Business process modeling has become a popular method for improv-ing organizational efficiency and quality. Automatic validation of process models is one of the most valuable features of modeling tools, in face of the increasing complexity of enterprise business processes and the richness of modeling lan-guages. This paper proposes a formal language, Event-Condition-Action-Event (ECAE), for integrating Colored Petri Nets (CPN)-based business process with a set of business rules. We automate the integration process for validating the busi-ness process model. The ECAE language has several important features: its rea-soning capabilities, its ability to express complex actions and events, and its de-clarative semantics. By enabling simulation of business process behavior, the rea-soning capabilities facilitate the early detection of flaws
5. Research Questions
How to check the compliance of business processes with a set of business rules?
How to validate a business process model at the design-time and run-time?
How to ensure the compliance of data in data-flow with a set of predefined rules?
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7. Solutions
Business Processes
Color Petri Nets
Business Rules
• Rule 1
• Rule 2
• Rule 3
• …Compliance
ECA-based BR languageECA-based BP language
ECA-based
combined rules
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8. Business Process Intermediate Language87
Design Step
• Coloured Petri Nets-based business process (Places, Transitions, Input Arcs, Output Arcs, GuardFunctions,
InputArc Expressions, OutputArcExpressions, Colour sets)
Intepretation
• Event: transition
• Condition: Place, GuardFunction, Colour Set, Input Arc Expression
• Action: Output Arc Expression, Colour Set
• Event: next transition
Execution
• ECAE Execution Engine
9. Business Process Intermediate Language
Business Process Intermediate Language (BPIL) is an extension of
Event-Condition-Action language
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10. Business Process Intermediate Language
Business Process Intermediate Language (BPIL) is an extension of Event-Condition-Action language
Definition 1: Let C, EB, Edef, Aec and Adef be sets of atoms respectively called: condition alphabet, set of basic events, of event
names, of external actions, and of action names. Let c, eb, edef, ax and adef be generic elements of, respectively, C, EB, Edef, Aex
and Adef.
The set of positive events E over EB, and Edef is the set of atoms ep of the form:
ep ::= eb | e1 Λ e2 | e1 V e2 | A(e1, e2, e3) | edef
The set of actions A over E, C, AX, Adef is the set of atoms a of the form:
a ::= ab | a1 a2 | a1 a2 | IF(c, a1, a2) | adef where a1 and a2 are arbitrary elements of A and c is any literal over E C.
A basic action ab over E, L, AX, Adef is any atom of the form:
ab ::= ax | raise(eb) | assert(r) | retract(r) | define(d) where r (resp. d) is any BRIL rule (resp. definition)
An event definition is any expression of the form edef is e. An action definition is any expression of the form adef is a.
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12. Sketch of the solution
Business Processes
Color Petri Nets
Business Rules
• Rule 1
• Rule 2
• Rule 3
• …Compliance
ECA-based BR languageECA-based BP language
ECA-based
combined rules
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13. Business Rules
The different structural categories of business rules are (Wagner 2005):
Type of Rules Action in Control-flow Data in Data-flow
Integrity x x
Derivation x x
Reaction x
Production x x
Transformation x
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14. Business Rule Intermediate Language
An Business Rule Intermediate Language (BRIL) rule is either an inference, active
or inhibition rule.
An inference rule is any rule of the form L ← B: derivation, reaction, transformation
A reactive rule is any rule of the form On e If Cond Do a: reaction
An inhibition rule is any rule of the form When B Do not a. for production, integrity,
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20. Conclusion
Proposing an formal language to represent the business processes and the
business rules
Providing an approach to check the compliance of business Process with a
set of business rules andmatically by the reasoning
Proposing an approach to check the compliance of data in a data-flow
with the predefined rule in a set of business rules
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21. References
Herzum, Peter and Sims, Oliver. Business Component Factory. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2000.
Wagner, G. (2005). Rule Modeling and Markup. Reasoning Web. N. Eisinger and J. Maluszynski.
Msida, Malta, Springer: 251-274
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Systems Using Active Database Systems. Proc. 4 th RIDE-ADS, Houston, February 1994.
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Processes Using ECA Rules. IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng. 16(8): 1010-1023 (2004)
Geppert, A., Tombros, D.: Event-based distributed business process execution with EVE. In:
Proc. of the IFIP Int. Conf. on Distributed Systems Platforms and Open Distributed Processing,
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Alexandra Poulovassilis, George Papamarkos, Peter T. Wood: Event-Condition-Action Rule
Languages for the Semantic Web. EDBT Workshops 2006: 855-864
José Júlio Alferes, Federico Banti, Antonio Brogi: An Event-Condition-Action Logic
Programming Language. JELIA 2006: 29-42.
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22. Thank you for your attention!
Questions and Answers
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