers domain experts to create their PADTC prototypes.}, language = {en} } @book{MeyerWeske2014, author = {Meyer, Andreas and Weske, Mathias}, title = {Weak conformance between process models and synchronized object life cycles}, number = {91}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-303-9}, issn = {1613-5652}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-71722}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {31}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Process models specify behavioral execution constraints between activities as well as between activities and data objects. A data object is characterized by its states and state transitions represented as object life cycle. For process execution, all behavioral execution constraints must be correct. Correctness can be verified via soundness checking which currently only considers control flow information. For data correctness, conformance between a process model and its object life cycles is checked. Current approaches abstract from dependencies between multiple data objects and require fully specified process models although, in real-world process repositories, often underspecified models are found. Coping with these issues, we introduce the concept of synchronized object life cycles and we define a mapping of data constraints of a process model to Petri nets extending an existing mapping. Further, we apply the notion of weak conformance to process models to tell whether each time an activity needs to access a data object in a particular state, it is guaranteed that the data object is in or can reach the expected state. Then, we introduce an algorithm for an integrated verification of control flow correctness and weak data conformance using soundness checking.}, language = {en} }