Matthias Weidlich, Jan Mendling, Mathias Weske jan.mendling@wiwi.hu-berlin.de

Matthias Weidlich, Jan Mendling, Mathias Weskejan.mendling@wiwi.hu-berlin.de

Behavioral ProfilesAn Abstraction for Efficient Calculation of

Consistency between Process Models

2Poster auf Berliner BPM-Offensive http://www.bpmb.de

Negotiate Contract

Conclusion of contract?

yes

no

High value?

yes

no

Contact Customer

Prepare Quote

Ask for Response

still interested

else

Contact from

Marketing

Request for Quote

Send Quote

Contact from Fair

2 weeks

Pos. Response

Neg. Response

Close Deal

Approvalby Country-

Manager

Approvalby Sales

Get Contact

Contact Customer

Close Deal

Negotiate Contract

Conclusion of contract?

yes

no

Approvalby Country-

Manager

Approvalby Sales

Submit Quote

High value?

yes

no

Agenda

• Why Consistency between Process Models?• Why Behavioural Profiles?• How to validate the concept?• What are further applications?• What to take home?

5

The Essence of Modeling

is model ofis model of

correspond

Vertical Alignment of Process Models

• Different purposes for the creation of process models– Process automation– Staff planning– Decision support– Business certification

• Results in significant differences between models describing (parts of) the very same process– Slicing of process models– Modelling granularity– Behavioural differences

Horizontal Alignment of Process Models

• Different variants of a common process, due to– Scope of the process – Organisational context– IT-landscape

• No big differences in modelling granularity• Still, defined behaviour might be different

Get Contact

Contact Customer

Close Deal

Submit Quote

Create Loss Report

Analyse Competitors Successful

Offer

else

Negotiate Contract Contract

Conclusion

else

Get Contact

Analyse Competitors

Submit Quote

Contact Customer

Close Deal

Create Loss Report

Successful Offer

Negotiate Contract Contract

Conclusion

else

else

8

Correspondences

Get Contact

Contact Customer

Close Deal

Negotiate Contract

Conclusion of contract?

yes

no

Approvalby Country-

Manager

Approvalby Sales

Submit Quote High value?

yes

no

Negotiate Contract

Conclusion of contract?

yes

no

High value?

yes

no

Contact Customer

Prepare Quote

Ask for Response

still interested

else

Contact from

Marketing

Request for Quote

Send Quote

Contact from Fair

2 weeks

Pos. Response

Neg. Response

Close Deal

Approvalby Country-

Manager

Approvalby Sales

Model 1

Correspondences

Model 2

Agenda

• Why Consistency between Process Models?• Why Behavioural Profiles?• How to validate the concept?• What are further applications?• What to take home?

Simply Comparing Activities is not enough

Get Contact

Contact Customer

Close Deal

Negotiate Contract

Conclusion of contract?

yes

no

Approvalby Country-

Manager

Approvalby Sales

Submit Quote High value?

yes

no

Negotiate Contract

Conclusion of contract?

yes

no

High value?

yes

no

Contact Customer

Prepare Quote

Ask for Response

still interested

else

Contact from

Marketing

Request for Quote

Send Quote

Contact from Fair

2 weeks

Pos. Response

Neg. Response

Close Deal

Approvalby Country-

Manager

Approvalby Sales

Existing Notions like Equivalence of Traces are too strict

Get Contact

Contact Customer

Close Deal

Negotiate Contract

Conclusion of contract?

yes

no

Approvalby Country-

Manager

Approvalby Sales

Submit Quote High value?

yes

no

Negotiate Contract

Conclusion of contract?

yes

no

High value?

yes

no

Contact Customer

Prepare Quote

Ask for Response

still interested

else

Contact from

Marketing

Request for Quote

Send Quote

Contact from Fair

2 weeks

Pos. Response

Neg. Response

Close Deal

Approvalby Country-

Manager

Approvalby Sales

Behavioural Profiles

• Need for a behavioural abstraction that is less sensitive to model projections or extensions, respectively

• Behavioural Profiles– capture behavioural characteristics by means of relations

between activities• Strict order• Exclusiveness• Interleaving order

– Based on weak order: weak order between A and B, if there is a trace in which B occurs after A

Behavioural Profiles

• Strict order between A and D• Exclusiveness between F and G• Interleaving order between C and E

A GD E

C

B

...

...F

H

Behavioural ProfileA B C D

A || || B + C || + D +

Properties

• Close to Trace Equivalence• Computable in O(n3) for Free Choice nets• Easy to calculate similarity, consistency, etc.

What about Trace Equivalence?

16

Agenda

• Why Consistency between Process Models?• Why Behavioural Profiles?• How to validate the concept?• What are further applications?• What to take home?

Case Study with SAP Reference Model

• Computation based on results proved for Petri nets

• Transformation– BPMN to PN– EPC to PN– UML AD to PN

• Computation in low polynomial time for certain class of models– EPC is sound – EPC has unambiguous instantiation semantics

Varying Degree of Profile Consistency

Consistent but not trace equivalent

Inconsistencies

Agenda

• Why Consistency between Process Models?• Why Behavioural Profiles?• How to validate the concept?• What are further applications?• What to take home?

