PHILharmonic Flows - Process, Humans and Information Linkage for harmonic Business Flows

Project Description

Our basic mission in this project is to develop concepts, methods and tools for realizing object- and process-aware application systems. In particular, we aim at a flexible integration of business data, business processes, and thus want to overcome limitations known from activity-centered Workflow Management Systems.

A general goal of business information systems is to provide advanced functionality for managing business information and business processes in an integrated way. Existing information systems provide a data-oriented view which enables users to access and manage relevant business data at any point in time. In addition, many systems additionally offer a process-oriented view within which upcoming tasks are assigned to responsible actors at the right point in time.

On the one hand business information should include information about the corresponding processes. On the other hand, adequate context information should be offered during process execution. Any business software therefore should provide an integrated view on business information as well as on business processes! Interestingly, many application systems already enable an integrated access to business data and to business processes (e.g., CRM or ERP systems). However, in these systems, process logic is often hard-coded. Thus, even simple process changes require costly code adaptations and high efforts for testing. As a consequence long development cycles and high maintenance costs result.

To cope with this unsatisfactory situation, Workflow Management Systems (WfMS) have been introduced. Using WfMS, it becomes possible to define processes independent from specific applications. However, a comprehensive data-oriented view is still missing in contemporary workflow technology resulting in many limitations and costly workarounds.

In the PHILharmonic Flows project, we have analyzed numerous processes as supported by existing application systems and we have evaluated their relation to application data. We have observed that contemporary WfMS have not achieved the technological maturity yet for adequately supporting the data-driven processes (see Fig. 1) within these application systems.

Fig.1: Data and Process Structure within Application Systems
Fig.1: Data and Process Structure within Application Systems

We have elaborated the key challenges for an advanced process management technology which we denote as Object-aware Process Management (see Fig. 2). The underlying idea is to provide a generic component which enables similar features as can be found in hard-coded application systems on the one hand and which benefits from the advantages known from WfMS on the other hand.

Fig. 2: Challenges for Object-aware Process Management Systems
Fig. 2: Challenges for Object-aware Process Management Systems

Challenge 1:
Providing an integrated view on data and on the corresponding processes.

Challenge 2:
Defining a uniform granularity for the harmonized modelling of processes which considers the underlying data structure.

Challenge 3:
Synchronizing concurrently executed process instances in accordance with their semantic relations.

Challenge 4:
Enabling data-based process modelling and data-driven process execution.

Challenge 5:
Ensuring a flexible granularity of activities and enabling dynamic coordination of optional and mandatory activities.

Additionally we address research questions which emerge from the involvement of users in Object-aware Process Management Systems.

Challenge 6:
Enabling authorizations based on individual object instances.

Challenge 7:
Ensuring compliance between permissions for accessing data and for executing process activities.

Challenge 8:
Considering the relations between users and object instances.

Challenge 9:
Differentiating between optional and mandatory permissions.

By tackling these challenges, we want to achieve the following benefits:

  • A clear and intuitive methodology for the harmonized modelling of processes which leads to comparable process models.
  • A generic implementation of basic application functions like forms, overview lists, and so forth.
  • A separation between business rules and process logic.
  • A knowledge-driven process execution for better assisting users.
  • Compliance between the state of data objects and the progress of the process.
  • Controlled and synchronized evolution of data and processes.
  • Controllable integration of context information; i.e., avoidance of the "context tunnelling" problem.
  • The generation of different perspectives on one and the same process considering the context of the user.

Our overall vision is to develop a framework for an Object-aware Process Management System which tackles the above mentioned challenges. In the course of the project we want to give detailed insights into the different components of the framework as well as their complex interdependencies.

Altogether, PHILharmonic Flows will provide an important contribution towards the realization of more flexible process management technology in which daily work can be done in a more natural way.

Project Details

Project Team

Opens internal link in current windowProf. Dr. Manfred Reichert
Ulm University, Institute of Databases and Information Systems
Opens internal link in current windowVera Künzle
Ulm University, Institute of Databases and Information Systems
Opens internal link in current windowCarolina Chiao
Ulm University, Institute of Databases and Information Systems
Opens internal link in current windowKevin Andrews
Ulm University, Institute of Databases and Information Systems
Opens internal link in current windowSebastian Steinau
Persis GmbH

Project Partners

University of Ulm, Institute of Databases and Information Systems

Persis GmbH, High-Level Human Resource Software

Funding

The project is partially funded by Persis GmbH.

