Ten years ago, groupware bundled with email and calendar applications helped track the flow of work from person to person within an organization. Workflow in today's enterprise means more monitoring and orchestrating massive systems. A new technology called Business Process Management, or BPM, helps software architects and developers design, code, run, administer, and monitor complex network-based business processes BPM replaces those sketchy flowchart diagrams that business analysts draw on whiteboards with a precise model that uses standard graphical and XML representations, and an architecture that allows it converse with other services, systems, and users. Sound complicated? It is. But it's downright frustrating when you have to search the Web for every little piece of information vital to the process. Essential Business Process Modeling gathers all the concepts, design, architecture, and standard specifications of BPM into one concise book, and offers hands-on examples that illustrate BPM's approach to process notation, execution, administration and monitoring. Author Mike Havey demonstrates standard ways to code rigorous processes that are centerpieces of a service-oriented architecture (SOA), which defines how networks interact so that one can perform a service for the other. His book also shows how BPM complements enterprise application integration (EAI), a method for moving from older applications to new ones, and Enterprise Service BUS for integrating different web services, messaging, and XML technologies into a single network. BPM, he says, is to this collection of services what a conductor is to musicians in an orchestra: it coordinates their actions in the performance of a larger composition. Essential Business Process Modeling teaches you how to develop examples of process-oriented applications using free tools that can be run on an average PC or laptop. You'll also learn about BPM design patterns and best practices, as well as some underlying theory. The best way to monitor processes within an enterprise is with BPM, and the best way to navigate BPM is with this valuable book.

Driven by the need for a closer alignment of business and IT requirements, the role of business process models in the development of enterprise software systems has increased continuously. Similar to other software artifacts, process models are developed and refined in team environments by several stakeholders, resulting in different versions. These versions need to be merged in order to obtain an integrated process model. Existing solutions to this basic problem in the field of software configuration management are mainly limited to textual documents, e.g., source code. This monograph presents a generally applicable framework for process model change management, which provides easy-to-use comparison and merging capabilities for the integration of different process model versions. The framework supports popular modeling languages such as BPMN, BPEL, or UML Activity Diagrams. Differences between process models are represented in terms of intuitive, high-level change operations. Equipped with a sophisticated analysis of dependencies and a semantic-aware computation of conflicts between differences, the framework constitutes a comprehensive and practically usable solution for process model change management in the model-driven development of enterprise software systems.

This practical book describes the key operations of ARIS Toolset - the market leading Business Process Modelling Tool. Based on his experience of using ARIS in British Telecommunications plc, the author describes practical ways of using the tool. Using screen shots and plenty of practical examples, Rob Davis shows how ARIS can be used to model business processes. Throughout the book Davis provides readers with tips and short-cuts, enabling users to start modelling quickly and effectively. He also provides insights into the ARIS concepts, and tells readers about the benefits and trade-offs of using the tool in alternative ways. Unlike other books, this practical guide tackles issues found in real projects.

To large organizations, business intelligence (BI) promises the capability of collecting and analyzing internal and external data to generate knowledge and value, thus providing decision support at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. BI is now impacted by the “Big Data” phenomena and the evolution of society and users. In particular, BI applications must cope with additional heterogeneous (often Web-based) sources, e.g., from social networks, blogs, competitors’, suppliers’, or distributors’ data, governmental or NGO-based analysis and papers, or from research publications. In addition, they must be able to provide their results also on mobile devices, taking into account location-based or time-based environmental data. The lectures held at the Second European Business Intelligence Summer School (eBISS), which are presented here in an extended and refined format, cover not only established BI and BPM technologies, but extend into innovative aspects that are important in this new environment and for novel applications, e.g., machine learning, logic networks, graph mining, business semantics, large-scale data management and analysis, and multicriteria and collaborative decision making. Combining papers by leading researchers in the field, this volume equips the reader with the state-of-the-art background necessary for creating the future of BI. It also provides the reader with an excellent basis and many pointers for further research in this growing field.

In the current fast-paced and constantly changing business environment, it is more important than ever for organizations to be agile, monitor business performance, and meet with increasingly stringent compliance requirements. Written by pioneering consultants and bestselling authors with track records of international success, The Decision Model: A

This book describes in detail how ARIS methods model and identify business processes by means of the UML (Unified Modeling Language), leading to an information model that serves as the basis for a systematic and intelligent development of application systems. Multiple real-world examples using SAP R/3 illustrate aspects of business process modeling including methods of knowledge management, implementation of workflow systems and standard software solutions, and the deployment of ARIS methods.

Business processes are among today's hottest topics in the science and practice of information systems. Business processes and workflow management systems attract a lot of attention from R&D professionals in software engineering, information systems, business-oriented computer science, and management sciences. The carefully reviewed chapters contributed to this state-of-the-art survey by internationally leading scientists consolidate work presented at various workshops on the topic organized by the editors of the book in the past few years. The book spans the whole spectrum of business process management ranging from theoretical aspects, conceptual models, and application scenarios to implementation issues. It will become a valuable source of reference and information for R&D professionals active in the fascinating interdisciplinary area of business process management and for ambitious practitioners.