Comparing Business Definition
Languages
P. Maresca*, A. Donatelli, R. Gangemi,R. Longobardi, G.
Perrini*, R. Correro*
*Università di Napoli Federico II – IBM Software Group Rome Laboratory
Paolo.maresca@unina.it
(Alex.donatelli, rosario.gangemi, roberto.longobardi)@it.ibm.com
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Outline
• P7 Eclipse in Business: the big picture
• Introduction
• A classification of business process modeling
languages
• A BPML Comparisons
• Discussion
• Conclusion and future development
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
A joined project among Eclipse
Italian Community and IBM
A P7 task from document attempt
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
P7 Eclipse in Business: the big
picture
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Introduction
• We aims to
– extract the principal concepts of the BPL from the
most important languages for business process
modeling
– Extract specification in order to implement an
advanced business process editor based on the
Eclipse environment.
• The languages are classified according to the
“four perspectives” of Curtis augmented by the
List-Korherr perspective denominated Business
Process Context perspective
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Introduction (II)
• Business process modeling is one of the
most complex activity
– Different perspectives (analysis, design,
user,…)
• Modeling can be though as the process of
mapping two different worlds, the modeled
and the modeling ones.
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Introduction (III)
• A modeling technique is defined as a set
of objects, concepts and artifacts of the
modeled world in direct relation with
objects, concepts and artifacts of the
modeling world.
• A key characteristic of the modeling
process is that the elements of the
modeled world are represented by
“simpler” elements in the modeling world.
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
BPML classification : different
objectives
1.
2.
3.
Process Description: A process is modeled to document and describe it.
The targets of this description can be either people to whom the
comprehensibility is important [8] or computers in which case it is important
the formalism of the description.
Process Analysis: The analysis of a process consists in understanding the
process internals and the process peculiarities. Processes re-engineering and
improvement is based on the analysis of existing processes. When processes
are specified by using formal languages, their analysis can be automated and
it is possible to easily assess structural properties like cohesion and
association or dynamic properties like deadlocks.
Process Enactment: A process is executed to simulate it or to unveil the
support of different capabilities. Depending on the language used, the support
can have different forms like, for example, the ability to react to the events
raised by the execution of the process, to check that a specific constraint is
satisfied, to drive the execution of the process. Only formal languages allow
the execution of the process by a computer.
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Language designer: different
perspectives
• Functional view. This perspective describes functional
dependences among the elements of a process (activity, subactivities, etc.). These dependences are typically tied to the
fact that some elements of a process consume data or
resources produced by others.
• Dynamic view. This perspective details sequencing and
control information within the elements of the process, for
example when a given activity is executed (synchronization,
pre-conditions) and how the execution takes place (for
example describing the control logic).
• Informational view. It includes the description of the entities that
are produced, consumed or otherwise manipulated by the process.
These entities include pure data, artifacts, etc.
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Language designer: different
perspectives (II)
• Organizational
view.
This
perspective
describes who executes every step and where
s/he stands in the business organization.
• Another important distinction is the one
introduced particularly in the context of web
services, between the Choreography view and
the Orchestration view.
• The first view focuses on the composition of
Web services from a global perspective, and it
differs from the second view which focuses on
the interactions among one party and others.
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Business Process Context
Perspective: A BPMLs Comparison
The following languages has been compared:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
UML 2.0 Activity Diagram
Business Process Definition Metamodel (BPDM)
Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN)
Event Driven Process Chain (EPC)
Integrated DEFinition Method 3 (IDEF3)
Petri Net
Role Activity Diagram (RAD)
UML 2 profiles for business process modelling
Unified Scenario-Based Design (USBD)
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Results
BPML
Element
UML2.0 Activity
Diagram
Business Process
Definition
Metamodel
Business Process
Modeling Notation
(BPMN)
Event Process Chain
(EPC)
Integrated
DEFinition Method
3 (IDEF3)
Business Process
-/+
-/+
-/+
-/+
-/+
Core, Support,
Management
-/-
Customer
-/+
Activity
Partition
-/+
Deliverable
-/+
Object N.
-/+
Service
-/+
Object N.
Product
-/+
Object N.
