Business processes need to conform with many regulations. These regulations usually cross over many business processes, so a change in one regulation can affect many business processes. To apply such a change, the systems that support these processes need to be audited and changed accordingly. Aspect-Oriented Business Process Management is a paradigm that aims to solve this problem by encapsulating these regulations separately from the core process models. To enact these models, two approaches are defined, named static and dynamic weaving. These approaches support enactment of these models effectively, yet they cannot address the management of non-retroactive regulations effectively. This gap hinders the management of business processes in organizations. Therefore, this paper proposes a third approach called hybrid weaving to fill this gap. The operational semantics of this approach is defined formally, and it is verified using state space analysis technique. This approach enables management of retroactive and non-retroactive regulations by weaving them into core process models at configuration time and run time. The result also enabled us to distinguish a new sort of process flexibility that can be offered when managing business processes.

1. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Amin Jalali
Email : aj (at) dsv.su.se
29/08/2017 1
Department of Computer and Systems Sciences,
Stockholm University,
Sweden

2. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Cross-Cutting Concerns in BPM
 Problems:
 Complexity
 Change Management
 Maintenance
 ...
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...
Auditing
Mortgage loan
Archive
LC process
AML
Change Asset Deal
Security
Cross-cutting
concerns
Core-
processes
MortgageloanProcess
Financial
Mng.
Contract
Mng.
Mortgage
Expert
Sign loan
contract
Receive the
deposit
Assess the
value
Receive
document
...
Receive Declaration
form
... ...

3. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
How to design models?
 separation of Concerns
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BusinessProcesses
...
Auditing
Mortgage loan
Archive
LC process
AML
Change Asset Deal
Security
Cross-cutting
concerns
Core-
processes
MMMM
M
Cross-cutting Concerns
(advices)
Core Concern
(main process)
M
Rules
(pointcuts)
AspectOriented
BusinessProcessModel
a) No decomposition
Scattering Problem
c) Horizontal decomposition
Tangling Problem
d) Orthogonal decomposition
Rules
b) Vertical decomposition
Scattering/Tangling Problem
 Obliviousness
In Program P whenever condition C arises perform Action A
 Quantification
Action
(Filman et al. 2000)

4. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Concerns and regulations
 The regulations can be defined in two ways, i.e.
 (i) they should be applied for actions that will happen
after the time of establishment (non-retroactively), or
 (ii) they should be applied for actions that also happen
before the time of establishment (retroactively).
 The ex-post-facto law prohibits introducing retroactive
regulations in many contexts, e.g. criminal, tax, etc.
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5. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
How to Enact?
 Static Weaving
 Dynamic Weaving
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(DesM)
Design Model
M
E
M
E
Cross-cutting
Concerns
Core-Concern
M
E
rules
S
(DesM)
Design Model
M
E
M
E
Cross-cutting
Concerns
Core-Concern
M
E
rules
S
M
E
S
Adapt while
running
(AdaWR)
Static
retroactively
Dynamic
Non-
retroactively
M
E
Compose Model
(CompM)

6. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Hybrid Weaving
 Key issues:
 Perform a static weaving
when an instance is
created (configuration
time)
 Update the pointcuts
(rules)
 Perform Dynamic
Weaving in enactment
time
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M
E
M
E
Cross-cutting
Concerns
Core-Concern
CM
E
rules
SCompose
Configurable Model
(CompCM)
Configure Configurable Model
(ConCM)
S
M
E
Cross-cutting
Concerns
Core-Concern
M
E
rules
M
E
M
E
S
Adapt while
running
(AdaWR)
M
E
M
E
Cross-cutting
Concerns
Core-Concern
CM
E
rules
S
(DesCM)
Design Configurable
Model
runtime
Configuration time

7. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Formal Semantics
 Coloured Petri Nets
 widely-used formal technique for system design and
verification
 Implemented in CPN Tools
 State Space Analysis
 To proof soundness
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8. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Discussion
 Configuration time can be considered to extend the Process Flexibility Taxonomy
 Hybrid Weaving is very complex and requires combinations of all flexibility types to be supported by
the tool!
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ProcessDefinitionCompleteness
Flexibility Configuration
Design Variation
Change
Deviation
Under Specification
(Late binding) (Late configuring) (Late modeling)
Instance
Level
Process
Level
Design-time Configuration-time Run-time
incompletecomplete

9. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Conclusion
 Managing both retroactive and non- retroactive
concerns
 Formal specification
 Model valdiation
 Extension of Taxonomy of Process Flexibility
 Future Direction:
 Extend the functionality of a WfMS based on the CPN
Model
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10. BIR 2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Questions
Thank you ...
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