Duration

The PHILharmonic Flows project has been running since 2009.

Publications

| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 |

2022

Arnold, Lisa and Breitmayer, Marius and Reichert, Manfred (2022) Progress Determination of a BPM Tool with Ad-Hoc Changes: An Empirical Study. In: 16th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS 22), Barcelona, Spain, 17-20 May 2022, LNCS, Springer, pp. 107-123. file
Breitmayer, Marius and Arnold, Lisa and Reichert, Manfred (2022) Enabling Conformance Checking for Object Lifecycle Processes. In: 16th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS 22), Barcelona, Spain, 17-20 May 2022, LNBIP, Springer, pp. 124-131. file
Breitmayer, Marius and Arnold, Lisa and Reichert, Manfred (2022) Data-Driven Evolution of Activity Forms in Object- and Process-Aware Information Systems. In: 27th International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems (CoopIS 2022), Bozen - Bolzano, 4 -7 October 2022, LNCS 13591, Springer, pp. 186-204. file
Marius, Breitmayer and Lisa, Arnold and Reichert, Manfred (2022) Data-Driven Evolution of Activity Forms in Object- and Process-Aware Information Systems. In: CoopIS 2022, Bozen - Bolzano, 4 -7 October 2022, LNCS 13591, Springer, pp. 186-204. file

2021

Andrews, Kevin and Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred (2021) Enabling runtime flexibility in data-centric and data-driven process execution engines. Information Systems, Elsevier, Vol. 101, pp. 101447, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2019.101447. file
Arnold, Lisa and Breitmayer, Marius and Reichert, Manfred (2021) A One-Dimensional Kalman Filter for Real-Time Progress Prediction in Object Lifecycle Processes. In: IEEE Int'l Workshop on Intelligent Digital Architecture, Methods, and Services for Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 (IDAMS 2021), Workshop at the EDOC 2021 Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, 25 - 26 October 2021, IEEE Computer Society Press. (Accepted for Publication) file
Steinau, Sebastian and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2021) Coordinating Large Distributed Relational Process Structures. Software and Systems Modeling, 20(5): 1403-1435, Springer. file

2020

Breitmayer, Marius and Reichert, Manfred (2020) Towards the Discovery of Object-Aware Processes. In: 12th Central European Workshop on Services and their Composition (ZEUS 2020), Potsdam, Germany, February 20-21, 2020, CEUR Workshop Proceedings 2575, CEUR-WS.org, pp. 1-4. file

2019

Steinau, Sebastian and Marrella, Andrea and Andrews, Kevin and Leotta, Francesco and Mecella, Massimo and Reichert, Manfred (2019) DALEC: A Framework for the Systematic Evaluation of Data-centric Approaches to Process Management Software. Software & Systems Modeling, 18(4): 2679-2716, Springer. file
Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred and Andrews, Kevin (2019) Coordinating Large Distributed Process Structures. In: International Working Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development and Support (BPMDS'19), Rome, Italy, 3-4 June, LNBIP 352, Springer, pp. 19-34. file

2018

Andrews, Kevin and Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred (2018) Enabling Process Variants and Versions in Distributed Object-Aware Process Management Systems. In: Forum of the 30th Int'l Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE’18 Forum), Tallinn, Estonia, June 11-15, 2018, LNBIP 317, Springer, pp. 1-15. file
Andrews, Kevin and Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred (2018) Engineering a Highly Scalable Object-aware Process Management Engine Using Distributed Microservices. In: 26th International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems (CoopIS'18), Valletta, Malta, October 22-26, 2018, LNCS 11230, Springer, pp. 80-97. file
Andrews, Kevin and Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred (2018) Enabling Ad-Hoc Changes to Object-Aware Processes. In: 22nd International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC 2018), Stockholm, 16-19 October, 2018, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 85-94. file
Andrews, Kevin and Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred (2018) A Tool for Supporting Ad-Hoc Changes to Object-Aware Processes. In: Demo Track of the 22nd International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC 2018), Stockholm, 16-19 October, 2018, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 220-223. file
Steinau, Sebastian and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2018) The Relational Process Structure. In: 30th Int'l Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2018), 30th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE), Tallinn, Estonia, 11-15 June 2018, LNCS 10816, Springer, pp. 53-67. file
Steinau, Sebastian and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2018) Modeling Process Interactions with Coordination Processes. In: 26th International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems (CoopIS'18), Valletta, Malta, October 22-26, 2018, LNCS 11229, Springer, pp. 21-39. file

