Artifact-Centric Approach to Business Process Modeling

Artifact为中心的业务过程建模方法 Artifact-Centric Approach toBusiness Process Modeling Jianwen Su University of California, Santa Barbara

Outline • Challenges in Business Process Management • Artifact-centric Modeling Approach • A Design Methodology • Conclusions CBPM '11

Business (Biz) Processes • A set of one or more linked activities (automated or manual) that collectively realize a business objective or policy goal, normally within the context of an organizational structure defining functional roles and relationships Obtaining a Permit CBPM '11

BP Management Systems BPMsystem Manage and support (and control) • biz models • data (documents, files, …) • enactments • resources • others (e.g. auditing) A key enabler is suitable BP model CBPM '11

Major Obstacles in BPM • Hard to design, ad hoc solutionsLack of hierarchical approach with good disciplines • Hardto modify (evolution)E.g., go back to the original contractor (if lucky) • Hard to analyzeBiz intelligence is a growing research area • Hard to interoperateE.g., hard to get data out in Cottage Hospital at Santa Barbara, CA • A key factor for many problems:insufficient conceptual modeling CBPM '11

The Challenge of BPM Business Goals Business Architecture Business Optimization High Manager Business Architect Solution Designer High Executive Business Strategy • “Be more green” • “Use our differentiators” CBPM '11

A Representative “Model” at Biz Manager Level A Business Component Mapis a tabular view of the business components in the scope of interest Business Administration New Business Development Relationship Management Servicing & Sales Product Fulfillment Financial Control and Accounting “Business Competencies”: large biz area with characteristic skills and capabilities “Business Component”: part of enterprise that has potential to operate independently directing controlling executing “Accountability Level”: scope and intent of activity and decision-making Business Planning Sector Planning Account Planning Sales Planning Fulfillment Planning Portfolio Planning Business Unit Tracking Sector Management Relationship Management Sales Management Fulfillment Planning Compliance Reconciliation Product Management Credit Assessment Staff Appraisals Staff Administration Product Directory Credit Administration Sales Product Fulfillment Customer Accounts Marketing Campaigns Customer Dialogue Document Management General Ledger Production Administration Contact Routing CBPM '11

The Challenge of BPM Business Goals Business Architecture Business Optimization High Manager Business Architect Solution Designer Customers Employees Business Operations Partners Resources IT High Executive Business Strategy • “Be more green” • “Use our differentiators” CBPM '11

Common Model at IT Level: Process Modeling Business Logic Data Modeling Direct, flow-based implementation Biz Process Management System (flow mgmt, services, databases, resources, …) System in Operation An Activity Flow is a (typically) graph-based specification of how activities/processes are to be sequenced CBPM '11

The Challenge of BPM Operations need to be Faithful Measurable Flexible Business Goals Business Architecture Business Optimization High Manager Business Architect Solution Designer • Speak in terms of • “Functional Decomposition” • “Business Components” Customers Employees Business Operations Hard to Communicate !! Partners Resources • Speak in terms of • “Workflow” • “Process centric” • “Activity-flow” IT High Executive Business Strategy • “Be more green” • “Use our differentiators” CBPM '11

Common Model at IT Level: Data and business objects are typically an afterthought Hard for stake-holders to communicate about the big picture People “see the trees but not the forest” Overall process can be chaotic – Cf. “staple yourself to a customer order” Hard to manage versions E.g., evolution, re-use, generic workflow with numerous specializations Process Modeling Business Logic Data Modeling Direct, flow-based implementation Biz Process Management System (flow mgmt, services, databases, resources, …) System in Operation An Activity Flow is a (typically) graph-based specification of how activities/processes are to be sequenced CBPM '11

Typical Biz Process Modeling Fill Shopping Cart Payment information Shipping Preference ID Customer Archive Confirmation • A bookseller example: Traditional control-centric models CBPM '11

