University of Pisa

MSc in Computer Engineering

Process-driven Information Systems

Process-Driven Information Systems
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Mario G. Cimino,
Department of Information Engineering
Pisa, September-December 2018. Wednesday 10.30-13.30 Room SI6, Friday 11.30-13.30 Room SI1;

Credits

  6 (60 hours)

Objectives

  The course aims to provide knowledge and experience essential for designing and developing enterprise information systems that are driven by workflow models. Such software systems mainly support the way that machines, people, work, activities, events, tools are arranged by collaborating organizations for efficiently delivering goods and services. Typical examples of process-driven information systems are Workflow Management Systems (WfMS), Document Management Systems (DMS), the process engines of software systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), as well as the service orchestrators for enabling Ambient Intelligence and Enterprise Application Integration. Students are trained on how to model and develop non-trivial software systems with business process management suites.

Description

Workflow and dataflow modeling: BPMN execution semantics; determination of scenarios and calculation of the number of tokens; workflow models from informal specification; the semi-formal textual description; UML data object specification; guidelines on how to characterize a process from real world contexts; handoff, service and task levels; group exercises. Lab activities with a process drawing tool and a process modeling suite. Business process simulation: simulation parameters; process logs; benchmarks; KPIs; task duration; branching proportion; available resources; number of instances; arrival rate; resources allocation for task. Lab activities with a process simulation tool. Process-driven architectures: evolution of enterprise systems architectures; Enterprise Resource Planning architecture; siloed enterprise applications; integration architectures; multiple-application workflow systems architecture; human interaction workflow; service-oriented architectures; enterprise services; enterprise service bus; service composition. Labs activities with a Business Process Management suite. Advanced process modeling: errors in BPMN models; syntactical and structural errors; deadlock; livelock; multiple termination; sample patterns: loop deadlock, multi-source deadlock, improper structuring deadlock; message-related mismatch; counterexamples. Exercises. Process mining: process execution and event logs; automatic process discovery; alpha miner algorithm; robust process discovery; heuristics miner algorithm; fuzzy miner algorithm; performance analysis; conformance checking. Lab activities with a process mining suite.

Books, Guides, Communities

  1. T. Allweyer, D. Allweyer, BPMN 2.0, 2nd ed., BoD press, Norderstedt, 2010 [excerpt].
  2. A. Sharp, P. McDermott, Workflow modeling, 2nd ed., Artech House, Boston, 2009 [excerpt].
  3. BPMN Movies (zipped avi MB)
  4. BPMN 2.0 Poster (pdf)
  5. Visual Paradigm for UML 11 [Users Guide]
  6. Signavio, Process Editor - User Manual, 2015 (see more on academic.signavio.com)
  7. Disco User Guide
  8. Bonita BPM User Guide
  9. Bonita BPM Connectors Guide (see more on documentation.bonitasoft.com, community.bonitasoft.com)

Software Tools and materials(*)

  Tutorials and lab activities are based on the following software tools and materials:

  1. Workflow Modeling Methodology[pdf]
  2. BPMN Modeling and Simulation [pdf]
  3. Scenario-based simulation: leather manufacturing [zip]
  4. Scenario-based simulation: insurance [zip]
  5. Scenario-based simulation: hospital emergency center [zip]
  6. Process Drawing and simulation tool: Visual Paradigm for UML 11 [Win64][Win32][MacOSX][Linux64][Linux32]
  7. Process Drawing tool: Yaoqiang BPMN Editor 5 [local] [web]
  8. Process Analysis suite: Signavio BPM [web]
  9. Process Simulation tool: BIMP simulator [web]
  10. Statistical simulation: insurance [zip]
  11. Process Mining [pdf]
  12. Log and models [zip]
  13. Process Mining suite: ProM 6 [local] [web]
  14. Process Mining suite: Disco 1.9 [local] [web]
  15. Log Preprocessing: TextPad 8 [local] [web]
  16. All-in-one package [local]
  17. Process Management suite: Bonita BPM 7 [local] [web]
  18. Database Management System: MySQL 5 [local] [web (server)] [web (client)]
  19. Business Process Management Systems [pdf]
  20. Sample Applications on Bonita BPMS [zip]
  21. Logistics (movies) [zip]

Assessment

  Exam: oral presentation of the project and written/oral test (depending on the number of students).

Schedule

(§) = lesson reserved for supervising project teams

Syllabus

Syllabus

Journal of Activities

Registration (*).

New activity (*) [help]

Past activities, not instantly updated (*).

Every 20h contact your professor to check up your entries.

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(*) Access restricted for copyright or privacy reasons. Enter the same credentials used to log in the classroom PCs.

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