Validation of User Intentions in Process Models

Goal models and business process models are complementary artifacts for capturing the requirements and their execution flow in software engineering. Usually, goal models serve as input for designing business process models, and it requires mappings between both types of models. Due to the large number of possible configurations of elements from both goal models and business process models, developers struggle with the challenge of maintaining consistent configurations of both models and their mappings. Managing these mappings manually is error-prone. In our work, we propose an automated solution that relies on Description Logics and automated reasoners for validating mappings that describe the realization of goals by activities in business process models. The results are the identification of two inconsistency patterns --- strong inconsistency and potential inconsistency, and the development of the corresponding algorithms for detecting inconsistencies.

[1]  van der Wmp Wil Aalst,et al.  Workflow control-flow patterns : a revised view , 2006 .

[2]  Steffen Staab,et al.  Validation of Families of Business Processes , 2011, CAiSE.

[3]  Aneesh Krishna,et al.  Combining i* and BPMN for Business Process Model Lifecycle Management , 2006, Business Process Management Workshops.

[4]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Questionnaire-based variability modeling for system configuration , 2009, Software & Systems Modeling.

[5]  Birger Andersson,et al.  A Declarative Foundation of Process Models , 2005, CAiSE.

[6]  Mathias Weske,et al.  Management and engineering of process-aware information systems: Introduction to the special issue , 2012, Inf. Syst..

[7]  Geert Poels,et al.  A Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering Method for Business Processes , 2010, CAiSE Forum.

[8]  Yair Wand,et al.  Semantic Analysis of Flow Patterns in Business Process Modeling , 2007, BPM.

[9]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Workflow Patterns , 2004, Distributed and Parallel Databases.

[10]  Frank Leymann,et al.  Faster and More Focused Control-Flow Analysis for Business Process Models Through SESE Decomposition , 2007, ICSOC.

[11]  P. Soffer,et al.  Information Systems Evolution - CAiSE Forum 2010, Hammamet, Tunisia, June 7-9, 2010, Selected Extended Papers , 2011, CAiSE Forum.

[12]  Jan Mendling,et al.  Preserving correctness during business process model configuration , 2010, Formal Aspects of Computing.

[13]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering , 2000, International Series in Software Engineering.

[14]  Diego Calvanese,et al.  The Description Logic Handbook , 2007 .

[15]  Juan Sánchez,et al.  A Goal-Oriented Approach for Variability in BPMN , 2010, WER.

[16]  Daniel Amyot,et al.  Evaluating goal models within the goal‐oriented requirement language , 2010, Int. J. Intell. Syst..

[17]  Eric Yu,et al.  Social Modeling for Requirements Engineering , 2011, Cooperative information systems.

[18]  Yair Wand,et al.  Goal-Driven Analysis of Process Model Validity , 2004, CAiSE.

[19]  Marin Litoiu,et al.  Goal-Based Behavioral Customization of Information Systems , 2011, CAiSE.

[20]  Christoph Bussler,et al.  On Structured Workflow Modelling , 2000, CAiSE.

[21]  Petia Wohed,et al.  A Pattern and Dependency Based Approach to the Design of Process Models , 2004, ER.

[22]  Watts S. Humphrey,et al.  Software process development and enactment: concepts and definitions , 1993, [1993] Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Software Process-Continuous Software Process Improvement.

[23]  Yijun Yu,et al.  Requirements-Driven Design and Configuration Management of Business Processes , 2007, BPM.

[24]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Configurable Workflow Models , 2008, Int. J. Cooperative Inf. Syst..

[25]  Yannis Smaragdakis,et al.  J-Orchestra: Enhancing Java programs with distribution capabilities , 2009, TSEM.

[26]  Sean Quan Lau Domain Analysis of E-Commerce Systems Using Feature-Based Model Templates , 2006 .

[27]  Axel van Lamsweerde,et al.  Requirements Engineering: From System Goals to UML Models to Software Specifications , 2009 .

[28]  Hongjun Lu,et al.  Conceptual Modeling – ER 2004 , 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[29]  Fabio Massacci,et al.  From Early Requirements Analysis towards Secure Workflows , 2007, IFIPTM.

[30]  Gregor Engels,et al.  Detecting and Resolving Process Model Differences in the Absence of a Change Log , 2008, BPM.

[31]  Peter Kawalek,et al.  Goal-based business process models: creation and evaluation , 1997, Bus. Process. Manag. J..

[32]  Priya Narasimhan,et al.  Service-Oriented Computing - ICSOC 2007, Fifth International Conference, Vienna, Austria, September 17-20, 2007, Proceedings , 2007, ICSOC.

[33]  Keshav Pingali,et al.  The program structure tree: computing control regions in linear time , 1994, PLDI '94.

[34]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Goal-oriented requirements analysis and reasoning in the Tropos methodology , 2005, Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell..

[35]  Raman Kazhamiakin,et al.  A framework for integrating business processes and business requirements , 2004 .

[36]  Jan Mendling,et al.  From business process models to process-oriented software systems , 2009, TSEM.

[37]  Guido Governatori,et al.  Compliance aware business process design , 2008 .