Enabling Flexibility in Process-Aware

Transcription

1 Manfred Reichert Barbara Weber Enabling Flexibility in Process-Aware Information Systems Challenges, Methods, Technologies ^ Springer

2 Part I Basic Concepts and Flexibility Issues 1 Introduction Motivation Goal and Intended Audience Learning Objectives Outline and Organization of the Chapters 6 2 Process-Aware Information Systems Introduction Prespecified and Repetitive Processes Motivation Examples of Prespecified Processes Discussion Knowledge-Intensive Processes Motivation Examples of Knowledge-Intensive Processes Discussion Perspectives on a PAIS Function Perspective Behavior Perspective Information Perspective Organization Perspective Operation Perspective Time Perspective Components of a PAIS Overview Build-Time Environment Run-Time Environment Summary 40 Exercises 41 ix

3 X 45 -, 3 Flexibility Issues in Process-Aware Information Systems Motivation A Taxonomy of Flexibility Needs in Process-Aware Information Systems Variability Looseness Adaptation Evolution Requirements for a Flexible PAIS Summary Book Structure 53 Exercises 54 Part II Flexibility Support for Prespecified Processes 4 Process Modeling and Flexibility-by-Design Motivation Modeling Prespecified Processes Basic Concepts Control Flow Patterns Flexibility-by-Design Through Control Flow Patterns Granularity of Process Models and Its 69 Relation to Flexibility Executing Prespecified Processes Process Instance and Execution Trace Enabled Activities and Instance Completion Verifying Prespecified Process Models Process Model Soundness Correctness of Data Flow Well-Structured Versus Unstructured Process Models Summary 85 Exercises 85 5 Process Configuration Support Motivation Behavior-Based Configuration Approaches Hiding and Blocking Configurable Nodes Structural Configuration Approaches Representing a Process Family Through a Base Process and Prespecified Changes Configuring a Process Variant Through Structural Changes End-User Support in Configuring Process Variants Questionnaire-Driven Process Configuration 112

4 xi Feature-Driven Process Configuration Context-Driven Process Configuration Further Aspects Capturing Variability of Multiple Process Perspectives Ensuring Correctness of Configured Process Variants Merging Process Variants Adaptive Reference Process Modeling Summary 123 Exercises Exception Handling Motivation Exception Sources and Their Detection Sources of Exceptions Detecting Exceptions Handling Exceptions Exception Handling Patterns Compensation Handling Semantic Rollback Through Compensation Compensation Spheres Exception Handling in Selected Approaches Compensation and Exception Handling in WS-BPEL Exception Handling in the Exlet Approach Summary 150 Exercises Ad hoc Changes of Process Instances Motivation Changing the Behavior of a Running Process Instance Core Challenges A Basic Taxonomy for Ad hoc Changes Structurally Adapting Prespecified Process Models Basics Adaptation Patterns Defining Structural Changes with Adaptation Patterns Ensuring Correctness of Structural Changes Ensuring State Compliance with a Changed Process Model Ad hoc Changes and Process Instance States A Correctness Notion for Dynamic Instance Changes A Relaxed Correctness Notion for Coping with Loop Changes Efficient Realization of Ad hoc Changes Manual Definition of Ad hoc Changes 189

5 tii 7.6 Assisting End-Users Through the Reuse of Ad hoc Changes Reusing Knowledge About Similar Ad hoc Changes Memorizing Ad hoc Changes Retrieving and Adapting Similar Ad hoc Changes Concluding Remarks Automated Adaptation and Evolution of Process Instances Duration of Ad hoc Changes Change Scope Further Issues Controlling Access to Process Change Functions Controlling Concurrent Ad hoc Changes Ensuring Traceability of Ad hoc Changes Ensuring Business Process Compliance Discussion Summary 214 Exercises Monitoring and Mining Flexible Processes Introduction Execution and Change Logs Mining Execution Logs Process Discovery Conformance Checking Mining Change Logs Anatomy of Process Changes Directly Applying Process Mining to Change Logs Understanding Change Dependencies Enhancing Multi-phase Mining with Commutativity Mining Change Processes with Regions Mining Process Variants in the Absence of a Change Log Closeness of a Reference Process Model and a Collection of Process Variants Scenarios for Mining Process Variants A Heuristic Approach for Process Variant Mining Other Approaches for Process Variant Mining Summary 249 Exercises Process Evolution and Instance Migration Motivation Fundamentals of Process Model Evolution Evolving a Process Model at the Process Type Level Deferred Process Model Evolution Immediate Process Model Evolution and Instance Migration User Perspective Existing Approaches for Migrating Process Instances

