TY - JOUR A1 - Weidlich, Matthias A1 - Mendling, Jan T1 - Perceived consistency between process models JF - Information systems N2 - Process-aware information systems typically involve various kinds of process stakeholders. That, in turn, leads to multiple process models that capture a common process from different perspectives and at different levels of abstraction. In order to guarantee a certain degree of uniformity, the consistency of such related process models is evaluated using formal criteria. However, it is unclear how modelling experts assess the consistency between process models, and which kind of notion they perceive to be appropriate. In this paper, we focus on control flow aspects and investigate the adequacy of consistency notions. In particular, we report findings from an online experiment, which allows us to compare in how far trace equivalence and two notions based on behavioural profiles approximate expert perceptions on consistency. Analysing 69 expert statements from process analysts, we conclude that trace equivalence is not suited to be applied as a consistency notion, whereas the notions based on behavioural profiles approximate the perceived consistency of our subjects significantly. Therefore, our contribution is an empirically founded answer to the correlation of behaviour consistency notions and the consistency perception by experts in the field of business process modelling. KW - Process model consistency KW - Consistency perception KW - Behavior equivalence KW - Model refinement Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2010.12.004 SN - 0306-4379 VL - 37 IS - 2 SP - 80 EP - 98 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weidlich, Matthias A1 - Mendling, Jan A1 - Weske, Mathias T1 - Propagating changes between aligned process models JF - The journal of systems and software N2 - 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. KW - Change propagation KW - Model synchronisation KW - Behavioural analysis KW - Process model alignment Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2012.02.044 SN - 0164-1212 VL - 85 IS - 8 SP - 1885 EP - 1898 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Awad, Ahmed Mahmoud Hany Aly A1 - Gore, Rajeev A1 - Hou, Zhe A1 - Thomson, James A1 - Weidlich, Matthias T1 - An iterative approach to synthesize business process templates from compliance rules JF - INFORMATION SYSTEMS N2 - Companies have to adhere to compliance requirements. The compliance analysis of business operations is typically a joint effort of business experts and compliance experts. Those experts need to create a common understanding of business processes to effectively conduct compliance management. In this paper, we present a technique that aims at supporting this process. We argue that process templates generated out of compliance requirements provide a basis for negotiation among business and compliance experts. We introduce a semi-automated and iterative approach to the synthesis of such process templates from compliance requirements expressed in Linear Temporal Logic (LTL). We show how generic constraints related to business process execution are incorporated and present criteria that point at underspecification. Further, we outline how such underspecification may be resolved to iteratively build up a complete specification. For the synthesis, we leverage existing work on process mining and process restructuring. However, our approach is not limited to the control-flow perspective, but also considers direct and indirect data-flow dependencies. Finally, we elaborate on the application of the derived process templates and present an implementation of our approach. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Process synthesis KW - Analysis of business process compliance specification KW - Process mining Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2012.05.001 SN - 0306-4379 VL - 37 IS - 8 SP - 714 EP - 736 PB - PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD CY - OXFORD ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weidlich, Matthias A1 - Dijkman, Remco A1 - Weske, Mathias T1 - Behaviour equivalence and compatibility of business process models with complex correspondences JF - The computer journal : a publication of the British Computer Society N2 - 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. KW - behaviour equivalence KW - behaviour compatibility KW - model verification KW - behavioural models Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/comjnl/bxs014 SN - 0010-4620 SN - 1460-2067 VL - 55 IS - 11 SP - 1398 EP - 1418 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER -