Partial completion of activity in business process specification

We examine the current workflow modelling capability from a new angle and demonstrate a weakness of current workflow specification languages in relation to execution of activities. This shortcoming is mainly due to serious limitations of the corresponding computational/execution model behind the business process modelling language constructs. The main purpose of this paper is the introduction of new specification/modelling constructs allowing for more precise representation of complex activity states during its execution. This new concept enables visibility of a new activity state–partial completion of activity, which in turn allows for a more flexible and precise enforcement/monitoring of automated business processes.

Sanomalehden lehtitilausprosessin kuvaus ja kehittäminen

Työn tavoitteena oli luoda selkeä kuvaus sanomalehden lehtitilausprosessin toiminnasta tilauksesta jakeluun sekä kartoittaa lehtitilausprosessiin liittyvät ongelmakohdat ja esittää alustavia parannus- ja kehittämisehdotuksia niiden ratkaisemiseksi. Kuvauksen rakenteen teoreettisen pohjan luo työn alussa esitetty strukturoitu analyysi eli SA-menetelmä (structured analysis), jota soveltaen varsinainen kuvaus pääosin henkilöhaastatteluista saatuihin tietoihin perustuen toteutettiin.Sanomalehden lehtitilausprosessi on hyvin laaja ja monivaiheinen prosessi. Työn yhtenä tarkoituksena olikin selventää henkilöstölle, mitä kyseisen prosessin sisällä oikein tapahtuu. Kuvausta tehtäessä havaittiin useita lehtitilausprosessiin liittyviä ongelma- ja kehittämiskohteita, joiden kuntoon saattamiseksi on työssä esitetty alustavia ratkaisuvaihtoehtoja. Diplomityön teettämisen perusteena oli halu kehittää lehtitilausprosessia tilauksesta jakeluun nykyprosessin laadun parantamiseksi.Toimenpide-ehdotuksena esitetään tutkimuksessa läpi käytyjen sekä sen pohjalta mahdollisesti ilmenevien uusien parannus- ja kehittämisehdotusten toteuttamista lähitulevaisuudessa. Näin kyetään takaamaan lehtitilausprosessin toimivuus sekä vastaamaan asiakkaiden kasvaviin tarpeisiin myös tulevaisuudessa.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF RESOURCE-AWARE BUSINESS PROCESSES USING STOCHASTIC AUTOMATA NETWORKS

In this work, we study the performance evaluation of resource-aware business process models. We define a new framework that allows the generation of analytical models for performance evaluation from business process models annotated with resource management information. This framework is composed of a new notation that allows the specification of resource management constraints and a method to convert a business process specification and its resource constraints into Stochastic Automata Networks (SANs). We show that the analysis of the generated SAN model provides several performance indices, such as average throughput of the system, average waiting time, average queues size, and utilization rate of resources. Using the BP2SAN tool - our implementation of the proposed framework - and a SAN solver (such as the PEPS tool) we show through a simple use-case how a business specialist with no skills in stochastic modeling can easily obtain performance indices that, in turn, can help to identify bottlenecks on the model, to perform workload characterization, to define the provisioning of resources, and to study other performance related aspects of the business process.

Specification and Evaluation of Safety Properties in a Component-Based Software Engineering Process

Over the past years, component-based software engineering has become an established paradigm in the area of complex software intensive systems. However, many techniques for analyzing these systems for critical properties currently do not make use of the component orientation. In particular, safety analysis of component-based systems is an open field of research. In this chapter we investigate the problems arising and define a set of requirements that apply when adapting the analysis of safety properties to a component-based software engineering process. Based on these requirements some important component-oriented safety evaluation approaches are examined and compared.

Computational support for the process of software requirement specification

The software industry has become more and more concerned with the appropriate application of activities that composes requirement engineering as a way to improve the quality of its products. In order to support these activities, several computational tools have been available in the market, although it is still possible to find a lack of resources related to some activities. In this context, this paper proposes the inclusion of a module to aid in the requirements specification to a tool called Requirements Elicitation Support Tool. This module allows to specify requirements in accordance with IEEE 830 standard, thus contributing to the documentation of the requirements established for a software system, besides supporting the learning of concepts related to the requirements specification, which improves the skills of users of the tool. © 2012 IEEE.