2017

Andrews, Kevin and Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Towards Hyperscale Process Management. In: 8th International Workshop on Enterprise Modeling and Information Systems Architectures (EMISA 2017), Essen, Germany, June 12-13, 2017, CEUR Workshop Proceedings 1859, CEUR-WS.org, pp. 148-152. file
Andrews, Kevin and Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Enabling Fine-grained Access Control in Flexible Distributed Object-aware Process Management Systems. In: 21st IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC 2017), Québec City, October 10-13, 2017, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 143-152. file
Steinau, Sebastian and Künzle, Vera and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Coordinating Business Processes Using Semantic Relationships. In: 19th IEEE Conference on Business Informatics (CBI 2017), Thessaloniki, Greece, 24-26 July 2017, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 33-43. file
Steinau, Sebastian and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2017) A Modeling Tool for PHILharmonicFlows Objects and Lifecycle Processes. In: Proceedings of the BPM Demo Session 2017 (BPMD 2017), Barcelona, Spain, 12-14 September, 2017, CEUR Workshop Proceedings 1920, CEUR-WS.org. file
Steinau, Sebastian and Künzle, Vera and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Coordinating Business Processes Using Semantic Relationships. In: 19th IEEE Conference on Business Informatics (CBI 2017), Thessaloniki, Greece, 24-26 July 2017, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 33-42. file
Steinau, Sebastian and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Flexible Data Acquisition in Object-aware Process Management. In: 7th Int'l Symposium on Data-driven Process Discovery and Analysis (SIMPDA 2017), Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 6 - 8 Dec 2017 , CEUR Workshop Proceedings 2016, CEUR-WS.org, pp. 113-127. file
Steinau, Sebastian and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2017) Executing Lifecycle Processes in Object-Aware Process Management. In: Data-Driven Process Discovery and Analysis (SIMPDA), Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing 340, Springer, pp. 25-44. file

2016

Künzle, Vera and Steinau, Sebastian and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2016) An Approach for Modeling and Coordinating Process Interactions. Technical Report UIB-2016-06, Ulm University. file

2014

Chiao, Carolina Ming and Künzle, Vera and Andrews, Kevin and Reichert, Manfred (2014) A Tool for Supporting Object-Aware Processes. In: IEEE 18th Int'l Distributed Object Computing Conference - Workshops and Demonstrations (EDOCW 2014), Ulm, Germany, September 2014, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 410-413. file
Chiao, Carolina Ming and Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2014) Towards Schema Evolution in Object-aware Process Management Systems. In: International Workshop on the Evolution of Information Systems and their Design Methods (EMISA 2014), Luxembourg, September 2014, Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI) P-234, Koellen-Verlag, pp. 101-115. file

2013

Chiao, Carolina Ming and Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2013) Object-aware Process Support in Healthcare Information Systems: Requirements, Conceptual Framework and Examples. Int'l Journal on Advances in Life Sciences, 5(1 & 2): 11-26. file
Chiao, Carolina Ming and Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2013) Enhancing the Case Handling Paradigm to Support Object-aware Processes. In: 3rd Int'l Symposium on Data-Driven Process Discovery and Analysis (SIMPDA'13), Riva del Garda, Italy, August 30, 2013, CEUR Workshop Proceedings 1027, CEUR-WS.org, pp. 89-103. file
Chiao, Carolina Ming and Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2013) Integrated Modeling of Process- and Data-Centric Software Systems with PHILharmonicFlows. In: 1st IEEE Int'l Workshop on Communicating Business Process and Software Models, Workshop held in conjunction with the 29th Int'l Conf on Software Maintenance, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, September 23rd, 2013, IEEE Computer Societey Press, pp. 1-10. file
Künzle, Vera (2013) Object-Aware Process Management. Phd thesis, University of Ulm. file

