Business Processes Modelling

MPB (6 cfu, 295AA)

Roberto Bruni
http://www.di.unipi.it/~bruni

03 - Examples

1
 Insurance claim
example

Sect.1.3 of Workflow Management: Models, Methods, and Systems

2
 An example:
insurance claim
1. recording the receipt of the claim
2. establishing the type of the claim
3. checking covering of client's policy
4. checking the premium (payments up to date?)
5. rejection, if 3 or 4 has negative result
6. producing a rejection letter
7. roughly estimate the amount to be paid, if 3 & 4 have positive results
8. appointment of an assessor, if needed
9. revision of the amount offered to the client
10. recording client's reaction
11. assessment of objection: decision to revise 9 or take legal action 12
12. legal proceedings
13. payment of claim
14. filing and closure of claim

3
1. recording the receipt of the claim

Tasks
2. establishing the type of the claim
3. checking covering of client's policy
4. checking the premium (payments up to date?)
5. rejection, if 3 or 4 has negative result
6. producing a rejection letter
7. roughly estimate the amount to be paid, if 3 & 4 have positive results
8. appointment of an assessor, if needed
9. revision of the amount offered to the client
10. recording client's reaction
11. assessment of objection: revise 9 or legal action 12
12. legal proceedings 3 6
13. payment of claim
policy reject letter
14. filing and closure of claim

1 2 5 14
recording type rejection? filing

4
premium 13
payment

8
assessor 12
legal proc.

7 9 10 11
estimate revision reaction assessment

4
1. recording the receipt of the claim

Order/Links
2. establishing the type of the claim
3. checking covering of client's policy
4. checking the premium (payments up to date?)
5. rejection, if 3 or 4 has negative result
6. producing a rejection letter
7. roughly estimate the amount to be paid, if 3 & 4 have positive results
8. appointment of an assessor, if needed
9. revision of the amount offered to the client
10. recording client's reaction
11. assessment of objection: revise 9 or legal action 12
12. legal proceedings 3 6
13. payment of claim
policy reject letter
14. filing and closure of claim

1 2 5 14
recording type rejection? filing

4
premium 13
payment

8
assessor 12
legal proc.

7 9 10 11
estimate revision reaction assessment

5
Some patterns

6
 Sequence

1 2
recording type

7
 Parallel

policy

2 5

4
premium

8
 6
reject letter

rejection?

7
estimate
 Another selection

8
assessor

7 9
estimate revision

10
Iteration

12

9 10 11
revision reaction assessment

11
 3 6
policy reject letter

2 Both tasks 3 and 4 5

recording type are always executed rejection?

Task 6 and 7 are

4 possibly executed
premium but not both

7
estimate
 Ambiguity!
3 6
policy reject letter

Both tasks 3 and 4 Task 6 and 13 are 14

1 2 5
must be completed possibly executed filing
recording type rejection?
before task 5 but not both
4
premium 13
payment

13
 Disambiguation
3 6
policy reject letter

1
recording
2
type + + 5
rejection? x x 14
filing

4
premium 13
payment

+ parallel split / join

7
estimate
x choice split / join

14
 Disambiguation
3 6
policy reject letter

1 2 5 14
recording type rejection? filing

4
premium 13
payment

8
assessor 12
legal proc.

7 9 10 11
estimate revision reaction assessment

15
 Disambiguation
3 6
policy reject letter

1
recording
2
type + + 5
rejection? x x 14
filing

4
premium 13
payment

x
8
assessor 12
legal proc.

7
estimate x x 9
revision
10
reaction
11
assessment x

16
 Orchestration

Business process models are performed in a single

organization by definition

Thus, the ordering of activities can be controlled

by a business process management system as
a centralized software component
run by the organization

This kind of control is called orchestration

17
 Orchestration
Orchestration is about describing and executing a
single view point model

The analogy is with the conductor who centrally

controls the musicians in an orchestra

18
 Model execution
3 6
policy reject letter

1
recording
2
type + + 5
rejection? x x 14
filing

4
premium 13
payment

x
8
assessor 12
legal proc.