Specification and validation of process constraints for flexible workflows

Workflow systems have traditionally focused on the so-called production processes which are characterized by pre-definition, high volume, and repetitiveness. Recently, the deployment of workflow systems in non-traditional domains such as collaborative applications, e-learning and cross-organizational process integration, have put forth new requirements for flexible and dynamic specification. However, this flexibility cannot be offered at the expense of control, a critical requirement of business processes. In this paper, we will present a foundation set of constraints for flexible workflow specification. These constraints are intended to provide an appropriate balance between flexibility and control. The constraint specification framework is based on the concept of pockets of flexibility which allows ad hoc changes and/or building of workflows for highly flexible processes. Basically, our approach is to provide the ability to execute on the basis of a partially specified model, where the full specification of the model is made at runtime, and may be unique to each instance. The verification of dynamically built models is essential. Where as ensuring that the model conforms to specified constraints does not pose great difficulty, ensuring that the constraint set itself does not carry conflicts and redundancy is an interesting and challenging problem. In this paper, we will provide a discussion on both the static and dynamic verification aspects. We will also briefly present Chameleon, a prototype workflow engine that implements these concepts. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Supporting the software testing process through specification animation

Achieving consistency between a specification and its implementation is an important part of software development. In this paper, we present a method for generating passive test oracles that act as self-checking implementations. The implementation is verified using an animation tool to check that the behavior of the implementation matches the behavior of the specification. We discuss how to integrate this method into a framework developed for systematically animating specifications, which means a tester can significantly reduce testing time and effort by reusing work products from the animation. One such work product is a testgraph: a directed graph that partially models the states and transitions of the specification. Testgraphs are used to generate sequences for animation, and during testing, to execute these same sequences on the implementation.

Support Tool to the Validation Process of Functional Requirements

The activity of validating identified requirements for an information system helps to improve the quality of a requirements specification document and, consequently, the success of a project. Although various different support tools to requirements engineering exist in the market, there is still a lack of automated support for validation activity. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to make up for that deficiency, with the use of an automated tool, to provide the resources for the execution of an adequate validation activity. The contribution of this study is to enable an agile and effective follow-up of the scope established for the requirements, so as to lead the development to a solution which would satisfy the real necessities of the users, as well as to supply project managers with relevant information about the maturity of the analysts involved in requirements specification.

A framework for specification-based testing

Test templates and a test template framework are introduced as useful concepts in specification-based testing. The framework can be defined using any model-based specification notation and used to derive tests from model-based specifications-in this paper, it is demonstrated using the Z notation. The framework formally defines test data sets and their relation to the operations in a specification and to other test data sets, providing structure to the testing process. Flexibility is preserved, so that many testing strategies can be used. Important application areas of the framework are discussed, including refinement of test data, regression testing, and test oracles.

Specification, refinement and verification of concurrent systems - An integration of Object-Z and CSP

This paper presents a method of formally specifying, refining and verifying concurrent systems which uses the object-oriented state-based specification language Object-Z together with the process algebra CSP. Object-Z provides a convenient way of modelling complex data structures needed to define the component processes of such systems, and CSP enables the concise specification of process interactions. The basis of the integration is a semantics of Object-Z classes identical to that of CSP processes. This allows classes specified in Object-Z to he used directly within the CSP part of the specification. In addition to specification, we also discuss refinement and verification in this model. The common semantic basis enables a unified method of refinement to be used, based upon CSP refinement. To enable state-based techniques to be used fur the Object-Z components of a specification we develop state-based refinement relations which are sound and complete with respect to CSP refinement. In addition, a verification method for static and dynamic properties is presented. The method allows us to verify properties of the CSP system specification in terms of its component Object-Z classes by using the laws of the the CSP operators together with the logic for Object-Z.

Model specification tests in nonparametric stochastic regression models

In this paper, we consider testing for additivity in a class of nonparametric stochastic regression models. Two test statistics are constructed and their asymptotic distributions are established. We also conduct a small sample study for one of the test statistics through a simulated example. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).

Specification of software architecture reconfiguration

In the past years, Software Architecture has attracted increased attention by academia and industry as the unifying concept to structure the design of complex systems. One particular research area deals with the possibility of reconfiguring architectures to adapt the systems they describe to new requirements. Reconfiguration amounts to adding and removing components and connections, and may have to occur without stopping the execution of the system being reconfigured. This work contributes to the formal description of such a process. Taking as a premise that a single formalism hardly ever satisfies all requirements in every situation, we present three approaches, each one with its own assumptions about the systems it can be applied to and with different advantages and disadvantages. Each approach is based on work of other researchers and has the aesthetic concern of changing as little as possible the original formalism, keeping its spirit. The first approach shows how a given reconfiguration can be specified in the same manner as the system it is applied to and in a way to be efficiently executed. The second approach explores the Chemical Abstract Machine, a formalism for rewriting multisets of terms, to describe architectures, computations, and reconfigurations in a uniform way. The last approach uses a UNITY-like parallel programming design language to describe computations, represents architectures by diagrams in the sense of Category Theory, and specifies reconfigurations by graph transformation rules.

Hox genes control the specification of global vertebral domains

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do grau de doutor em Biologia pelo Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica da Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Quality of process modeling using BPMN: a model-driven approach

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Informática