MFI-5: Metamodel for process model registration

Chong Wang, Keqing He and Baba Piprani

Content

• Why we need MFI-5

• MFI and MFI-5

• Introduction of MFI-5

• Future work

Content

• Why we need MFI-5

• MFI and MFI-5

• Introduction of MFI-5

• Future work

Semantic Service-Oriented Architecture

(NLL, OWL(-s), UBL,…)Semantic Web Service

Evolution of Software Paradigm (1/2)

1980’s Time

Granularity of Software Modular

Service-Oriented Architecture

（ XML,SOAP,HTTP, … ）Web ServiceMiddleware

（ CORBA,J2EE… ）

Component

Object

Messages

1990’s 21 Century

Evolution of Software Paradigm (2/2)

• Web Services (WS) can be deemed as– Basic modular for software development– Popular form of web-based applications

• Specification related to different aspects of WS– Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)– Description languages: OWL-s, WSDL,…– Web Services registry mechanism: UDDI– ……

• Web service is a kind of process model

What is Process

• Process is defined as– a set of work items, scheduled according to constrain

ts, which all participate in fulfilling a common purpose. [Breton, 2001]

– transformation of input to output. [ISO/IEC 12207]– Structured set of activities involving various enterpris

es entities, that is designed and organized for a given purpose. [ISO 18629-1, 2004]

– one or more activities that occurs over a period of time in which objects participate. [Cutting-Decelle Anne-Francoise, 2005 ]

What is Process Model

• Process models are – carriers of process knowledge, concerning how to do things [John, 2006]– the products of process modeling that is described with a certain

process modeling language

• In general, process models are deemed as a special kind of information model with behavioral features– State transfer– Data exchange – ……

include – Web services, business process, workflow, etc.

Purpose/Objective

Activities

Steps/Orchestration

Actors & Roles

• Business cooperation and web service composition are more

and more popular in current practice within/across enterprises.

Why we need MFI-5 (1/3)

How to make them work together in a harmonious

and effective way?

?? ?

Goal 1 Goal 2

partOf partOf

Goal

expressedAs

Process

achievedBy

Why we need MFI-5 (2/3)

Personalized Requirements

Process 1 Process 2

partOf partOf

achievedBy achievedByinteroperate

Different expressions, formats and implementation details

Registration is the basis of interoperation and further integration

of process models.

Why we need MFI-5 (3/3)

• MFI family focuses on the various kinds of information resources

– MFI Core provides a very generic framework for various models.

• Insufficient to deal with input and output messages, which are the basic component of process model

– MFI Ontology Registration

• provides a facility to register administrative and evolution information of ontologies.

• A new part is needed to enable interoperation between process models and support f

urther customized construction based on them.

• Problems to be tackled in MFI-5 is to provide a facility to register the administrative in

formation about process models

– Structural info

– Semantics

Content

• Why we need MFI-5

• MFI and MFI-5

• Introduction of MFI-5

• Future work

Core ModelCore Model

ISO/IEC 19763 (Metamodel Framework for Interoperability)

MOF & ISO 11179(MDR)MOF & ISO 11179(MDR)

Metamodel for Ontology Registration

Metamodel for Ontology Registration

Metamodel for Model Mapping

Metamodel for Model Mapping

Metamodel for Process Model Registration

Metamodel for Process Model Registration

Metamodel InstanceMetamodel Instance

Universal Of DomainUniversal Of Domain

InteroperabilityExchanging

InteroperabilityExchanging

MFI

UOD-xUOD-y

from MFI Core

MFI Core & MFI-5

ModelByMOF ModelDomainProfile

ModelClassifier

-definedwithUML

-specifiedBy ModelSpecification

ModelComponent

ModelConstruct

Artifact Process Process_Modeling_Language-modelType

1..* 1

Content

• Why we need MFI-5

• MFI and MFI-5

• Introduction of MFI-5

• Future work

Scope of MFI-5 (1/3)

• Objective

1. Provide a metamodel to register process models, including busi

ness process model, web service and so on.

2. Focus on the relationship between process model described wit

h different process description languages, especially the compo

site process consists of sub-processes expressed in different la

nguages.

3. Promote semantic interoperation between various process mod

els.

4. Support process integration within/across organizations

Process modelregistry

MFI Process registration

MFI Core

Administrative information of process model A

Admin. Info. A

Administrative information of process model B

Admin. Info. B

Scope of MFI Process registration

Ontologyregistry

MFI Ontology Registration

Scope of M

FI-3

Scope of MFI-5 (2/3)

Specifications such as PSL

support

referredTo

Process model Afor application system A

Process model Bfor application system B

Process modelrepository

interoperationApplication system A

Application system B

Scope of MFI-5 (3/3)• Points in the scope of MFI-5

– Structural information of process model• Which sub-processes are contained in process model• Which artifact participate in fulfilling the common purpose

– Semantic constraints of process model• Semantic relation/contradiction between artifacts• Condition

– Mandatory sequence– Precondition and postcondition

• ……

• Outside the scope of MFI-5– Language specific details– Implementation level details

Basic idea of MFI-5Semantic InfoActual execution

12(2.12.2)3

Control_Constraint

Condition: precondition/postcondition

Control Construct: Sequence 2(2.12.2)3

Artifact_Constraint: semantic consistency between artifacts carried by Input/Output

Ontology

supports

Structural Info

CP

CP1

AP4AP3

AP2AP1

AP3

CP1

Input1 Output1

Input1

Input2

1 2 3

2.22.1

Output1

Output3

AP4

Input3

Output2

Input2 Output3

Process m

odel exp

ressed in d

ifferent m

odeling la

nguages

abstract

Overview of MFI-5

Base Model Process Control Model

MFI-5

Base Model (1/2)

• Base Model is proposed to register structure information of various process models– Goal: the purpose that should be achieved by fulfilling

the process model

– Artifact: the resources that participate in the process, which can be carried by its Inputs or Outputs

– Atomic Process: the process model characterized with the smallest granularity and one-step execution

– Composite Process: the complicated process model which is composed of at least two sub-processes.

