Checking Business Process Evolution

Pascal Poizat, Gwen Salaün, and Ajay Krishna

Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Formal Aspects of Component Software (FACS'16), Besançon, France, October 2016

Abstract:

Business processes support the modeling and the implementation of software as workflows of local and inter-process activities. Taking over structuring and composition, evolution has become a central concern in software development. We advocate it should be taken into account as soon as the modeling of business processes, which can thereafter be made executable using process engines or model-to-code transformations. We show here that business process evolution needs formal analysis in order to compare different versions of processes, identify precisely the differences between them, and ensure the desired consistency. To reach this objective, we first present a model transformation from the BPMN standard notation to the LNT process algebra. We then propose a set of relations for comparing business processes at the formal model level. With reference to related work, we propose a richer set of comparison primitives supporting renaming, refinement, property- and context-awareness. Thanks to an implementation of our approach that can be used through a Web application, we put the checking of evolution within the reach of business process designers.

18 pages

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Slides of G. Salaün's lecture at the FACS'2016 conference

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