Variability and Configurability of Business ProcessesWhy, What, When, and How?

Variability and Configurability of Business ProcessesWhy, What, When, and How?

Dragan Gašević

Business processes

Many (buzz)words

Dynamic Variable

Changeable Flexible

Configurable DeclarativeAgile

What’s all this about? Perhaps

“A business process is flexible if possible to change it without replacing it completely.”

Rainer Schmidt, Gil Regev, Pnina Soffer, Guest Editorial: Requirements for Flexibility and the Ways to Achieve It, Int. J. Business Process Integration and Management, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2008, pp. 1-4

Now, please, help! What’s different and similar?

Business processesDynamic Variable

Changeable Flexible

Configurable DeclarativeAgile

The rest of the talk A perspective to the problem Some experience in managing variability Open challenges

Part IA Perspective to

the Problem

Why and what?

Let me introduce myself

Also, an excuse to invite you tothe 4th International Conference on Software Language Engineering

http://planet-sl.org/sle2011

Variability in SoftwareLocations in software where behaviour can be configured

http://www.program-transformation.org/Variability/SoftwareVariabilityManagement

Variability ManagementSystematic approaches to managing

the complexity of variability in software

Higher configurability of software products

Software Product Lines A set of similar software systems (families)

Share many common features Satisfy requirements of a particular domain

Configuration Process

Product 1 Product 2Product n

…

Maintainability, too?! Already known in (software) engineering

… the ease with which a product can be maintained to correct defects meet new requirements make future maintenance easier, or cope with a changed environment

As simple as a Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintainability

Software Quality Maintainability characteristics

Analyzability capability to be diagnosed for deficiency

Changeability possibility and ease of change when modifications needed

Understandability prospect and likelihood to be understood & comprehended

ISO 9126 standard, Software engineering — Product quality

Community Engineering

Variability Management in BPs

Systematic management of complexity of variability for

better configurability

Changeability in BPsPossibility and ease of change

when modifications needed

At design, configuration, and run-time

Understandability in BPsProspect and likelihood to be understood & comprehended

Both variable BPs & configuration processes

Part II Experience in variability &

configurability of BPs

How and When?

Legend

Process FlowStage

Artifact

Output

Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Tractability

Domain Analysis Domain Design

Product Family Requirements

Analysis

Requirements Model

Business Process

Family Design

Reference Business Process

Model

Model Mapping

Mapping Schema

Variability Modeling

Feature Model

Domain Implementation

Business Process Model Template

Implementation

Service Discovery/ Implementation & Binding

Appl

icati

on

Engi

neer

ing Application Analysis Application Design

Stakeholder’sRequirements

Analysis

Application Requirements Specification

Feature Prioritization and

Selection

Configured Feature Model

Application Implementation

Application Integration and

Deployment

Final Product

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5

A1 A2 A4

NFPs Aggregation and Propagation

Feature Model enriched with NFP values

D6

Business Process Configuration &

Service Selection

ConfiguredBusiness Process

A3

Traceability Links

Validation

Bird’s Eye View

Legend

Process FlowStage

Artifact

Output

Tractability



Analysis

Requirements Model

Business Process

Family Design


Model

Model Mapping

Mapping Schema


Feature Model



Implementation


Application Analysis Application Design


Analysis



Selection




Deployment

Final Product

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5

A1 A2 A4



D6


Service Selection


A3

Traceability Links

Validation

Bird’s Eye View

Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Appl

icati

on

Engi

neer

ing

Variability Modelingor

Process OrderMinimize RiskCustomer

Satisfaction

Build, then Ship and Bill

Bill, Build, Then Ship

++

Collect Payment

And

Build & PackageOrder

Electronic Payment

In Person Payment

CP

EP IPP

or

And

Ship & BillApply Process to Customer

Or

+

Determine Trustworthiness of

Customer

And

Check Credit Rate

Check if Return Customer

DTC

CCR CRC

And

Approve Order

AO

Apply Process to Any

Customer

And

APACApply Process

to Trusted Customer

Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Features derived from tasks and mapped to tasks and goals