23

Change in Process Model 1

– Assumptions• Change can be localized as a single node • Behavioural profile is consistent for aligned nodes

– Find boundary nodes for change• Aligned with target model• Closest nodes in strict order preceding and succeeding change

A XD E

C

B G ...

H ...

F

24

Change Propagation

– Derivation of change region supports• Analysis, whether a change should be applied• Application of a change in a consistent manner

– Change region might be empty• No flow arc in target model meets requirements for change• Boundary nodes and inter-boundary nodes guide adaptation

D

B

H

F

...6

4

2

5

1

3A

C

Action Patterns• Derivation of abstract actions

from activities• Mining of abstract patterns between

activities in a repository• Co-occurrences and

behavioural relations• Usage of these patterns for

modelling support

ICoP ArchitecturePair Searchers

Searcher 1

Searcher n

Scorefor Set

Process Graph 2

Process Graph 1

Multiset(overlapping)

Scored Match n

Scored Match 1

Boosters

Booster 1

Booster n

Set(overlapping)

Scored Match n

Scored Match 1

Set (non-overlapping)

Match nMatch 1

Set(non-overlapping)

Match n

Match 1Selector

Evaluator

•Architecture for the creation of matchers• Multi-step heuristic approach• Reuse of matching components• Adaptable & extendable

•Concrete matching components• Exemplify and evaluate

the architecture• Generalise existing approaches

Measurement of Compliance

• Different grouding of behavioural profiles for process models and for logs

VS

• Strictness of order relations of Behavioural Profile– Subsumption relation– For instance, interleaving order in process models subsumes

strict order in process log

A GD E

C

B

...

...F

H

E G C A CBA

E G C A CBAE G C A CBA

E G C A CBAE G C A CBA

Event Query Optimization

Process Models

Alert if A -> B and …

MonitoringQueries

ExtractingBehavioral

Profiles

QueryTranslation

sub(A) pull(B) …

Process TailoredExecution Plans

AnalystDomain Expertfor Processes

warning

s

Process Model Comprehension

Publications

• M. Weidlich, J. Mendling, M. Weske: Efficient Consistency Measurement based on Behavioural Profiles of Process Models. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE). To appear, 2010.

• M. Weidlich, A. Polyvyanyy, J. Mendling, M. Weske: Efficient Calculation of Causal Behavioural Profiles using Structural Decomposition. In: 31st International Conference on the Application and Theory of Petri nets 2010, Braga, Portugal, 21-25 June 2010.

• M. Weidlich, R. Dijkman, J. Mendling: The ICoP Framework: Identification of Correspondences between Process Models. In: 22nd International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2010), Hammamet, Tunesia, 07-11 June 2010.

• M. Weidlich, A. Polyvyanyy, N. Desai, J. Mendling: Process Compliance Measurement based on Behavioural Profiles. In: 22nd International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2010), Hammamet, Tunesia, 07-11 June 2010.

• S. Smirnov, M. Weidlich, J. Mendling, M. Weske: Action Patterns in Business Process Models. In: 7th International Joint Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC 2009), Stockholm, Sweden, 24-27 November 2009.

• M. Weidlich, M. Weske, J. Mendling: Change Propagation in Process Models using Behavioural Profiles. In: IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC 2009), Bangalore, India, 21-25 September 2009.

Other Selected Publications• H.A. Reijers, J. Mendling: A Study into the Factors that Influence the Understandability of Business

Process Models. IEEE Transactions on Systems Man & Cybernetics, Part A (SMCA), accepted. • I. Weber, J. Hoffmann, J. Mendling: Beyond Soundness: On the Verification of Semantic Business

Process Models. Distributed and Parallel Databases (DPD). Volume 27, Number 3, pages 271-343, 2010, Springer-Verlag.

• J. Mendling, H.A. Reijers, W.M.P. van der Aalst: Seven Process Modeling Guidelines (7PMG). Information and Software Technology (IST). Volume 52, Number 2, pages 127-136, 2010.

• J. Mendling, H.A. Reijers, J. Recker: Activity Labeling in Process Modeling: Empirical Insights and Recommendations. Information Systems (IS). Volume 35, Number 4, pages 467-482. 2010.

• G. Decker, J. Mendling: Process Instantiation. Data & Knowledge Engineering (DKE). Volume 68, pages 777-792. 2009. Elsevier B.V.

• C. Ouyang, M. Dumas, W. van der Aalst, A. ter Hofstede, and J. Mendling: From Business Process Models to Process-oriented Software Systems. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). Volume 19, Number 1, pages 2:1-2:37. July 2009. ACM.

• J. Mendling, B.F. van Dongen, W.M.P. van der Aalst: Getting Rid of OR-Joins and Multiple Start Events in Business Process Models. Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). Special Issue on EDOC 2007 Best Papers. Volume 2, Number 4, pages 403-419. October 2008. Taylor & Francis.

Agenda

• Why Consistency between Process Models?• Why Behavioural Profiles?• How to validate the concept?• What are further applications?• What to take home?

What to take home

• Behavioural Profiles provide useful abstraction• Profiles can be calculated efficiently• Profiles can be used in various scenarios