Reaction to Long-tailed Changes

Introduction

This project supports the reaction to long-tailed changes of business processes. This project adopts the separation of concerns (SoC) principle.

A front-line person can

• annotate a business process model with domain-specific language (DSL), in order to intervene in the behavior of the business process;

• bind third-party APIs, in order to query information that is helpful in reacting to long-tailed changes.

A back-end person can

• specify functional and non-functional (temporal) constraints on a business process model, in order to make the reaction to long-tailed changes comply with business regulations;

• specify the value ranges of the process variables in a business process model.

Our tool can

• convert a process model annotated with DSL into an ordinary process model, so that an existing process engine (e.g., Camunda) can execute it;

• verify whether a process model still meets functional and non-functional constraints after the reaction to long-tailed changes.

Requirements

This project is developed using Java 11, Maven 3, Node.js 20, and Npm 10.

Optional requirements:

• Functional constraints are verified using NuSMV 2.6.0. Install NuSMV and add it to PATH.

• Controllability is checked using PRISM 4.7. Install PRISM, and register the installation path in compiler-backend\src\main\resources\application.properties.

Run

user-manual.md contains a detailed user manual.

First, run subproject engine-backend with command mvn spring-boot:run. It is a process engine powered by Camunda. The process engine can be accessed at http://localhost:8082/ . The default user is admin/admin.

Then, run subproject compiler-backend with command mvn spring-boot:run. It is our tool to convert process models and verify functional and non-functional constraints.

Next, run subproject dsl-frontend with command npm run start (on the first run, install packages with command npm install). It is our tool to annotate process models, bind third-party APIs, specify constraints, and specify value ranges of process variables. The tool can be accessed at http://localhost:8093/ .

This is the homepage of our tool:

Scenarios

Scenarios is to store business process scenarios to react to long-tailed changes. We have two example scenarios: online_grocery and lng_logistics. Choose one in Current scenario.

Annotation

Annotation is for a front-line person to annotate a process model:

Usage:

• Open a process model. Click Choose File to choose a .bpmn file and click Open to open the process model. An example is process-example/online-grocery-annotation.bpmn.

• Add a text annotation. Choose an activity and click to add a text annotation.

• Write a DSL code. Use buttons and drop-down menus to write a DSL code.

• Deploy the process model. Click Deploy with annotation to deploy the annotated process model.

Constraint

Constraint is for a back-end person to specify functional and non-functional constraints on a process model:

Usage:

• Open a process model. Click Choose File to choose a .bpmn file and click Open to open the process model. An example is process-example/online-grocery-constraint.bpmn.

• Specify a functional constraint. Draw a link between two activities and set the relation in Functional constraint in the property panel.

• Specify a non-functional constraint. Choose an activity and set the duration in SLO / proposition in the property panel. Draw a link between two activities and set the constraint in SLO / proposition in the property panel.

• Verify the constraints. Set the start node name and click Verify.

Process Model

Process Model is to store process models:

Click Open to open the process model in Annotation or Constraint.

Process Variable

Process Variable is for a back-end person to specify the value ranges of the process variables in a process model:

Third-party API

Third-party API is for a front-line person to bind third-party APIs:

Instance Migration

Instance Migration is to migrate old process instances to the new process model:

Process Log

Process Log is to view the log of process execution in the process engine:

Case Study and Experiment

A case study of an e-commerce scenario is available in directory case-study.

An experiment on the efficiency of DSL-annotation is available in directory experiment.

Publications

• Jingwei Zhu, Jun Peng, Liang Zhang, Hong-Linh Truong. Improving Business Process Resilience to Long-tailed Business Events via Low-code. 2022 IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS 2022). IEEE, 2022: 343-348.

• Jingwei Zhu. On Balancing Flexibility and Compliance of Business Processes: Functional Constraints Modeling and Verification. 20th International Conference on Service-Oriented Computing (ICSOC 2022) Workshops. Springer, 2023: 327-333.

• Jun Peng, Jingwei Zhu, Liang Zhang. Generalizing STNU to Model Non-functional Constraints for Business Processes. 2022 CCF International Conference on Service Science (ICSS 2022). IEEE, 2022: 104-111.

• Jingwei Zhu, Jun Peng, Liang Zhang, Hong-Linh Truong. Balancing Flexibility and Compliance in Response to Long-Tailed Business Process Changes. Available at SSRN 4460901, 2023.