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

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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

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Correspondences

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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

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Existing Notions like Equivalence of Traces are too strict

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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