Base Model (1/2)

-type : boolean(idl)

Process

Process_Modeling_LanguageGoal

Input

Output

Artifact

Atomic_ProcessComposite_Process

1

-realizes

1

-modelType

1

1..*

1

-hasInput

1..*

1 -hasOutput

1..*

-referredTo

*

*

-referredTo

**

1

2..*

Process Control Model (1/3)

• Process Control Model is defined to record two kinds of control constraints in process models

• Artifact_Constraint– Added to Artifact– From registration info of ontologies based on MFI-3– Usage

• establish a semantic bridge between different Artifacts

• support input/output matching between different process models

• Semantically annotate specified Artifact

• avoid semantic confliction during process integration

Process Control Model (2/3)

• Control_Constraint– Added to Process

– Consists of• The conditions that should be satisfied before or after executi

on of the process model• The sequence followed by the sub-processes

– Specially the conditions carried by control constructs, which are used to connect the sub-processes.

Process Control Model (3/3)

Constraint

Artifact_Constraint

Control_Constraint

Artifact

1..*

-constrainedBy

1

Condition

10..*

11..*

Control_Construct

Precondition Postcondition

Input

1

-constrainedBy 0..*

Output

1

-constrainedBy 0..*

Choice

Join

Sequence

AnyOrder

Split

-type : boolean(idl)

Process

1

-constrainedBy

1

Case 1: Service registration

Fragment documents of BravoAir (1/2)

Fragment documents of BravoAir (2/2)

Registration Info of BravoAirReservation

Process

type of Process Composite Process

name BravoAir_ProcessModel

URI URI_BravoAir_ProcessModel

administration_Record #

hasGoal Book flight

modelType OWL-S

hasInput Input: DepartureAirport_In

Input: ArrivalAirport_In

Input: RoundTrip_In

……

hasOutput Output: ReservationID_Out

Output: PreferredFlightItinerary_Out

……

consistsOf AtomicProcess: GetDesiredFlightDetails

AtomicProcess: SelectAvailableFlight

CompositeProcess: BookFlight

Process

type of Process Atomic Process

name Login

URI URI_Login

administration_Record #

hasGoal Input username and password

modelType OWL-S

hasInput Input: AcctName_In

Input: Password_In

Artifact

name AcctName

referredTo Input:AcctName_In

URI http://www.daml.org/services/owl-s/1.0/Concepts.owl#AcctName

Case 2:Manufacturing process

registration

Fragment of top level process for manufacturing a GT350*

* from Annex C of ISO 18629-12

Composite Process

……

Registration Info of manufacturing GT350 (1/2)

Process

type of Process Composite Process

name Make_gt350

URI URI_make_gt350

administration_Record #

hasGoal Manufacturing GT350

modelType PSL

consistsOf CompositeProcess: make_chassis

CompositeProcess: make_interior

CompositeProcess: make_drive

CompositeProcess: make_trim

CompositeProcess: make_engine

CompositeProcess: final_assembly

Control_Construct

name C1

Type Anyorder

before make_chassis

after make_interior

Control_Constraint

name Order_Of_Manufacturing_GT350

constrains Make_gt350

consistsOf Control_Construct: C1

Control_Construct: C2

Control_Construct: C3

Control_Construct: C4

Control_Construct: C5

Control_Construct

name C2

Type Join

before make_chassis

make_trim

……

after final_assembly

based on Base Model based on Process Control Model (Control Constraint)

Fragment of manufacturing sub-process

Manufacturing the 350-Engine

Manufacturing the 350-Block

Atomic Process

Registration Info of manufacturing GT350 (2/2)

Process

type of Process Atomic Process

name machine_block

URI URI_machine_block

administration_Record #

hasGoal Manufacturing 350- machine block

modelType PSL

Process

type of Process Composite Process

name Make_block

URI URI_make_block

administration_Record #

hasGoal Manufacturing 350-Block

modelType PSL

consistsOf AtomicProcess: machine_block

AtomicProcess: produce_molded_metal

Control_Construct

name C8

Type Sequence

before produce_molded_metal

after machine_block

Control_Constraint

name Order_Of_Manufacturing_GT350

constrains

Make_gt350

consistsOf Control_Construct: C8

based on Base Model based on Process Control Model (Control Constraint)

Summary of Case Study

• MFI-5 can be used to register administrative information of process models described with different languages– OWL-s, PSL, ……

• However, considering real interoperation between process models, we need not only– Registration info based on MFI-5

but supplement relevant information, including– Mappings between specified modeling languages– Implementation details– ……

Content

• Why we need MFI-5

• MFI and MFI-5

• Introduction of MFI-5

• Future work

Future work

• MFI-5– Improve two models in detail – Validation of 19763-5– Get CD resolution in Sydney meeting

• Applications – Logistics distribution domain– Urban transportation domain (ongoing)– ……

Thank You!