Process Owner
Goal
Activity
Stereotype
SubProcess
-/-
SubProcess
-/-
Role/Partecip
ant
-/+
Complex
Function
-/-
Pool
Unit
Behaviour
-/-
-/+
Organisational
Role
-/-
-/-
+/+
Input/Output
-/+
Object
-/-
-/-
-/+
Input/Output
-/+
Object
-/-
-/-
-/+
Input/Output
-/+
Object
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Results
BPML
Element
UML2.0 Activity
Diagram
Business Process
Definition
Metamodel
Business Process
Modeling Notation
(BPMN)
Event Process Chain
(EPC)
Integrated
DEFinition Method
3 (IDEF3)
Process
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
Enterprise
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
Measure
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
Quantitative
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
Qualitative
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
To Be Value
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
Unit
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
-/-
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Results
BPML
Element
Petri Nets
Role Activity
Diagram
UML 2 Profile to
Business Process
Modeling
Unified Scenario
Based Design
(USBD)
Business Process
-/+
-/+
+/+
Business
Process
+/+
Business
Process,
Business
Process Map
Core, Support,
Management
-/-
-/-
+/+
Core, Support
and
Manaaement
Process
+/+
Business
Process
Customer
-/-
-/+
Role
+/+
External and
Internal
customer
+/+
Customer
Stakeholder,
Business
Worker
Deliverable
-/-
-/+
Resource
+/+
Deliverable
+/+
Business Entity
Service
-/-
-/+
Resource
+/+
Service
+/+
Business Entity
Product
-/-
-/+
Resource
+/+
Product
+/+
Business Entity
Process Owner
-/-
-/-
+/+
Process
Owner
+/+
Business Actor
Goal
-/-
-/-
+/+
Goal
+/+
Business Goal
Transition
Hierarchy
Activity
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Results
BPML
Element
Petri Nets
Role Activity
Diagram
UML 2 Profile to
Business Process
Modeling
Unified Scenario
Based Design
(USBD)
Process
-/-
-/-
+/+
Process Goal
+/+
Business Goal
Enterprise
-/-
-/-
+/+
Enterprise
Goal
+/+
Business Goal
Measure
-/-
-/-
+/+
Measure
+/+
Measure
Quantitative
-/-
-/-
+/+
Quantitative
Measure
+/+
Measure
Qualitative
-/-
-/-
+/+
Qualitative
Measure
+/+
Measure
To Be Value
-/-
-/-
+/+
To Be Value
+/+
Business Goal
Unit
-/-
-/-
+/+
Unit
+/+
Business Role
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
A BPMLs Comparison: results (I)
• The Functional perspective and the Behavioural
perspective are well represented by all languages while
the Organizational and Informational ones are less so.
• In particular the Organizational perspective is covered, at
different levels, by almost all languages but IDEF3 and
the Petri Nets.
• All other languages are more focused on the business
processes and include the concept of the role.
• Of all only the UML (AD) diagrams make it explicit on
whether a role is in the modelled organization or outside
of it.
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
A BPMLs Comparison: results (II)
• Most of the modelling languages use a single concept to
represent all types of process participants (e.G. AD,
RAD, BPMN) but make no distinction on role types.
• This differentiation can be very useful in a modelling
language when focusing on the process enactment.
• More recent languages, like AD, BPDM, BPMN, e EPC,
are the ones which provide a good coverage of the
Informational Perspective and so better adapt to this
specific dimension.
• The Business Process Context Perspective is only
explicitly supported by the UML 2 Profile for Business
Process Modeling and the Unified Scenario-Based
Design.
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
UML 2 profiles for business process
modelling
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Unified Scenario-Based Design (USBD)
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages
Conclusions
The comparison aimed at extracting and abstracting the
useful primitives of a business language in order to enable
the design of a business eclipse tool for non experienced
user.
• The end result of this evaluation is that UML2 profile for
business process modeling and the Unified Scenario
Based Design seem to be the best equipped
languages/methodologies for our purpose.
• These two languages are candidates for the following step
of extracting and abstracting specification for a Business
Eclipse Editor (BEE)
• USBD, compared with UML2, is better because it allows to
mangage the different process perspectives , has a richer
semantic than UML2 and is driven from a methodology
Paolo P. Maresca et al. Comparing Business Definition Languages