NONDETERMINISTIC EVENTS IN

BUSINESS PROCESSES

Albert Fleischmann, Metasonic AG

Werner Schmidt, University of Applied Sciences Ingolstadt

Christian Stary, University of Linz

Florian Strecker, Metasonic AG

Objective and Agenda

In this presentation we want to show how business processes

can be described based on various types of events using the

S-BPM (subject-oriented business process management)

approach.

• Events, event producer and event consumer:

Subjects and messages

• Nondeterministic events/messages

• Integration of CEP engines into subjects

• Subjects and agents

• Summary

20-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 2

Events, Event Producer and

Event Consumer

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 3

Subjects: - represent abstract actors in a process (technical or human)

- produce and consume events (send and receive messages)

Events: - produced and consumed by subjects

- asynchronous or synchronous message exchange (input pool)

Process: structures the actions of each subject and coordinates the

required communication among the subjects.

Nondeterministic Subject Behaviour

Change Order

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 4

Order handling Customer

Customer changes Order

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 5

The customer changes his order at an arbitrary point in time:

• change request arrives during handling the order: allowed, accepted

• change request arrives after delivery has started not allowed, rejected

Nondeterministic Subject Behaviour

Change Order

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 6

Customer

Main path Nondeterministic

event guard

behaviour

Nondeterministic Subject Behaviour

Change Order

2012-09-03 7

Order Handler

Main path

behaviour

Nondeterministic Subject Behaviour

Change Order and Complex Events

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 8

• The customer starts a subject which observes prices

for the ordered product

• Depending on the retrieved price the customer changes

the order

Behaviour of Price Observer

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 9

Main path

CEP Engine

Price Observer

Behaviour of Customer

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 10

Customer

behaviour

Subjects and Agents

• Subjects as abstract actors are mapped on agents

• Agents execute the specified behaviour of the subjects

• Agents can handle several subjects in different processes

• Agents can be humans, software, hardware etc.

• Subjects can be assigned to different agents

• Agents build the execution environment of a business

process

• During process execution agents can be controlled and

supported by workflow software

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 11

Agents assigned to Subjects

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 12

Process Model and Process

Instances

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 13

Process model: Order

Create

instance

Order of A

Order of B Order of C

Order of D Order of E

Human

Time

Data

Process

Instance

Summary

• S-BPM is a method to describe business processes in an

event-driven way

• Subjects represent active entities in a business process

independent from certain agents

• The handling of deterministic and nondeterministic

events can be described transparently

• A CEP engine can be integrated in a straightforward way

by encapsulating it in a subject

• Subjects and agents are not the same

• Events cause the creation of process instances and

influence the execution of running instances

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 14

Questions and Answers

2012-09-03 Nondeterministic Events in Business Processes 15

Thank you for your attention