Domain Analysis

CV-PC = DTC

Customer Verification

Payment Management

Order Management

Order Preparation

Bill Payment

E-BillHardcopy

BillOnline

TransactionCash Credit Card Debit Card

TCA-PC = AO ACA-PC = AO OL-PC = EP C-PC = IPP CC-PC = EP DC-PC = EP

Approve Order

Build

Trusted CustomerApproving

Any CustomerApproving

Check ReturnCustomer

Check CreditRate

CRC-PC = CRC CCR-PC = CCR

Integrity Constraints: Any Customer Approving includes Customer Verification

And

or

Alternative

Optional

Mandatory

Legend

P-PC = CPAO-PC = APAC

D1 D2

Goal-goal oriented model

Feature model



Satisfaction



++

Collect Payment

And


Electronic Payment

In Person Payment

CP

EP IPP

or

And


Or

+


Customer

And

Check Credit Rate


DTC

CCR CRC

And

Approve Order

AO


Customer

And

APACApply Process

to Trusted Customer

Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Derived concerns from

soft-goals

Features annotated with concerns

Domain Analysis

CV-PC = DTC


Payment Management

Order Management

Order Preparation

Bill Payment

E-BillHardcopy

BillOnline



Approve Order

Build




Check CreditRate



And

or

Alternative

Optional

Mandatory

Legend


D1 D2

Verification with description logic


Feature model



Satisfaction



++

Collect Payment

And


Electronic Payment

In Person Payment

CP

EP IPP

or

And


Or

+


Customer

And

Check Credit Rate


DTC

CCR CRC

And

Approve Order

AO


Customer

And

APACApply Process

to Trusted Customer

Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Derived concerns from

soft-goals

Features annotated with concerns

Domain Analysis

CV-PC = DTC


Payment Management

Order Management

Order Preparation

Bill Payment

E-BillHardcopy

BillOnline



Approve Order

Build




Check CreditRate



And

or

Alternative

Optional

Mandatory

Legend


D1 D2

Verification with description logic


Feature model

Business Process Family Design

Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Domain Design

Identity Federation

Credit Card

Payment

Debit Card Payment

Fraud Detection

Credit Card Validation

(Pre Verification)Mobile-based Notification

(MMS-SMS)

Phone/Fax Notification

Email/ Voice Mail

Selecting Payment

(Gateway Interface)

Notification Services

Paym

ent

Reference Business Process Model (Template)

jf

pf rf sfIdentity Federation

Payment

f

lf kf

if nf0 3

Debit CardPayment


(Pre Verification)

Credit CardPayment

FraudDetection


Mobile-based Notification(MMS-SMS)

Email/VoiceEmail

Notification Service

1f ...

Mapping

D3 D4 D5


Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Domain Design

Identity Federation

Credit Card

Payment

Debit Card Payment

Fraud Detection


(Pre Verification)Mobile-based Notification

(MMS-SMS)


Email/ Voice Mail

Selecting Payment

(Gateway Interface)

Notification Services

Paym

ent

jf

pf rf sfIdentity Federation

Payment

f

lf kf

if nf0 3

Debit CardPayment


(Pre Verification)

Credit CardPayment

FraudDetection


Mobile-based Notification(MMS-SMS)

Email/VoiceEmail

Notification Service

1f ...

Mapping

D3 D4 D5

Reference Business Process Model (Template)


Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Domain Design

D3 D4 D5

Variability for run-time

rBPMN: rule-enhanced BPMN


Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Domain Design

D3 D4 D5

Variability for run-time

rBPMN: rule-enhanced BPMN

http://code.google.com/p/rbpmneditor/

Legend

Process FlowStage

Artifact

Output

Tractability



Analysis

Requirements Model

Business Process

Family Design


Model

Model Mapping

Mapping Schema


Feature Model



Implementation




Analysis



Selection




Deployment

Final Product

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5

A1 A2 A4



D6


Service Selection


A3

Traceability Links

Validation

Bird’s Eye View

Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Appl

icati

on

Engi

neer

ing

Legend

Process FlowStage

Artifact

Output

Tractability



Analysis

Requirements Model

Business Process

Family Design


Model

Model Mapping

Mapping Schema


Feature Model



Implementation




Analysis



Selection




Deployment

Final Product

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5

A1 A2 A4



D6


Service Selection


A3

Traceability Links

Validation

Bird’s Eye View

Dom

ain

Engi

neer

ing

Appl

icati

on

Engi

neer

ing

Application Analysis

Stakeholder’s Requirements Analysis

A1

or


Satisfaction



++

Collect Payment

And


Electronic Payment

In Person Payment

CP

EP IPP

or

And


Or

+


Customer

And

Check Credit Rate


DTC

CCR CRC

And

Approve Order

AO

(d)


