Evolution of Business Process Models and Languages

Abstract:"Theonlyconstantischange"isanoftencitedphrase.Weregarditaspredominantfortheareaofprocessbasedinformationsystems.Inthispaperweinvestigatehowevolutionofprocessbasedinformationsystemscanbesupportedby aprocess modelingframework that easily can be adjusted to changingrequirementsofanapplicationdomain.Ourkeycontributionistheprovisionofasystem infrastructure that supports theadaptationofbothprocess modelinglanguagesandprocessmodelstoevolvingapplicationrequirements.Ourapproachisbasedonamultilevelmetamodelingframework. 1Introduction "Theonlyconstantischange"isacommonquotationinliteraturewhenbusinessprocessmanagement is characterized.Withoutanticipatingthe introductionofamodelinghierarchy(Section3),thephenomenaofchangecanbeclassifiedaccordingtotheprocessmodelinglevelitoccurs.Startingatthe"lowest"level,runningprocessinstancesmighthavetobechangedtoreacttoasuddenshiftintheapplication.Amongothers,[Aa00],[El95]and[Ri04]areinvestigatingthisissueandsuggestadequatesolutions.Steppingonelevelup,theprocesstype(processmodel,processdefinition)mighthavetobechangedsinceithasbecomeobviousthatfromnowonacertainapplicationwillbeperformedinadifferentway[Aa00][He99].Nevertheless,itispossibletoevenstepupanotherlevelinaprocessmodelinghierarchy.Changeonthislevelmeansalteringthemodelinglanguageusedtodefineprocessmodels.Wefocusthisthirdinterpretationofchangeinthispaperandinvestigatechangesofprocessmodelinglanguages(PMLs)sincethisisthekindofchangewhichisnotsufficientlydealtwithinresearchandpromises powerfulmeanstoimplement processorientedinformationsystemsadequately.Nevertheless,wealsodiscusschangesofprocessmodelssincethisisclosetothechangeofaPML.Changingprocessinstancesisneglectedbecauseitisalreadydiscussedbroadlyin[Ja06].46

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