Extending Feature Models to Express Variability in Business Process Models

Introduction
BPFM Supporting Business Process Variability
Evaluation in Public Administration Domain
Conclusions and Future Works
Extending Feature Models to Express Variability
in Business Process Models
R. Cognini, F. Corradini, A. Polini, B. Re
University of Camerino
CAiSE-2015 Workshop on Enterprise Modeling
Stockholm, June 8th, 2015
R. Cognini, F. Corradini, A. Polini, B. Re Variability Modelling in BP

Introduction
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 BPFM Supporting Business Process Variability
3 Evaluation in Public Administration Domain
4 Conclusions and Future Works

Introduction
Business Process Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the capability of deﬁning and supporting Business
Processes able to accommodate to changes in the environment (internal and
external) in which they operate
Taxonomies
Variability
Adaptation
Looseness
Evolution
Changes perspectives
Functional
Behavioral
Organization
Information
Temporal
Operational
Reichert, Manfred, and Barbara Weber. Enabling ﬂexibility in process-aware information systems: challenges,
methods, technologies. Springer, 2012.

Introduction
Systematic Literature Review on BP Flexibility
A Systematic Literature Review was
conducted on the topic of BP
Flexibility
Some research directions - that seem
to deserve further attention by the
community - were highlighted
The guidelines suggested by
Kitchenham were followed
Cognini, R., Corradini, F., Gnesi, S., Polini, A., and Re, B. Research challenges in business process adaptability. In
Proceedings of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (pp. 1049-1054). ACM. Gyeongju
(Korea), 24 - 28 March 2014.

Introduction
Planning and Conducting the Review
Research Questions
RQ1. What raises the need for
Business Process flexibility?
RQ2. Which phases of the Business
Process Management life
cycle support for flexibility is
required?
RQ3. Which are the instruments
(languages and mechanisms)
used to express and support
Business Process flexibility?
RQ4. Are there any real
experiences of Business
Process flexibility?

Introduction
Results from the SLR
BPs have to be flexible mainly
due to external reason and
exception (RQ1.)
Flexible BPM systems works
mainly on Design/Modeling and
Execution phases of BPM life
cycle (RQ2.)
There is not a standard language
for flexible BP (RQ3.1)
Many approach for flexible BP are
proposed in literature (RQ3.2)
There is a lack of real experiences
(RQ4.)
Open Challenges
Modeling languages for
Business Processes Variability
Business Processes Running
Instances Adaptation
Verification of Flexible Business
Processes
Business Processes Evolution

Introduction
BP Variability Approaches
Variability is the ability of deriving
diﬀerent Business Process variants
from a Conﬁgurable Process
Model at design-time
Several Business Process variability
approaches are available in the
litterature among the others we refer
to C-iEPC, vBPMN and PROVOP
C. Ayora et al., VIVACE: A framework for the systematic evaluation of variability support in process-aware
information systems, Inform. Softw. Technol. (2014).

Introduction
Configurable integrated EPC
Customization is achieved by
restriction
Customizes control flow, resources and
object perspective
Uses an extension of EPC
Configurable Nodes include functions,
data, roles and connectors
La Rosa, Marcello, et al. ”Configurable multi-perspective business process models.” Information Systems 36.2
(2011): 313-340.

Introduction
vBPMN
restriction and extension
Customizes only control ﬂow
perspective Extension of BPMN 2.0
Applies adaptation, exception handling
and time patterns
Customization is done by means of
patterns applied according to
adaptation rules in adaptive segments
Dhring, Markus, and Birgit Zimmermann. ”vBPMN: event-aware workﬂow variants by weaving BPMN2 and
business rules.” Enterprise, Business-Process and Information Systems Modeling. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011.
332-341.

Introduction
PROVOP
restriction and extension
Customizes control ﬂow, resource and
object perspective
Language-independent
Applies change operations (INSERT,
DELETE, MOVE and MODIFY)
Customization is done by means of
operations applied according to
context rules in segments bounded
with adjustment points
Hallerbach, Alena, Thomas Bauer, and Manfred Reichert. ”Capturing variability in business process models: the
Provop approach.” Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice 22.67 (2010): 519-546.