6 xiii 9.3 Common Support of Type and Instance Changes Migrating Biased Process Instances Overlapping Changes at the Type and Instance Level Integrated Change Support in Existing Approaches Coping with Noncompliant Process Instances Example Scenario Bringing Noncompliant Instances into a Compliant State Advanced Strategies for Treating Noncompliant Instances Evolving Other PAIS Perspectives Changes of the Organization Perspective Changes of the Information Perspective Changes of Other Perspectives Process Model Refactoring Identifying Refactoring Opportunities Refactoring Techniques Summary 291 Exercises Business Process Compliance Motivation Modeling Compliance Rules A Priori Compliance Checking Compliance Monitoring A-posteriori Compliance Checking Effects of Process Changes on Compliance User Perspective Existing Approaches Summary 316 Exercises 317 Part in Flexibility Support for Loosely Specified Processes 11 Concretizing Loosely Specified Processes Motivation Taxonomy of Decision Deferral Degree of Freedom Planning Approach Scope of Decision Deferral Process Perspective Degree of Automation Decision Making and Decision Support Decision Deferral Patterns Late Selection 330

7 xiv 11.5 Late Modeling and Composition Ad hoc Composition Iterative Refinement Summary 339 Exercises Constraint-Based Process Models Motivation Modeling Constraint-Based Processes Constraint-Based Process Models Overview of Control Flow Constraints Executing Constraint-Based Processes Executing Constraint-Based Models Without Overlapping Activities Executing Constraint-Based Models with Overlapping Activities Verifying Constraint-Based Process Models Adapting and Evolving Constraint-Based Process Models Assistance for Modeling and Evolving Constraint- Based Processes Understandability and Maintainability Issues of Constraint-Based Process Models Test-Driven Modeling of Constraint-Based Process Models Assistance for Executing Constraint-Based Process Models Combining Constraint-Based and Prespecified 12.9 Summary and Discussion 370 Models 369 Exercises 371 Part IV User- and Data-Driven Processes 13 User- and Data-Driven Processes Introduction The Case Handling Paradigm Basic Concepts Strengths and Weaknesses Discussion Object-Aware Processes Object Behavior Object Interactions Data-Driven Execution Variable Activity Granularity Integrated Access to Business Processes and Objects Existing Approaches Case Handling Proclets 393

8 xv Business Artifacts Data-Driven Process Coordination Product-Based Workflow Support Other Approaches Discussion Summary 400 Exercises A Framework for Object-Aware Processes Introduction Overview of the Framework Data Model Object Relationships Integrating Users Micro Processes Micro Steps Process States Internal Micro Transitions External Micro Transitions Further Issues Process and Data Authorization Authorization Table Automatic Generation of Form-Based Activities Macro Processes Basic Elements Process Context Coordination Component Aggregation Coordination Component Transverse Coordination Component Integrating Black-Box Activities Further Aspects Discussion Summary 437 Exercises 437 Part V Technologies Enabling Flexibility Support in Process-Aware Information Systems 15 AristaFlowBPM Suite Introduction Handling Errors and Exceptions in AristaFlow Illustrating Application Scenario Perspectives on the Handling of Exceptions and Errors System Architecture 454

9 xvj 15.4 Using the AristaFlow BPM Suite in Actual Practice Case Study 1: Disaster Management Case Study 2: Health Care Process Management Case Study 3: Software Engineering Processes Other Case Studies Summary 461 Exercises Alaska Simulator Toolset Motivation Alaska Simulator Toolset: Meta-Model Deciding at the Last Responsible Moment Architecture of Alaska Simulator Toolset Case Studies: Using Alaska Simulator Toolset in Practice Summary 476 Exercises Existing Tool Support for Flexible Processes Selected Tools Further Tools : 480 Part VI Summary, References, and Appendices 18 Epilogue Enabling Flexibility in Process-Aware Information Systems Open Challenges 485 A Overview of BPMN Elements 489 References 491 Index 511