Typical Biz Process Modeling Fill Shopping Cart Payment information Shipping Preference ID Customer Archive Confirmation Ground Credit In practice, 100s to 1000s of nodes Air In-stock Handling Check Inventory PayPal Warehouses/ Size Back-order Handling New Customer Registration Existing Customer Login Check • A bookseller example: Traditional control-centric models • Multiple steps needed for each activity Hard to reason, find useful views: missing data CBPM '11

BP Analytics (Biz Intelligence) inventory Transactions Transactions activities DataWarehouse Analysis catalog Biz Process is missing! cust_db Transactions • Extract-Transform-Load CBPM '11

Why We Should Look for a Unifying Model First model – A is and B is Good models go beyond description – they support action • Selecting the right model for the job matters Example: “Game of 15” Winner: First one to reach exactly 15 with any 3 chips 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 – what is B’s move? Second model – – B’s move is 6! Can we find a “model” of business operations that is • Useful & natural for the business level stake-holders to use • Useful & natural for mapping to the IT infrastructure Example due to David Cohn (IBM) CBPM '11

A Fundamental “Theorem” of Databases • Physical data independence allows us to focus only data management issues logical data model SQL conceptual automated mapping physical query plan physical organization (files, pages, indexes, …) CBPM '11

Future of BPM • Automate ’s process model changes data model business IT system (model) (databases, services,workflows, resources) Changes to system • Reuse concepts, tools, techniques developed in CS • First step: a single conceptual model for biz processes • both data and processes are 1st class citizens CBPM '11

Data in BP Modeling: Exclusion to Centricity • Data exclusive models focus on activity flow and management • WfMC, BPMN, … • Incorporating data as views complements well (but separate from) activity views • UML (object modeling and activity diagrams) • Executable models integrate data and activities with low level of abstraction • BPEL • Recent data-centric approaches treat both data and activities “equally” in a more uniformed manner • biz artifact-centric, form-based, spreadsheet-based CBPM '11

Business Artifacts [Nigam-Caswell 03] • A business artifact is a key conceptual business entity that is used in guiding the operation of the business • fedex package delivery, patient visit, application form, insurance claim, order, financial deal, registration, … • both “information carrier” and “road-maps” • Very natural to business managers and BP modelers • Includes two parts: • Information model: data needed to move through workflow • Lifecycle: possible ways to evolve CBPM '11

Example: Restaurant repository Activity Artifacts CreateGuest Check Add Item OpenGCs Guest Check Kitchen Order PrepareReceipt PendingKOs Receipt Cash Balance PendingReceipts Prepare &Test Quality ClosedGCs Payment ReadyKOs UpdateCash Balance PaidReceipts Deliver DisagreedReceipts ArchivedReceipts ArchivedGCs CashBalance RecalculateReceipt ArchivedKOs CBPM '11

Example: Restaurant RC CB KO GC Artifacts CreateGuest Check Add Item OpenGCs Guest Check Kitchen Order PrepareReceipt PendingKOs Receipt Cash Balance PendingReceipts Prepare &Test Quality ClosedGCs Payment ReadyKOs UpdateCash Balance PaidReceipts Deliver DisagreedReceipts ArchivedReceipts ArchivedGCs CashBalance RecalculateReceipt ArchivedKOs CBPM '11

Artifact Life Cycle [Nigam-Caswell 03] • An artifact life cycle captures the end-to-end processing of a specific artifact, from creation to completion and archiving • Artifact processing is a way to describe the operations of a business Described by • Repositories, a means for archiving artifacts • Tasks (activity), a localization of function • Biz operations are described by IFF (Information, Function, and Flow) CBPM '11

Properties on Tasks [Nigam-Caswell 03] • A task performs an action and records the outcome on artifacts in its possession • A task transforms artifacts in its possession by adding/modifying content of an artifact using information in the other artifacts • multiple artifacts can reside in a task, and their content can be arbitrarily exchanged • After a task completes, it ejects all artifacts within it • no residual information: all artifacts are either sent out or discarded CBPM '11