7
estimate x x 9
revision
10
reaction
11
assessment x

19
 A process instance
1 2 3 4 5 6 14
1 2 4 3 5 6 14
3
policy reject letter

1
recording
2
type + + 5
rejection? x x 14
filing

4
premium

7
x x x

20
 Another instance
1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 13 14
1 2 4 3 5 7 8 9 10 11 13 14
3 6
policy

1
recording
2
type + + 5
rejection? x x filing

4
premium
payment

x
8
assessor 12

7
estimate x x 9
revision
10
reaction
11
assessment x

21
 Exercise

Travel agency orchestration:

define a series of tasks for
booking a flight, a hotel and optionally a car, with
the possibility
to change dates,
to cancel the booking,
to confirm the booking.
Then, draw a process diagram relating the tasks.
22
 Buyer & Reseller
example

Sect.1.1 of Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures

23
 Example: Reseller

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Send Receive
start event Invoice Payment
Receive Archive
Order Order
Ship
Products end event

We move to
BPMN-like syntax

24
 Example: Reseller

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
pool

Send Receive
Invoice Payment
Receive Archive
Order Order
Ship
Products

We move to
BPMN-like syntax
A pool is a rectangle
that encloses a business process

(it can be divided in lanes

to distribute tasks to different actors)

25
 Example: Reseller

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Send Receive
Invoice Payment
Receive
Order
Archive
Order R1
Ship
Products

A reseller can use the business process model

above to configure the business process
management system accordingly

All instances will be executed as specified

(after receiving the order, send and ship activites
are concurrently executed)
26
 Example: Buyers

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Receive Settle
Invoice Invoice
Place
Order
Receive
B1
Products
Different
processes are
Receive Settle
possible, Products Invoice

but…
Place
Order B2
do they all Receive
Invoice

make sense?
Receive
Products
Place
Order
Settle
Invoice B3
Receive
Invoice

27
Buyer & Reseller

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Receive Settle
Invoice Invoice
Place
Order
Receive
Products

Separately developed processes need to communicate!

Send Receive
Invoice Payment
Receive
Order
Ship
Products

28
 Cross-organization
interaction
Each business process is enacted by one
organization

Business processes can interact with each other

Interacting activities of business processes must

be related together

29
 Interacting processes

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Receive Settle
Invoice Invoice
Place
Order
Receive
Products

Send Receive
Invoice Payment
Receive
Order
Ship
Products

Interacting processes can exchange information

(electronic messages, physically transported objects)

30
 Interacting processes

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Receive Settle
Invoice Invoice
Place
Order
Receive
Products

We move to
BPMN-like syntax

Send Receive
Invoice Payment
Receive
Order
Ship
Products

Message flow is represented by dotted arcs

31
 Choreography
The interactions of a set of business processes are
specified in a process choreography

Difference w.r.t. orchestration:

the absence of a central agent that controls the
activities in the business processes involved

For the interaction to be realized correctly, the

interacting business processes better be aware
and agree upon the choreography in advance

32
Choreography

33
 Choreography
Choreography is about describing a global model
(multi-point view)

The analogy is with the dancers who behave

autonomously, but follow their parts in the choreography

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 Choreography diagram
Choreography diagrams allow for multiple concrete
implementations, with different software support

Old-fashioned order: a buyer browses a paper

catalogue of a reseller, then fills a postcard and
sends it by snail mail and pay by bank transfer

e-commerce: a buyer browses an online web

catalogue, fills a virtual basket and an electronic
form (billing information) and presses the submit
button. The goods themselves may be intangible
(e-books, music, video, software)
35
 Interaction issues
As said, interacting business processes must be
aware and agree upon the choreography

In such cases, the realization of business

processes by participants can change without
affecting the overall behaviour

On the other hand, if the change is not done

correctly, then some problems may arise

36
Question time

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Receive Settle
Invoice Invoice
Place
Order B1
Receive
Products

Send Receive
Invoice Payment
Receive
Order R1
Ship
Products

Work fine together!

37
Question time

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Receive Settle
Invoice Invoice
Place
Order B1
Receive
Products

Receive
Order
Send
Invoice
Receive
Payment
Ship
Products R2

Still working fine?

38
Question time

M. Weske: Business Process Management,

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Place
Order
Receive
Invoice
Receive
Products
Settle
Invoice B4

Receive
Order
Send
Invoice
Receive
Payment
Ship
Products R2

Still working fine?

39
 Exercises
In previous slides, we have seen many variants of
business processes for resellers (two) and buyers (four).

Build a “compatibility” matrix with two rows and four

columns and mark all the combinations for which some
problems may arise during the interaction because
activities are not implemented in the expected order.

You are also free to consider other process diagrams,

by adding the corresponding rows / columns to the matrix.

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 B1 B2 B3 B4

R1 ok

R2 ok no

41
 DRINKS

Exercise
TEA

COFFEE

CAPPUCCINO

DON’T KNOW

BEST NOT

Coffee break choreography:

Draw the process diagram for a vending machine
that accepts a coin,
then gives the possibility
(1) to get a coffee or
(2) to insert another coin and get either a
cappuccino or a tea.
Draw the process diagrams for
a compatible butler robot
and a "problematic" butler robot.
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