From Business Process to Application

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ARIS Expert Paper

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May 2006

From Business Process to Application

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Visionary architecture always requires good building plans!

That’s way it pays to use your organization’s business processes as the plan for your service-oriented architecture. ARIS Solution for Business-Driven SOA Management allows you to convert business process models into executable IT processes. The integrated ARIS Value Engineering procedure model helps you to create a comprehensive SOA repository, enabling you to keep tabs on your business processes and service landscape.

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From Business Process to Application Model-driven Development of Business Management Software Business management applications serve a basic purpose: they are meant to provide optimum support for the business processes of an enterprise. Inadequate consideration of this fact in the course of a software development project will lead at best to mediocre results and at worst to the failure of this project. This article describes how classic business process modeling can be integrated as an elementary part of a software development project with the aid of ARIS UML Designer. The result is a consistent, model-based, integrated solution for the development of business management applications – from business process analysis to system design.

About the author:

Find out how: • business process modeling and software development are linked and • a consistent, model-based development solution for business management software can be achieved.

Thomas Andres is Development Manager at IDS Scheer where he is responsible for UML, model-driven software development, and code generation.

Although modeling in software development has previously been used E-mail: [email protected] rather hesitantly and only for post-project documentation of individual aspects, it has long been considered as a standard in the technical departments of many enterprises. Model-based acquisition, monitoring, and continuous optimization of business processes has become indispensable for gaining and securing competitive advantages. With the introduction of the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) by the OMG and its rather pragmatic variant – the Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) – the topic of modeling has recently become important in software development. Several publications on the subject of integration of business process analysis and object-oriented software development already exist and are usually transpose the modeling methods used in software development onto the business process modeling. This article presents an integration solution based on classic business process modeling widely distributed in the technical departments of the enterprises.

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1. Overview Figure 1 shows a diagram of the procedure for model-driven software development with the inclusion of the business processes relevant to the project and use of a template-based code generator. The business processes are acquired in the form of a business process model and serve as a basis for the requirement analysis. Models created here are independent of both the selected system architecture and the implementation platform. The system is designed based on the analysis model and the application family selected for the code generation that specifies the system architecture and the UML profile to be applied. Aided by the application family, the code generator converts the design model into source code and other artifacts, which then must be completed by manual implementation, if required. The templates of the application family determine what is generated from the design model. Ideally, dependence on the implementation platform only evolves with the templates so that the design model only depends on the system architecture.

Fig. 1: Model driven development of business management applications

Numerous publications on the topics of system design, code generation and implementation already exist. However, many developers are unfamiliar with the topic of business process modeling. Therefore, this article explains how to derive an object-oriented analysis model from a business process model.

2. Business Process Analysis From a software development point of view, business process analysis serves mainly as a means of communication with the technical departments and as a basis for the requirement analysis of the software to be created. From the technical departments’ angle, the software development is only one of many application scenarios for business process analysis. For example, other application scenarios are business process optimization, ERP implementation, process cost management, or ISO-9000 certification.

Fig. 2: Event-controlled process chain (EPC)

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ARIS is recognized worldwide as a quasi-standard for business process modeling. One of the key diagram types in ARIS is the event-controlled process chain (EPC). The EPC demonstrates how events in an enterprise lead to the activation of certain functions, which in turn leads to other events. The executing organizational units and the data to be processed can be assigned to the individual functions.

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The EPC in figure 2 shows how a reservation of cinema tickets is checked in a Call Center. All elements and relations visualized in the diagram are saved in a database. The Call Center agent appears twice in this example as the executing organizational unit of a function. However, this is just a single database element. Working in a database enables a number of assessments, such as: “What functions are performed by an organizational unit in the enterprise?”, and is also a prerequisite for linking the business process and requirement analysis. The following arguments promote the use of ARIS for business process analysis in software development. •

ARIS offers a model-based description of all aspects of an enterprise in a central database. The tool’s graphic models are much easier to check for consistency and completeness than a collection of Word documents or PowerPoint slides.

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The ARIS methodology, unlike UML, is easy to understand for both technical departments and software developers. It enables communication between all involved parties, and is therefore an excellent basis for a common requirement analysis.

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The technical departments model their business processes themselves and assume an active role in the software development process.

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A detailed ARIS business process model often already exists in an enterprise. In this case, the requirements analysis can commence much quicker.

3. Requirement Analysis UML has been recognized in the object-oriented software development environment similar to ARIS’ recognition as a modeling method for business processes. Now the challenge is to integrate both modeling worlds and usefully link them methodologically. Two complementary methods of deriving a UML analysis model from the business process model are presented below.

