Arbeitsgruppe Semantic Business Process Management Lectuer 1 - Introduction Prof. Dr. Adrian Paschke Corporate Semantic Web (AG-CSW) Institute for Computer Science, Freie Universitaet Berlin paschke@inf.fu-berlin.de http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/groups/ag-csw/
Overview (Enterprise) Business Modelling Business Process Management Workflow Management Semantic Business Process Management
Enterprise (Business) Modeling Enterprise modeling is the abstract representation, description and definition of the structure, processes, information and resources of an identifiable business, government activity, or other large organization. Cornelius T. Leondes, Richard Henry Frymuth Jackson (1992). Manufacturing and Automation Systems: Techniques and Technologies. Academic Press, 1992. ISBN 0120127458, p.97 What How Where Who When Why (Data) (Function) (Network) (People, Service) (Time) (Goal, Task) Model Examples UMLClass Diagram, Function Modeling Business Logistics Business Logistics Time Schedule Business Plan, ER Model System System Strategic Maps
Goals of Enterprise Models Business Goals reduce costs increase product quality improve throughput times less training less support required increase forecast accuracy IT Goals reduce implementation costs implementing the real IT requirements faster implementation and reusability less support requests align implementation
Types and Scopes of Enterprise Models Different Models exist with different: Applications Modeling methods Scope Possible abstraction layers Requirements definition Design specification Implementation specification Execution and run-time models
Enterprise Models Generic models for enterprise architectures: Zachman Framework (highly structured, spanning all aspects) CIMOSA (European counterpart) ARIS (scientifically designed model used by IDS Scheer) TOGAF (ANSI/IEEE standard architecture specification) models with focus on process design and execution: BPMN (comprehensive graphical notation) EPC (graphical notation) UML Activity diagrams (popular standard model maintained by OMG) BPDM, XPDL (interchange languages) BPEL (execution language)...
Business Process Management (BPM) BPM is a general term describing a set of services and tools for explicit process management (e.g., process analysis, definition, execution, monitoring and administration), ideally including support for human and application-level interaction. Source: Gartner Explicit Business Process Management separate coordination (choreography) and control (orchestration) of business process flow from the general application logic that actually performs the work
Example
Rational for BPM Efficiency improvement is crucial for enterprises Understanding the business processes in enterprises is a prerequisite to improve the efficiency Business Process thinking : Organize before automate : Supported by tools for explicit modeling
History Adam Smith and Frederick W. Taylor (end 18th century): Division of Labor Idea: job / operational process break down and specialization Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan (1913): Assembly line work 70 s / 80 s: Information systems with hardcoded workflows Office automation systems Since 1980 just-in-time manufacturing, continuous improvement, quality management
History II late 80 s / 90 s: Generic workflow systems Generic, but proprietary meta model Since 1990 Michael Hammer, James Champy and Thomas H. Davenport: foundations of Business Process Modeling; defined a business process as a structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market. It implies a strong emphasis on how work is done within an organization, in contrast to a product focus s emphasis on what. A process is thus a specific ordering of work activities across time and space, with a beginning and an end, and clearly defined inputs and outputs: a structure for action.... Taking a process approach implies adopting the customer s point of view. Processes are the structure by which an organization does what is necessary to produce value for its customers.
History III 90 s: Generic standardized workflow systems Explicit process models Interface architecture to control applications Hammer, Champy (1993), define a business process as a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer. Today: Business Process Management systems Web Service paradigm Orchestration and Choreography control Process Aware Systems Process Management on top of existing systems (ERP, SCM, CRM )
History -> Future Past Information systems support execution of single tasks Today Information systems support business process management. Trend: Programming in the Large Future Information systems support agile semantic business processes on the Web Trend: Semantic Web Workflows on the Internet (of Services and Things)
Business Process Modeling Business Process Models A business model is a framework for creating economic, social, and/or other forms of value. A business process is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product (serve a particular goal) for a particular customer or customers can span multiple enterprises (Private Process, Public Process) creates customer value Business process models represent processes of an enterprise, so that the current process may be analyzed, reused and improved Business process modeling activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current process may be analyzed and improved in future
Layers of BPM Modeling 1. Languages/Models defining generic concepts to describe model types 2. Instance of a Process Meta-Model. Defines a model to describe a domain. 3. Instance of a Process Model. Run-time behavior of a process.