Flows [Nigam-Caswell 03] • Tasks and repositories can be connected through flow connectors which may be viewed as transport pipes • Through these pipes, artifacts or artifact content can be transmitted from one place (task/repository) to another Properties on flow: • A flow connector is a directed connector between a fromPlace and a toPlace • A flow connector ensures reliable transmission of artifacts • A flow connector, when connecting a task to a repository, provides a reliable request-response style of communication • a task that sends a request to a repository is ensured to receive one or more artifacts (or artifact content) ora NONE FOUND indication CBPM '11

Life Cycle of Guest Check Artifact [Nigam-Caswell 03] Manu DailySpecials CashBalance CREATE GUEST CHECK ActiveGuestChecks PaidGuestChecks ServiceRequest GuestCheck CUSTOMER Externalagent ADDITEMSTOGUESTCHECK TENDERGUEST CHECK ActiveGuestCheck Manu DailySpecial Account Active Guest Check CompleteGuest Check Paid GuestCheck Complete Guest Check Waiter Kitchen Order Triggers task when artifactor content is received PREPARE ITEMS CompleteKitchenOrder Emits artifact or content whentask is finished Complete Kitchen Order Kitchen Order Human-initiated task Artifact is requested, updated, andreturned to the source repository Requests and receives artifact content Repository Task Requests and receives artifact CBPM '11

Data (Biz Objects, Documents, …) vs Artifacts • They all contain data needed for business logic, e.g., customer info, shopping cart, product catalog, … • Biz objects are not artifacts: artifacts are uniquely identified with biz process instances, biz objects are just data objects needed for biz process • Biz artifacts also contain: • (Schema) Lifecycle, i.e., process (or workflow) to evolve an artifact from creation to archive • (Enactment) Runtime states of instances (cases), i.e., containing a part of the system snapshot concerning this artifact/enactment CBPM '11

Case Study : IBM Global Financing [Chao, Cohn, et al BPM 2009] • Finance HW, SW & services from IBM & others for clients • IBM internal financing business w/ global reach • World’s largest IT financier w/$38Basset base • Financing >$40BIT assets / year for last 3 years • 125Kclients across >50countries (9% of IBM profit) • Business challenges • Operations tailored to mega-deals becoming too costly • Efficiency & cost control required global performance metrics • Country “silos” inhibited integration & annoyed clients • Current methods failed to produce end-to-end “tangible model” • Needed globally standard process w/ local variations CBPM '11

How the Artifact-Centric Approach Helped • In a 3-day workshop with 15 business SMEs from IGF, a preliminary artifact design was created • Already useful to stakeholders from different regions as a common vocabulary • 6 weeks of design refinements lead to final design • Enabled visibility into the global process and the regional variations: not possible before • A blueprint for transformation of IGF operations • VP roles assigned to pieces of top-level artifact model • Current plan: automate the global-level artifact model • Anticipate significant improvement in efficiency • Plan to substantially augment the sales staff CBPM '11

A Data-Centric Design Methodology [Bhattacharya-Hull-S. 09] • A three-level framework Business Operations Model (BOM) (artifacts, activities, flow) Specification Conceptual Flow (artifacts, services, choreography/orchestration) Optimization Workflow (artifacts, executable services, messages) Execution CBPM '11

Key Elements in BOMs • Artifact information model • Represent all information needed for the biz process • Artifact (macro-level) lifecycle • Specify how an artifact evolves using e.g., state machines • Services • Represent activities • Associations • Define how and when artifacts are changed by services CBPM '11

Artifact-Centric Design Methodology Step 1:Business Artifacts Discovery • Identify critical artifacts for the business process • Discover key stages of artifacts’ life cycles from the scenario-based requirements Step 2: Design of Business Operations Model (BOM) • Logical design of artifact schemas • Specify services for artifacts needed for moving artifacts through the life-cycles • Develop ECA rules that enable artifacts progress in their life cycles Step 3: Design of Conceptual Flow Diagram Step 4: Workflow Realization CBPM '11

Business Artifact Discovery Background Artifacts Configuration Artifacts Execution Artifacts Customer OfferedDESService Schedule(for OfferedDES Service) 1 n 1 n 1 1 1 n Site n n Vendor Generic Task Vendor Task n m 1 n • Key artifacts in Distributed Enterprise Services CBPM '11