3.1

Use Case Model

First of all, all functions to be implemented in a software system are identified in the business processes. These functions are treated as use cases in the UML environment and copied to a UML use case diagram. For this purpose, ARIS provides a predefined transformation, which additionally determines all organizational units assigned to the function and adds them to the use case diagram as actors. Figure 3 illustrates the result of such a transformation. IT-relevant functions are stereotyped as system use cases («systemUseCase»). The diagram also contains the master business process as a business use case («businessUseCase»). The background symbols in figure 3 below

Fig. 3: System and business use cases

the use cases to the right indicate that these are detailed by further diagrams. An essential aspect of this transformation is that new elements are not created, but existing elements in the business process model are re-used. This is made clear by the property dialog of the function “Find show” shown in figure 4. This function is visualized in both the EPC and the UML use case diagram.

Fig. 4: ARIS properties of the function “Search for presentation”

The advantages of this integration are obvious. For example, if the function in the business process model is renamed, the new name is also displayed automatically in the UML use case diagram. In addition, a simple, bi-directional navigation between corresponding contents in the business process and the UML analysis model is enabled. 5

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Analysis Class Model

The input and output parameters of the EPC functions – the so-called technical terms – represent another point of contact for the requirement analysis. These are usually combined in a technical terms model in the course of business process modeling to guarantee that uniform technical terminology is used throughout the project. In the requirement analysis, these technical terms are examined to determine the suitable candidates for technical classes and those which are more suitable as technical attributes. The technical classes and technical attributes determined in this way are positioned in the same diagram and linked with the respective technical term. Figure 5 shows an excerpt from a technical term model. Transformations in which the steps can be automated are also available here.

Fig. 5: Technical term model with technical classes and technical attributes

In the next step, the technical classes are copied to a UML class diagram for assignment of the technical attributes and for interrelation of the classes via binary associations. The result is shown in figure 6. The technical classes can now be enhanced with further technical attributes and operations. The analysis model is derived from the business process model through close cooperation between the technical department and the IT department. Although the technical department is better able to assess which EPC functions and technical Fig. 6: Analysis class diagram terms are relevant for software development, the object-oriented analyst is in a better position to decide whether a technical term corresponds to a technical class or a technical attribute. The input of the technical department is also useful for developing the UML analysis model because the staff is better able to assess how the individual technical classes are associated with each other. ARIS UML Designer enables the link between UML and classic ARIS modeling by implementing the same object model for both modeling methods. ARIS UML Designer uses a specific UML object model which is based on the common ARIS object model.

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To process the UML elements, a specific UML property dialog (see figure 7) and a classic ARIS property dialog (see figure 8) are available. In addition to the list of features shown in figure 4, this dialog also contains a list of all relations between the element and other elements, and thus enables navigation from the UML element to the linked ARIS element (from the technical class to the technical term in the illustrated example).

Fig. 7: UML properties of the analysis class “Presentation” There are many other possibilities for linking classic business process modeling with UML modeling. For example, EPC functions can be re-used as UML operations or UML activities (ActionState), EPC events as a trigger for status transitions or ERM attributes as UML attributes. Fig. 8: ARIS properties of the analysis class “Presentation” Basically, both model worlds are linked either by direct reuse of a business process element as a UML element or by linking with a UML element. It is also possible to refine technical elements with UML diagrams. In all cases, a simple, bi-directional navigation between both model worlds is guaranteed.

4. System Design and Generation

Fig. 9: Derivation of design class from analysis class The UML analysis model serves as a source for a design model based on which the code is generated. ARIS UML Designer offers two options for linking code generators: via XMI interface or integration by plug-ins. With the plug-ins, the code generation can work directly on the internal UML object model and there is no need for the diversion through the file system. The current version provides the user with an appropriate plug-in for the Opensource-Generator openArchitectureWare (see figure 10) and an SDK for developing custom plug-ins.

Fig. 10: openArchitectureWare plug-in 7

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5. Conclusion Business Process Analysis is essential to the success of software development projects in the business management field. If the development is model-driven, a formal business process description serves as the base for the requirement analysis. If the business process analysis follows methodology with Further information: which the technical departments are familiar, the business process model Business Process Automation will be more complete and technically consistent. The technical integration of business process and UML modeling enables a UML analysis model to be derived from the business process model using transformations. The methodological integration also guarantees a link between the respective corresponding model contents and enables a bidirectional navigation between both model worlds.

Combining Best and Next Practices

MDA and MDSD are distinguished by the fact that changes must always take place at the abstraction level with which the change corresponds semantically. In business management applications, this often affects the business processes level. ARIS UML Designer provides a consistent, integrated solution that covers all aspects from classic business process modeling through object-oriented analysis and design to code generation.

Publications on the topic: Business Process Excellence ARIS in Practice

This book explains major trends in business process automation and shows how new technologies and solutions are applied in practice.

Business Process Change Management

This book presents international case studies in various manufacturing and service industries as well as the public sector. It shows how to achieve Business Process Excellence in practice.

Enterprises have to ensure an efficient and effective change management in order to stay competitive and survive on the long term.

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ARIS Expert Paper

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