A rewriting logic approach to resource allocation analysis in business process models

Abstract This paper presents an approach for the modeling and analysis of resource allocation for business processes. It enables the automatic computation of measures for precisely identifying and optimizing the allocation of resources in business processes, including resource usage over time. The proposed analysis, especially suited to support decision-making strategies, is illustrated with a case study of a parcel ordering and delivery by drones that is developed throughout the paper. The paper comprises an encoding of a significant and expressive subset of the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) in rewriting logic, an executable logic of concurrent change that can naturally deal with state and with concurrent computations. The encoding is by itself a formal semantics and interpreter of the BPMN subset that captures all concurrent behavior and thus is used to simulate the concurrent evolution of any business process with a given number of resources and replicas.