Schedule and Vendor Lifecycles Planning Execution Schedule_Planning(&refinement) Schedule_Approvals Execution (&minor revision) Archived Re-approval Major Revision Planning Task_Planning(&refinement) Task Approvals Execution (&minor revision) Archived • Schedule • Vendor CBPM '11

Data-Centric Design Methodology Step 1: Business Artifacts Discovery • Identify critical artifacts for the business process • Discover key stages of artifacts’ life cycles from the scenario-based requirements Step 2:Design of Business Operations Model (BOM) • Logical design of artifact schemas • Specify services for artifacts needed for moving artifacts through the lifecycles • Develop ECA rules that enable artifacts progress in their lifecycles Step 3: Design of Conceptual Flow Diagram Step 4: Workflow Realization CBPM '11

BOM: Logical Design for Artifacts based_on n schedule_ID 1 offered_serv_ID OfferedDES Service Schedule stage planned_start_date stage serves OfferedDES Service 1 Site planned_end_date n description revision_checklist n 1 m typical_duration includes precedence n optimality_factor approved_for_exec includes precedence k m n exec_status n m m no_vendor_available Generic Task Vendor task k Generic Task gen_task_ID stage vendor_task_ID includes m n Generic Task OfferedDES Service base_cost stage includes m cust_end_site_into n Vendor Task Schedule typical_duration planned_start_date n n n n supplies requires uses involves planned_end_date status m m m m 1 1 n 1 supplied_by requires uses uses Vendor Govt.Approval EquipmentType Labor Type 1 n n n Vendor Govt.Approval EquipmentOrder Labor Spec • ER diagrams or other suitable modeling approaches CBPM '11

BOM: Specifying Services • Create_schedule(Offered DES Service:o, Customer:c, Site:si):Has the effect of creating a schedule artifact foro, c, andsi(wheresiis a site ofc) • Create_vendor_task(Schedule: sch, Generic Task: g):Has the effect of creating a vendor task artifact that will be associated with g in sch • Adjust_task_general(Vendor task: t, Vender: v, Schedule: sch, list[Task, start_date, end_date]):Used to revise all aspects of a vendor task t during the Task_planning stage. The task t serves as the primary artifact for this service and the following ones; the other artifacts that are used as input are all reachable from the primary artifact. The list of tasks with start- and end-dates is intended to hold all tasks that are immediate successors of t according to sch CBPM '11

Inputs Outputs BOM Service: IOPEs of Create_schedule Pre- • An Offered DES Serviceartifact o, and specifically the listing of used Generic Tasks, along with whether they are optional, and information about the Precedencerelationships between them • A Customerartifact c, ... • A Siteartifact sifor c, ... • A new Scheduleartifact sch. The data written will include attributes schedule_ID, stage, planned_start_date, and the Generic Taskportion of the includesrelationship • The Siteartifact siis updated … • Offered DES Serviceartifact omust be compatible with the infrastructure and needs of site si • If true, then schis in stage Schedule_planning • If true, then schholds a schedule skeleton (i.e., appropriate portions of the relationship includesare filled in) • If true, … Cond. effect CBPM '11

BOM: ECA Rules R1: initiate schedule event request by performer p to create a schedule instance for Offered DES Service artifact o, Customer artifact c, and Site artifact si condition the appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are in place for c action invoke Create_schedule(o, c, si) by performer p where offer_manager in role(p) and qualification(p, o, region: si.region) ≥ 5 Alternative models can also be used CBPM '11

Data-Centric Design Methodology Step 1: Business Artifacts Discovery • Identify critical artifacts for the business process • Discover key stages of artifacts’ life cycles from the scenario-based requirements Step 2: Design of Business Operations Model (BOM) • Logical design of artifact schemas • Specify services for artifacts needed for moving artifacts through the life-cycles • Develop ECA rules that enable artifacts progress in their life cycles Step 3:Design of Conceptual Flow Diagram Step 4:Workflow Realization CBPM '11

