Business process integration and automation (BPIA)

Today's business applications and their underlying process models are becoming more and more complicated, making the implementation of these processes an increasingly challenging task. On the one hand, tools and methods exist to describe the business processes. On the other hand, different tools and methods exist to describe the IT artifacts implementing them. But a significant gap exists between the two. To overcome this gap, new methodologies are sought. Our research combines three recent trends in the IT industry:

• OMG's Model Driven Architectures (MDA) is an initiative to provide a software technology basis that enables heterogeneous software systems to be integrated easily. MDA focus on the modeling of software systems with precise semantic models describing a software in a platform-independent way. By using code generators, platform-specific implementations of the model can be generated automatically.
• Web Services allow companies to describe the external structure of their processes and how they can be invoked via XML-based messaging using WSDL, the Web services description language.
• Business process protocol specification languages, such as BPEL, are XML-based choreography languages for explicitly describing service flows within a business process that may be composed of multiple Web services. It assumes an execution environment ("orchestration engine'') for programs written in the language. The new languages make the communication and interaction structure of a business process explicit, which is a prerequisite for the flexible composition of processes. Furthermore, languages such as BPEL possess an operational semantics that enables the orchestration engine to directly execute the flow models specified in the language.

We are part of a larger research project involving several research teams around the world. Our group develops end-to-end tools for business process integration including

• novel visualization, validation, and search capabilities for composite business processes,
• technologies that help keeping evolving models valid and synchronized with each other,
• model transformations that help business architects go quickly from the model of a business to a service-oriented architecture solution.

Selected publications

1. W. Zhao, R. Hauser, K. Bhattacharya, B. Bryant, F. Cao
   Compiling Business Processes: Untangling Unstructured Loops in Irreducible Flow Graphs
   International Journal of Web and Grid Services, 2(1), 2006, pp. 68 - 91.
   
   
2. W. Zhao, K. Bhattacharya, B. Byant, F. Cao, R. Hauser
   Transforming Business Process Models: Enabling Programming at a Higher Level
   IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC), July 11-15, 2005, Orlando, Florida, USA, pages 173-180.
   
   
3. B. Srivastava, J. Vanhatalo, J. Koehler
   Managing the Life Cycle of Plans
   AAAI 2005: 1569-1575.
   
   
4. O. Zimmermann, V. Doubrovski, J. Grundler, K. Hogg
   Service-oriented architecture and business process choreography in an order management scenario: rationale, concepts, lessons learned
   20th annual ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications, October 16-20, San Diego, CA, USA, pp. 301-312, ISBN 1-59593-193-7.
   
   
5. O. Zimmermann, N. Schlimm, G. Waller, M. Pestel
   Analysis and Design Techniques for Service-Oriented Development and Integration
   in INFORMATIK 2005 - Informatik LIVE! Band 2, Beiträge der 35. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), Bonn, September 2005, pp. 606-611, ISBN 3-88579-397-0.
   
   
6. J. M. Küster
   Definition and Validation of Model Transformations
   Journal of Software and Systems Modeling, Springer, in press.
   
   
7. J. M. Küster
   Konsistenzmanagement von objektorientierten Verhaltensmodellen
   in Ausgezeichnete Informatikdissertationen 2004, D. Wagner et al. (eds.) Lectures Notes in Informatics D5, Gesellschaft für Informatik 2005.
   
   
8. S.-K. Chen, H. Lei, M. Wahler, H. Chang, K. Bhaskaran, J. Frank
   A Model Driven XML Transformation Framework for Business Performance Management
   in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on e-Business Engineering, pp. 71-78, .IEEE Computer Society, 2005.
   
   
9. K. Ryndina, P. Kritzinger
   Analysis of Structured Use Case Models through Model Checking
   South African Computer Journal, Issue 35, Dec 2005, pp. 84-96.
   
   
10. J. Koehler, R. Hauser, S. Sendall, and M. Wahler
    Declarative techniques for model-driven business process integration
    IBM Systems Journal, 44(1), 2005.
    
    
11. S. Sendall, R. Hauser, J. Koehler, J. Küster and M. Wahler
    Understanding Model Transformation by Classification and Formalization
    Proceedings of Workshop on Software Transformation Systems (part of 3rd International Conference on Generative Programming and Component Engineering), Vancouver, Canada, 24th October 2004.
    
    

12. S. Sendall, J. Küster
    Taming Model Round-Trip Engineering.
    Proceedings of Workshop on Best Practices for Model-Driven Software Development (part of 19th Annual ACM Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications), Vancouver, Canada, 25th October 2004.

13. R. Hauser, J. Koehler
    Compiling Process Graphs into Executable Code
    In Proc. 3rd Int'l Conf. on Generative Programming and Component Engineering "GPCE 2004," Vancouver, Canada, October 24-28, 2004, edited by Gabor Karsai, Eelco Visser, Lecture Notes in Services & Software Volume 3286 / 2004, Springer-Verlag Heidelberg.
    
    
14. J. Koehler, R. Hauser
    Untangling Unstructured Cyclic Flows - A Solution Based on Continuations
    In Proc. On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2004: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE: OTM Confederated Int'l Conferences, CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE 2004, Agia Napa, Cyprus, October 25-29, 2004, edited by Robert Meersman, Zahir Tari, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 3290 / 2004, Springer-Verlag Heidelberg.
    
    
15. J. Novatnack, J. Koehler
    Using Patterns in the Design of Inter-organizational Systems - An Experience Report
    In Proc. On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2004: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE: OTM Confederated Int'l Conferences, CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE 2004, Agia Napa, Cyprus, October 25-29, 2004, edited by Robert Meersman, Zahir Tari, LNCS 3292, 2004, pp. 444-455, Springer-Verlag Heidelberg.
    
    
16. B. Srivastava, J. Koehler
    Planning with Workflows-An Emerging Paradigm for Web Service Composition
    ICAPS 2004 Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Web and Grid Services.
    
    
17. T. Gardner, C. Griffin, J. Koehler, R. Hauser
    A review of OMG MOF 2.0 Query / Views / Transformations Submissions and Recommendations towards the final Standard
    MetaModelling for MDA Workshop, York, England, 2003. Also available as a position paper at OMG.
    
    
18. J. Koehler, R. Hauser, S. Kapoor, F. Wu, S. Kumaran
    A Model-Driven Transformation Method
    EDOC 2003, 186 - 197, IEEE Press.
    
    
19. J. Koehler, B. Srivastava
    Web Service Composition: Current Solutions and Open Problems
    ICAPS 2003 Workshop on Planning for Web Services, pages 28 - 35.
    
    
20. J. Koehler, G. Tirenni, S. Kumaran
    From Business Process Model to Consistent Implementation: A Case for Formal Verification Methods
    EDOC 2002, pp. 96-106.
    
    
21. J. Koehler, D. Gantenbein, C. Giblin, R. Hauser
    On Autonomic Computing Architectures.