20080215 jbpm Business Process Simulation with Jboss jBPM

Master ThesisBuilding an open sourceBusiness Process Simulationtoolwith JBoss jBPM
Stuttgart University of applied science
15.02.2007
Bernd Rücker

Objective
Building an open source Business Process
Simulation toolwithJboss jBPM
Examine simulation of business processes
business perspective
technical perspective
Implement a business process simulation tool based on open source components
Develop a tutorial & use the tool in a real life case study

Agenda
Basics
Business Process Management (BPM)
Business Process Simulation (BPS)
Typical Simulation goals
Discrete Event Simulation
The developed tool
Used Open Source components
Combine BPM & Simulation
Example & Demo

What is a business process?
Create defined output from a given input
Ordered activities
Creates business value / business motivated
Long running (maybe months or years)
Contain wait states
Activities can be automated or done by humans

How are they supported by software?
Gui 1
Gui 2
Gui 3
Customer
Component
GUI
Paper
Email
Software systems
SAP
Server
EAI-Tool
Web-Service

Types of integration
App 1
App 2
Processes
BPM
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
Process-
integration
SOA
Services
Applications
Function-
integration
Middleware
Data
Logical DB
Data-
integration
DB 2
DB 1

Business Process Engine
Administrator
Clerk
Business Analyst
Developer
Task
Management
Business ProcessEngine
Process
Execution
Other systems
Process
definitions
Administration
Process
Logs
Persistence

The BPM life-cycle
Analysis
Design
Control
Iterative Improvement
Implementation
Execution

The problem with process changes
The future is hard to predict
Unintuitive results, especially if different processes are involved
Changes in processes are
Expensive
Explosive for e.g. “team spirit” in companies
Lots of risks

Simulation
Simulation is the process of describing a real system and using this model for experimentation, with the goal of understanding the system’s behavior or to explore alternative strategies for its operation.
Shannon

Business Process Simulation (BPS)
Model of reality = business process + additional information
Helps to predict outcome without putting new processes into production
Use cases:
Process changes
New processes (“Business Process Reengineering”)
Changed environment

BPS vision
Same model as for process execution
process model & additional info
Analysis
benchmarks,
KPI, …
Design
Control
(stochastic)
simulation
alternative process structures
Iterative Improvement
Implementation
Execution
BAM
Life data from history

Typical Simulation Goals
Identify cycle times for new or changed processes
Identify process costs
Benchmark alternative process structures
Forecast effects of changing amount of input events (for example the double amount of orders)
Support capacity or staff planning
Benchmark different parameter configurations

Example: Returned Goods
Swimlane
Avg, duration (standard derivation)
process runs: 195
100
95
Accountant
180 (30)
195
Clerk
180 (60)
165
Tester
732,25 (448)
30
145
20
Accountant
180 (30)
dispatcher
325.50 (182)
175
20

Example
Questions:
How many people do I need for a special amount of work?
What is the best tradeoff between too much and too less people?
Swimlane
process runs: 195
100
95
Accountant
180 (30)
195
Clerk
180 (60)
165
Tester
732,25 (448)
30
145
20
Accountant
180 (30)
dispatcher
325.50 (182)
175
20

Example
Questions:
Is it maybe cheaper to skip the extended tests and so also refund some not defect goods
Is it maybe cheaper to skip all tests?
Swimlane
process runs: 195
100
95
Accountant
180 (30)
195
Clerk
180 (60)
165
Tester
732,25 (448)
30
145
20
Accountant
180 (30)
dispatcher
325.50 (182)
175
20

Simulation input
distribution of start events (amount and time)
distribution of waiting time
resource pools
distribution of duration/processing time for task
distribution of duration/processing time for task

Simulation
discrete simulation
Discrete Event Simulation (DES)
continuous simulation

Discrete Event Simulation
State changes happen at discrete events in time
Nothing happens between 2 neighboring points in time
Finite sequence of model states
Model time is independent of real time

Event oriented modeling style
1
3
2
2
1
3

Components of DES
Model state
Simulation clock
Event list
Central controller
Random number generator / Distributions
Statistical counters / data collectors

Statistics
Theoretical Distributions
Warm up period

My BPS tool – used components
JBoss jBPM
Business Process Engine
Open Source (LGPL)
Backed by RedHat / JBoss
DESMO-J
Java Simulation Framework (DES)
Developed & maintained by the University of Hamburg
Open Source (Apache License)
JasperReports as reporting generator

Business Process Engine:
JBoss jBPM
DES-Framework:
DESMO-J
Combination of BPM & DES
?

Combination of BPM & DES in action
21:33
21:33
Eventlist
21:40 start process
Distributions
Counters &
data
collectors

21:33
21:40
21:40
Eventlist
21:40 start process
21:40 start process
22:07 start process
22:55 parcel arrived
Distributions
Counters &
data
collectors

22:55
22:55
Eventlist
Distributions
Counters &
data
collectors

23:41
23:41
Eventlist
Distributions
Counters &
data
collectors

What was needed for combination?
Special Events in DESMO-J
Clock-Synchronization
Event-Generation at special points in the process execution
Additionally:
Resource pools
Queues
Automatic decision taking
Influence on service calls

jBPM Simulation
Architecture
jBPM Designer
support planned
jBPM (used for simulation)
Configuration
BAM
Production jBPM
DESMO-J
Reporting
Data source
Event Generator & Queue
In memory objects
DB
JasperReports

Simulation configuration example
<experiment name='ReturnDefectiveGoods' time-unit='second'
run-time='28800' real-start-time='30.03.1980 00:00:00:000'
currency='EUR' unutilized-time-cost-factor='0.0'>

<scenario name="status_quo">
<distribution name="start" sample-type="real"
type="erlang" mean="95"/>
<distribution name="parcel" sample-type="real"
type="normal" mean="28" standardDeviation="17"/>
...
<resource-pool name="tester" pool-size="5" costs-per-time-unit="0.025"/>
...
<sim-process path="/.../ReturnDefectiveGoods/processdefinition.xml">
<process-overwrite start-distribution="start"/>
<state-overwrite state-name="wait for parcel" time-distribution="parcel">
<transition name="parcel arrived" probability="195"/>
</state-overwrite>
<decision-overwrite decision-name="ordered within the last two weeks?">
<transition name="YES" probability="100"/>
<transition name="NO" probability="95"/>
</decision-overwrite>
...
</sim-process>
</scenario>

Live Demo & Result
Live-Demo

Further topics
Analyzing simulation results
Results are just “samples”
Repetitions are needed
Use statistical theory to calculate confidence
Optimization
Not addresses by simulation itself
Simulation only evaluate given scenarios
Open Issues / Possible future work
GUI, support all jBPM features, better reporting, process animation, optimization

Conclusion
Tool was developed and is working
Source Code contributed to JBoss jBPM
A showcase / tutorial was developed and is available on camunda homepage
A real-life case study was done with dataphone (Vienna)
Tool can leverage BPS to a wider range of people

Thankyou!
Questions?
bernd.ruecker@camunda.com
Thesis availableonline: www.camunda.com

20080215 jbpm Business Process Simulation with Jboss jBPM

by camunda services GmbH on Nov 14, 2009

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