Introduction
The Business Process Feature Model (BPFM) Approach
Explicitly represent behavioral perspective is not always possible!
Organizations operating in a give sector can be diﬀerent in terms of organization
structure even if they behave similar providing services sharing the same goal
A novel modeling approach to support ﬂexibility of Business Processes was proposed
The approach permits to deal with large collections of Business Processes variants
thanks to the integration of Business Process and Feature Model notations

Introduction
Feature Modeling
Feature Model (FM) is an
approach emerged in the context of
SPL in order to support the
development of a variety of products
from a common platform
K. Kang, S. G. Cohen, J. A. Hess, W. E. Novak, and A. S. Peterson. Feature-oriented domain analysis feasibility
study. Technical report, DTIC Doc., 1990.

Introduction
Business Process Model and Notation 2.0: Basic Elements

Introduction
BPFM Notation
In BPFM features represent the activities
(sub-processes and task) characterizing a
BP and constraints specify if activities
have to be inserted in a BP variants and
if activities have to or can be executed
Information concerning the input and
output data object are included, they are
related to an activity

Introduction
Mapping BPFM Activities to BPMN

Introduction
Mandatory Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
Optional Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
Domain Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
Special Case Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
Inclusive Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
One Optional Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
One Selection Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
Xor Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
Xor Selection Constraints Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
Data Objects in BPFM
BPFM manages all types of BPMN 2.0 data objects, including
data object states, with the same modelling notation

Introduction
BPFM introduces the notion of composite and part of data
objects

Introduction
The state of a composed Data Object is not deduced by the
states of the single parts

Introduction
Data Mapping to BPMN

Introduction
BPFM Tool Based on ADOxx

Introduction
Application Domain
Public Administrations engage in complex interactions in order to provide services to
citizens and companies
Public Service related activities can be modelled using notation and tools based on
Business Process abstractions
Even if PAs share the same goal each of them can have different organizational
structure depending on the PA self-organization capability
In PA law partially defines the activities to be performed, their temporal order
and the needed data-objects (global specification)
Each PA autonomy reacts according to internally requirements (local
implementation), BPs are differentlly implemented

Introduction
Sportello Unico Attivitá Produttive (SUAP)
SUAP refers to the activities that the Italian PAs have to put in place in order to
permit to entrepreneurs to set up a new company
SUAP office offers more than 110 BP, they are different considering (i) the request
target so its important to keep in use a relevant and universal classification for
economic activities types and (ii) the geographical location
SCIA Commerciale (Business Start-up Certified Notification)
SCIA Edilizia (Building Start-up Certified Notification)
Titolo Unico (Standard request to start business activity)
Variante Urbanistica (Zoning variances)
SUAP office can be placed inside the municipality or can be aggregated and offered by
a consortium of municipalities

Introduction
SUAP - Regularity Framework
European Directive 2006/123/CE of the European Parliament and of the
council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market
Decree-Law n. 112/2008 article 38 converted into Law n. 133/2008 has
expanded the scope for participation of Italian Municipalities to the ﬁght
against tax evasion.
Decree-Law n. 82/2005 e s.m.i. introducing the Code of Digital
Administration. Decree of the President of the Republic (DPR) n.
160/2010 article 7 introducing detail regarding to the SUAP.
...

Introduction
SUAP - BPFM Model Design

Introduction
SUAP - BPFM Conﬁguration

Introduction
SUAP - BP Fragments Derivation

Introduction
SUAP - BP Variant Design

Introduction
BP variability is a need for complex organizations such as Public
Administrations
Starting from a deep analysis of the literature a novel notation and
approach were deﬁned considering variability impact on functional, behavioral
and information perspectives
A modeling environment was also designed to support variable Business
Processes modeling
There are many items in the future work list, among the others
Continue experiments and validation
The approach does not provide mechanisms to verify that derived BP
variants are corrects
Adopt the approach to drive run-time adaptation, in particular exploring
the use of fragments

Introduction
Thank you!
Barbara Re
barbara.re@unicam.it

Extending Feature Models to Express Variability in Business Process Models

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