Conceptual Flow Diagram (EZ-Flows) [ArtiFlow 2009] CBPM '11

Interpreting EZ-Flows Alternative: Mapping to BPEL [ArtiFlow 2009] CBPM '11

Emerging Artifact-Centric BPs customer info • Informal model [Nigam-Caswell 03] • Systems: BELA (IBM 2005), Siena (IBM 2007),ArtiFlow (Fudan-UCSB 2010), Barcelona (IBM 2010) • Formal models • State machines[Gerede-Bhattacharya-S. SOCA 07][Gerede-S. ICSOC 07] • Rules [Bhattacharya-Gerede-Hull-Liu-S. BPM 07][Hull et al WSFM 2010] cart . . . Specification of artifact lifecycles + Artifacts (Info models) CBPM '11

Declarative Biz Processes • Variation of [Bhattacharya-Gerede-Hull-Liu-S. BPM 07] ifCenable … + + Artifacts (info models) Semantic services (IOPEs) Condition-action rules CBPM '11

GSM: Requisition Order Lifecycle Assembling Request to begin assembling& enoughLine Items to start Assemblyfinished Assemblycancelled Optimal line items partition Procurement Orders Done allocating Line Items Line Items Request new Req. Order Customer ID … … [Hull et al WSFM 2010] Creating Proc. Orders InitiateReq.Order All Line Items ordered Req.Order cancelled some Proc.Order Rejected & affectedLine Itemsresearched Generating Report Reportrequested Reportgenerated Top ofeach hour Milestone: • Business-relevant operational objective • Expressed as event and/or condition • Has effect of closing the stage Guard: • Has the effect of opening the stage • Expressed as event and/or condition Stage: • Cluster of activities intended to achieve one (of perhaps several) milestones • May be nested Data attributes Event (occurrence) attributes CBPM '11

Operational Semantics in a Nutshell Assembling Assembly finished Creating Proc. Orders All Line Items ordered Initiate Req. Order Request to begin assembling and enough Line Items to start Assembly abandoned some Proc.Order Rejected & affected Line Items researched Req.Order cancelled Generating Report Report requested Report generated Top of each hour Optimal line items partition Stage(active or inactive) Stylized ECA • Guard: Event/Cond -> open stage • Milestone: Event/Cond -> close stage and set milestone status attribute to “true” • Line Items Procurement Orders Done allocating Line Items Request new Req. Order milestones • Customer • … • … • ID • … • … Statusattributes Event (occurrence)attributes Data Attributes CBPM '11

Nesting of Substages All Line Items not in a Procurement Order have been Researched Creating Proc. Orders Initiate Req. Order Assembling All Line Items ordered LaunchingLine Items Planning Proc. orders some Proc.Order Rejected & affected Line Items researched Generating Report Launching & Sending Proc. Orders This milestone becomes true once all Proc. Orders have been sent This milestone becomes “compromised” if a Proc. Order is later rejected Done only in first occurrence of this stage Optimal line items partition Stage(active or inactive) • Line Items Procurement Orders Stylized ECA (cont.) • Milestone Invalidator: Event/Cond -> set milestone to “false” Done allocating Line Items Request new Req. Order milestones • Customer • ID • … • … • … • … Statusattributes Event (occurrence)attributes Data Attributes CBPM '11

Atomic Stages and Tasks Creating Proc. Orders Assembling All Line Items ordered Initiate Req. Order LaunchingLine Items Planning Proc. orders some Proc.Order Rejected & affected Line Items researched Generating Report Launching & Sending Proc. Orders • Atomic stage; has a “task” inside • Task reads from Data Attributes, and later writes into them Atomic stage; has a “task” inside Optimal line items partition Stage(active or inactive) • Line Items Procurement Orders Done allocating Line Items Request new Req. Order milestones Stylized ECA (cont.) • If open atomic stage -> invoke task • Note: task return is key incoming event –it will close the atomic stage • Customer • ID • … • … • … • … Statusattributes Event (occurrence)attributes Data Attributes CBPM '11

Artifact-Centric Approach to Business Process Modeling