Business Process Standards [Martin Bartonitz/Saperion, 2009]
BPM Tool Provider [Hill, J. B., Sinur, J.: Magic Quadrant for Business Process Management Suites. 2006]
Typical Activities in BPM (Re-) Engineering Combine activities Elimination of activities Automation of activities Reducing interfaces, redundancy and interoperability problems Changing order, parallelization, avoiding loops/cycles Changing process responsibility and/or process participation Outsourcing (and insourcing) Develop a holistic view
BPM Life Cycle Source: Wikipedia
Properties of Business Processes repetitiveness of business processes is high business processes are permanent or semipermanent routine business in enterprises concentration on the core processes with respect to continuous process optimization (might lead e.g. to outsourcing of some processes) can apply in multiple enterprises (Private Process, Public Process) create direct measurable customer value can span functional, organizational and spatial domain boundaries
Project vs. Business Process A project is a finite endeavor not repetitive having specific start and completion dates undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives
Task / Activity Task is part of a set of real actions which accomplish a job, problem or assignment Is a synonym for activity activity possibly has longer duration Tasks are carried out to execute business processes
Workflow A workflow is a structured description of a sequence of tasks - a model to represent real work for further assessment in such a way that the tasks lead to the desired results over time are executed efficiently in the predefined order by humans or machines Workflows have multiple perspectives: Control Flow perspective Informational perspective Organization perspective Operational perspective
Process Workflows Workflow in computer programming capture and develop human to machine interaction partially supported and automated by workflow software orchestrate or describe complex processing of data in a visual form No agreement on standard model multiple notations and languages WMC Workflow Reference Model
Workflow Management System A Workflow Management-Systems (WfMS) is (re-) active software system to control the workflows between participants according to the defined workflow schema. WfMS functionalities Design and engineering (modeling) Execution and controlling (runtime component) It supports management activities for workflows such as organization, planning, decision, monitoring and enforcement, controlling and governance
WfMS Types process oriented Ad-hoc WFs Production WFs knowledge intensive Groupware Scientific WFs unstructure structured
Referenzmodel of the Workflow Management Coalition (WMC) Administration & Monitoring Tools Interface 4 Prozess- Definition Interface 1 Workflow API & Interchange Workflow Engine(s) Workflow Enactment Service Interface 5 Modelling Layer Workflow Engine(s) Other Workflow Enactment Service User s what to do Interface 2 Interface 3 Workflow Client Application Invoked Application Execution Layer Execution Maschine
WfMC Reference Model Build-time Defining Modeling Prozess- Definition Administration & Monitoring Tools Interface 4 Interface 1 Workflow API & Interchange Workflo w Workflow Engine(s Enactment Service ) Interface 2 Interface 3 Interface 5 Workflow Engine(s) Other Workflow Enactment Service Workflow Client Application Invoked Application
WfMC Reference Model Run-time control Manage instances Sequence activities Run-time interactions With humans With applications Prozess- Definition Administration & Monitoring Tools Interface 4 Interface 1 Workflow API & Interchange Workflo w Workflow Engine(s Enactment Service ) Interface 2 Interface 3 Interface 5 Workflow Engine(s) Other Workflow Enactment Service Workflow Client Application Invoked Application
WfMC Reference Model Run-time monitoring Display status of running or completed workflow instances View task lists for users or roles Display system workload Prozess- Definition Administration & Monitoring Tools Interface 4 Interface 1 Workflow API & Interchange Workflo w Workflow Engine(s Enactment Service ) Interface 2 Interface 3 Interface 5 Workflow Engine(s) Other Workflow Enactment Service Workflow Client Application Invoked Application
Business Process vs. Workflow Business Processes are independent from a particular IT system Workflows implement operative process flows in IT systems Workflow = semi-automated part of a business process (Current) BPM mainly incorporates three workflow dimensions Control Flow Informational Operational No organizational dimension But efforts exist, e.g.: BPEL4People
State of the Art in BPM Many BPM technologies exists Management, implementation, and monitoring of processes in enterprises Explicit formal modeling of business processes Enhanced reusability or process models Simplified maintenance and adaptation to changes Visualization facilitates detection of failures Potential for automated monitoring and failure handling Abstraction facilitates application developer Adopted SOA as new principle in BPM
Problems in traditional BPM Huge differences in the supported functionalities e.g., Human interactions, Peoplelinks, Partnerlinks, Compensations, Exceptions, Business Rules Different worlds: Gap between Business IT Incompatible modeling languages Problems with interchange, round-tripping and transformation (e.g. BPMN <-> BPEL) BPM(N) Models are often "Schrankware" Business Process Modeling & Execution Current BPM system are not flexible and agile enough syntactic process specification languages without declarative semantics, e.g. for agile business decisions in terms of business rules hard-wired (Web) service execution (inflexible)
Semantic Business Process Management (SBPM) SBPM = Semantic Technologies + BPM Semantic Technologies Declarative (business) rules Ontologies and meta-data vocabularies Semantic event, state, action processing logics
Semantic Business Process Management (SBPM) Selected benefits enhanced automation in semantic discovery, configuration and integration/composition of appropriate process components, information objects, and services interchange semantic BPM models increase the market for reusable, enterprise-relevant knowledge automated mediation between different heterogeneous interfaces and abstraction levels bridging e.g. between IT infrastructure management (ITIM), IT Service Management (ITSM) and Business Process Management (BPM) level complex semantic queries on the process space and flow much more agile BPM via semantic event processing and (business) rule-based decision and reaction logic
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