Designing and enacting cross organisational business processes [Elektronische Ressource] : a model driven, ontology-based approach / Stephan Roser

Stephan Roser, University Of Augsburg

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• Publié par: universitat_augsburg
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 27
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

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DesigningandEnactingCross organisational
BusinessProcesses:
AModel driven,Ontology basedApproach
StephanRoser
Dissertation
ProgrammingDistributedSystems
DepartmentofComputerScience
UniversityofAugsburgii
Supervisor: Prof.Dr.BernhardBauer(UniversityofAugsburg)
Advisors: Prof.Dr.JörgP.Müller(ClausthalUniversityofTechnology)
Prof.Dr.WolfgangReif(UniversityofAugsburg)
thDayofdefense: 9 May2008
Copyright©StephanRoser,Augsburg,March2008Abstract
Under the pressure of globalization, companies are urged to constantly adapt to new
marketsituationsandcompetitorsinnovations. Focusingontheircorebusinessandcore
competencies,theyengageinCross organisationalBusinessProcesses( CBPs)withnew
partners all over the world in ever changing constellations. Companies are organized
into global networks and outsource those activities that can be performed more quickly
and effectively or at lower costs, by others. These developments create new challenges
for enterprise Information and Communication Technology (ICT), requiring ICT sys
tems to support constantly changing enterprise collaboration relationships and to create
application systems that support or automate business process enactment starting from
businessleveldescriptionsandmodelsofCBPs.
Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) provides techniques to realize and
automate the propagation of changes at the business level to the technical level. MDSD
canbeusedtoprovideend to endsupportfortherealizationofbusinessprocesses,from
the business level (users’ view) down to deployed applications (ICT view) on specific
platforms via well defined, largely automated model transformations and refinements.
However, there still exist several problems that prevent MDSD from being practically
applicableforefficientandeffectiveCBPenactment.
This thesis provides contributions that enable MDSD projects to improve their pos
sible impact on software development and the way ICT systems support business. It
develops solutions to three main problems, namely for the areas of CBP modelling and
enactmentinfrastructure,ICTarchitectureselection,andmodelandtransformationevo
lution. Thecontributionsofthisthesisareasfollows:
1. We develop architecture patterns, a code generation framework, and model trans
formations that facilitate the generation of executable code from high level, do
main specific models. These artifacts help to bridge the semantic gap between
domain specific, high level business process descriptions and the technologies
used to implement them in service oriented ICT systems. Domain and IT ex
perts benefit since our contribution provides a set of sensible and customizable
transformationstheycanreusetoimprovethedevelopmentoftheirICTsystems.
2. We investigate new evaluation and decision methods as well as guidelines for the
selection of appropriate ICT architectures. We develop a model for decision sup
port that helps IT architects to derive an appropriate architecture paradigm for a
given use case or application domain. The decision model combines the Analytic
Hierarchy Process(AHP) withscenario based architectureevaluation techniques.
Further, wedescribe howcontingenciesinfluenceICTsystemcoordinationarchi
tecture. Our decision method, the scenario descriptions, and a set of guidelinesiv
help IT architects to select and reuse appropriate ICT system coordination archi
tectures for CBP enactment in a timely manner. This helps to gain productivity
winsbyreducingthedevelopmenttimeandimprovingthequalityofdevelopment
withexistingandtestedsolutions.
3. WedeveloptheOntology basedModelTransformation( OntMT)approachthatfa
cilitatestheexchangeofmodelsbetweendifferententerprisesaswellasthereuse
and evolution of model transformations. OntMT helps to overcome differences
in syntax and semantics of modelling formalisms with as little effort as possible.
Therefore,weapplysemanticandreasoningtechnologytothedomainofMDSD.
We develop a higher order model transformation language that allows to modify
modeltransformations. Organisationsand modellersbenefitfromOntMTsinceit
allows them to exchange, customize, and evolve models and model transforma
tionsmoreefficiently.Acknowledgements
Iwouldliketothankallpeoplethatsupportedmeinwritingmythesis:
• First of all, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Bernhard Bauer for
giving me the opportunity to conduct research in the field of Model Driven Soft
ware Development. His guidance, support, and motivation were the basis for the
successfulcompletionofthisthesis.
• I am also indebted to Prof. Dr. Jörg P. Müller for his support in the ATHENA IP
project as well as for his feedback and contribution to joint research and publica
tions. Healsovolunteeredtobeadvisorofmythesis.
• IwanttothankProf.Dr.WolfgangReifwhoacceptedtobeadvisorofmythesis.
• Special thanks go to my colleagues from the Programming Distributed Systems
group (in alphabetical ordering) Wolf Fischer, Holger Kasinger, Florian Lauten
bacher,RaphaelRomeikat,andVivianeSchöbel,whocreatedafriendlyandcheer-
ful working atmosphere that I enjoyed a lot. Each of them contributed in his own
way to this thesis, e.g. by working together in projects, discussing joint research,
orsharingeverydayworkwithme.
• Iwanttothankallstudentsthathelpedmetosavetimewiththeirimplementations
andtoimprovetheresultsofmyworkwiththeirvaluablefeedback.
• Especially, I want to thank all other people, who directly or indirectly influenced
this thesis. The fruitful discussions with them at workshops and conferences as
wellasinresearchandindustrialprojectswereanimportantsourceofinspiration.
• I gratefully thank all my friends who shared their leisure with me. Their informal
supportandencouragementhadpositiveinfluenceonthisthesis.
• Finally, I want to thank my parents Hannelore and Hans Dieter Roser. They have
alwayssupportedandencouragedmetodomybestinallmattersoflife.Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 ProblemsandChallenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Objectives,Approach,andContributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Basics 11
2.1 Service orientedParadigm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 ProcessModellingandExecution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.1 Orchestration&Choreography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.2 ProcessModelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.3 Cross organisationalBusinessProcesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 ArchitectureEvaluationandDecisionMethods . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.1 ArchitectureEvaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.2 AnalyticHierarchyProcess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.3 ContingencyTheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4 SemanticTechnologiesandTechnologicalSpaces . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.1 TechnologicalSpaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.2 Ontology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.4.3 Syntax,Semantics,andOntology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 ModelDrivenSoftwareDevelopment 31
3.1 MDEApproachestoSoftwareDevelopment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.1 MDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.2 SoftwareFactories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1.3 BenefitsofModelDrivenEngineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1.4 MDEToolSuitesandInitiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2 Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.1 MegaModelforMDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.2 MetamodellingHierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.3 UMLvs. DomainSpecificLanguages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2.4 TypesofModels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.5 ModelsasAssetsofOrganisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3 ModelTransformationandCodeGeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3.1 FeaturesofModelTransformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3.2 ClassificationofModelTransformationApproaches . . . . . . 50
3.3.3 OMGStandard: Query/View/T . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59viii CONTENTS
4 EnactingCross organisationalBusinessProcesseswithMDSD 61
4.1 TransformingCIMtoPIM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.1.1 ProblemDescription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.1.2 SoftwareArchitecturesforICTSystemCoordination . . . . . . 63
4.1.3 CaseStudy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.1.4 ImplementationandExecutionCIMtoPIMModelTransforma
tions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.1.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.2 TransformingPIMtoPSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.2.1 ContextandExample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.2.2 ProblemDescription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.2.3 ModelandCodeGenerationFramework . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2.4 CaseStudy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2.5 Discussion .