Customer

And

APACApply Process

to Trusted Customer

ObjectivesPreferencesConstraints

or


Satisfaction



ü+

+

Collect Payment

And


ü ü

Electronic Payment

In Person Payment

ü

ü ü

CP

EP IPP

or

And

Ship & Bill

üApply Process to Customer

Or

Apply Process to Trusted Customer

ü

+Determine

Trustworthiness of Customer

And

Check Credit Rate


DTC

CCR CRC

And

Approve Order

AO

ü

ü


CustomerAnd

APAC

ü

?üSatisfied Weakly Unknown Weakly Denied Conflict None Satisfied Denied

ü

Backward Reasoning

Appl

icati

on E

ngin

eerin

g

Appl

icati

on E

ngin

eerin

gApplication Design

Feature Prioritization and Selectionor

Process Order

Minimize RiskCustomer

Satisfaction



ü+

+

Collect Payment

And


ü ü

Electronic Payment

In Person Payment

ü

ü ü

CP

EP IPP

or

And

Ship & BillüApply

Process to Customer

Or

Apply Process to Trusted Customer

ü

+


Customer

And

Check Credit Rate


DTC

CCR CRC

And

Approve Order

AO

ü

ü

Apply Process to

AnyCustomer

And

APAC

ü

Payment Management

Order Management

Order Preparation

Bill Payment

E-BillHardcopy

BillOnline

TransactionCredit Card Debit Card

Approve Order

Build




Payment Management

Order Management

Order Preparation

Bill Payment

E-BillHardcopy

BillOnline


Approve Order

Build




Check CreditRate


Pre-configurationbased on intentions

Payment Management

Order Management

Order Preparation

Bill Payment

E-BillHardcopy

BillOnline


Approve Order

Build



Application Design

Feature Prioritization and Selection

Payment Management

Order Management

Order Preparation

Bill Payment

E-BillOnline


Approve Order

Build


Prioritization and automatic configuration

techniques

Decision science – AHP

Artificial intelligence – Fuzzy Datalog & HTN

Appl

icati

on E

ngin

eerin

g

Preferences

Application Design

Feature Prioritization and Selection

Payment Management

Order Management

Order Preparation

Bill Payment

E-BillOnline


Approve Order

Build


Appl

icati

on E

ngin

eerin

gConditional Stratified

Analytical Hierarchy Process

Relative importance

Part III Open Challenges

Does it work!?All those models! Yeah, right!?

Empirical researchUrgent!

Quality Issues Usability

Natural language vs. visual Physics of notation, cognitive dimensions, …

Maintainability Understandability, changeability, analyzability Internal structure metrics and experiments

…

Does visualization help?

Visualization for configurability Changeability tasks (time)

H1: (Easy) t (38) = 2.11, p = 0.041* H1: (Complex) t (38) = 3.47, p = 0.001*

Understandability tasks (time) H3: (Easy) t (38) = 1.42, p = 0.164 H4: (Complex) t (38) = 2.71, p = 0.009

No significant effect on correctness

For feature models, best predictors of Analyzability: NLeaf and NVC Understandability: NLeaf and FoC Changeability: FoC, NLeaf, and CC

NLeaf - Number of leaf features FoC - Flexibility of configuration

NoV - Number of valid configurations CC - Cyclomatic complexity

Community call: We need a corpus!

Which method to use?Theoretical

Case study

EmpiricalAction research

Ethnography

Simulation

Scenario analysis

Systemic observation

Pilot testingGrounded theory

Critical analysis of literature

Expert reviewFocus group

Algorithmic analysis

Assertion

Cognitive walkthrough Concept mapping

Contextual inquiry

Design research

End-user studyExploratory data analysis

Heuristic evaluation

Lessons learned

Evidence-based BPM As the integration of best research evidence with

practitioner expertise and stakeholder values

The goal made up based on

Evidence-based BPM

Evidence-based BPM

Evidence-based BPMCurrent best evidence from research

to integrate withpractical experience and human values

in the decision making process

Evidence-based BPM

Systematic reviews

Systematic reviews

Systematic reviews

Measures matter!

Measures matter!But, how much really?!

~1/3 out of the 19 studies presented empirical resultsVery few of them report empirical validation as critical

Sanchez Gonzalez et al., 2010 BPM Journal 16 (1), pp. 114-134

Measures matter!But, how much really?!

Not even touched research on interoperability,

compliance, security, maturity, learnability, analyzability, and testability

Sanchez Gonzalez et al., 2010 BPM Journal 16 (1), pp. 114-134

Infrastructure need!

Community Engineering

Acknowledgements Lab for Semantic Technologies at AU

Marek Hatala, Ebrahim Bagheri, Amal Zouaq, Marko Boskovic, Milan Milanovic, Bardia Mohabbati, Mohsen Asadi, Ivana Ognjanovic, Samaneh Soltani, Luis Rocha, Vid Prezel, Tony Lenihan, Esan Murugesupillai, Glenn Brand,…

Jean-Marie Favre and Ralf Lämmel Steffen Staab, Fernando Silva Parreiras,

Gerd Gröner, Tobias Graml, Eduard Schleining Gerd Wagner and Adrian Giurca

Thank you!

Questions?

Education

Variability and Configurability of Business ProcessesWhy, What, When, and How?