The document discusses the description of business processes through various types of events using the subject-oriented business process management (S-BPM) approach. It highlights the roles of subjects as event producers and consumers, the impact of nondeterministic events on process behavior, and the integration of complex event processing (CEP) engines. Additionally, it emphasizes the distinction between subjects and agents in the execution of business processes.

1. NONDETERMINISTIC EVENTS IN
BUSINESS PROCESSES
Albert Fleischmann, Metasonic AG
Werner Schmidt, University of Applied Sciences Ingolstadt
Christian Stary, University of Linz
Florian Strecker, Metasonic AG

2. Objective and Agenda
In this presentation we want to show how business processes
can be described based on various types of events using the
S-BPM (subject-oriented business process management)
approach.
• Events, event producer and event consumer:
Subjects and messages
• Nondeterministic events/messages
• Integration of CEP engines into subjects
• Subjects and agents
• Summary
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3. Events, Event Producer and
Event Consumer
Subjects: - represent abstract actors in a process (technical or human)
- produce and consume events (send and receive messages)
Events: - produced and consumed by subjects
- asynchronous or synchronous message exchange (input pool)
Process: structures the actions of each subject and coordinates the
required communication among the subjects.
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4. Nondeterministic Subject Behaviour
Change Order
Customer Order handling
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5. Customer changes Order
The customer changes his order at an arbitrary point in time:
• change request arrives during handling the order:  allowed, accepted
• change request arrives after delivery has started  not allowed, rejected
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6. Nondeterministic Subject Behaviour
Change Order
Customer
Main path Nondeterministic
event guard
behaviour
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7. Nondeterministic Subject Behaviour
Change Order
Order Handler
Main path
behaviour
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8. Nondeterministic Subject Behaviour
Change Order and Complex Events
• The customer starts a subject which observes prices
for the ordered product
• Depending on the retrieved price the customer changes
the order
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9. Behaviour of Price Observer
Price Observer
Main path
CEP Engine
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10. Behaviour of Customer
Customer
behaviour
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11. Subjects and Agents
• Subjects as abstract actors are mapped on agents
• Agents execute the specified behaviour of the subjects
• Agents can handle several subjects in different processes
• Agents can be humans, software, hardware etc.
• Subjects can be assigned to different agents
• Agents build the execution environment of a business
process
• During process execution agents can be controlled and
supported by workflow software
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12. Agents assigned to Subjects
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13. Process Model and Process
Instances
Process model: Order
Human
Create
instance
Time
Data
Order of A
Order of B
Order of C
Order of D
Process Order of E
Instance
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14. Summary
• S-BPM is a method to describe business processes in an
event-driven way
• Subjects represent active entities in a business process
independent from certain agents
• The handling of deterministic and nondeterministic
events can be described transparently
• A CEP engine can be integrated in a straightforward way
by encapsulating it in a subject
• Subjects and agents are not the same
• Events cause the creation of process instances and
influence the execution of running instances
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15. Questions and Answers
Thank you for your attention
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