2012

Chiao, Carolina Ming and Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2012) Towards Object-aware Process Support in Healthcare Information Systems. In: 4th International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine (eTELEMED 2012), Valencia, Spain, January 30 - February 4, 2012, IARIA, pp. 227-236. file
Chiao, Carolina Ming and Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2012) Schema Evolution in Object and Process-Aware Information Systems: Issues and Challenges. In: 1st Int. Workshop on Data- and Artifact-centric BPM (DAB'12), BPM'12 Workshops, Tallinn, Estonia, 2 September 2012, LNBIP 132, Springer, pp. 328-339. file
Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2012) Striving for Object-aware Process Support: How Existing Approaches Fit Together. In: 1st Int'l Symposium on Data-driven Process Discovery and Analysis (SIMPDA'11), Campione d'Italia, Italy, June 29 - July 1, 2011, LNBIP 116, Springer, pp. 169-188. file
Reichert, Manfred and Weber, Barbara (2012) Enabling Flexibility in Process-Aware Information Systems: Challenges, Methods, Technologies. Springer. file

2011

Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2011) PHILharmonicFlows: towards a framework for object-aware process management. Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice, 23(4): 205-244, Wiley. file
Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2011) PHILharmonicFlows: Research and Design Methodology. Technical Report UIB-2011-05, University of Ulm. file
Künzle, Vera and Weber, Barbara and Reichert, Manfred (2011) Object-aware Business Processes: Fundamental Requirements and their Support in Existing Approaches. International Journal of Information System Modeling and Design (IJISMD), 2(2): 19-46, IGI Global. file
Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2011) A Modeling Paradigm for Integrating Processes and Data at the Micro Level. In: Proc. 12th Int'l Working Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development and Support (BPMDS'11), London, June 2011, LNBIP 81, Springer, pp. 201-215. file
Künzle, Vera (2011) Towards a Framework for Object-aware Process Management. In: 1st Int'l Symposium on Data-driven Process Discovery and Analysis (SIMPDA'11), PhD Seminar, Campione d'Italia, Italy, June 29 - July 1, 2011. file

2010

Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2010) Herausforderungen bei der Integration von Benutzern in Datenorientierten Prozess-Management-Systemen. EMISA Forum, 30(1): 11-28, Koellen-Verlag. file
Künzle, Vera and Weber, Barbara and Reichert, Manfred (2010) Object-aware Business Processes: Properties, Requirements, Existing Approaches. Technical Report UIB-2010-06, University of Ulm. file

2009

Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2009) Towards Object-aware Process Management Systems: Issues, Challenges, Benefits. In: Proc. 10th Int'l Workshop on Business Process Modeling, Development, and Support (BPMDS'09), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 2008, LNBIP 29, Springer, pp. 197-210. file
Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2009) Herausforderungen auf dem Weg zu datenorientierten Prozess-Management-Systemen. EMISA Forum, 29(2): 9-24. file
Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred (2009) Integrating Users in Object-aware Process Management Systems: Issues and Challenges. In: Proceedings BPM'09 Workshops, 5th Int. Workshop on Business Process Design (BPD'09), Ulm, Germany, September 2009, LNBIP 43, Springer, pp. 29-41. file

2008

Andrews, Kevin and Steinau, Sebastian and Reichert, Manfred (2008) A Tool for Supporting Ad-Hoc Changes to Object-Aware Processes. In: Demo Track of the 22nd International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC 2018), Stockholm, 16-19 October, 2018, IEEE Computer Society Press. (Accepted for Publication) file

Master & Bachelor Theses

| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2015 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |

2020

Arnold, Lisa (2020) Real-time monitoring of progress in object-aware business processes. Master thesis, Ulm University. file

2019

Schwarz Rosado, Marisol (2019) Discovery and Evaluation of Coordination Patterns for Business Processes in many-to-many Relationships. Master thesis, Ulm University. file

2018

Schönfeld, Maik (2018) Konzeption und Entwicklung eines Expression Verification Frameworks für ein objektzentriertes Prozessmanagementsystem. Bachelor thesis, Ulm University. file

2017

Rothmaier, David (2017) Evaluation der Modellierungskonzepte eines objektzentrierten Prozessmanagementsystems. Master thesis, Ulm University. file

2015

Popa, Mark (2015) Evaluierung bestehender Konzepte für datenorientiertes Prozessmanagement. Diploma thesis, Ulm University. file
Steinau, Sebastian (2015) Design and Implementation of a Runtime Environment of an Object-Aware Process Management System. Master thesis, Ulm University. file

2013

Spindler, Thomas (2013) Integration der Modellierungs- und Laufzeitumgebung eines datenorientierten Prozess-Management-Systems. Master thesis, Ulm University. file

2012

Beck, Hannes (2012) Implementierung einer Komponente zur Modellierung von Mikro-Prozessen in einem datenorientierten Prozess-Management-System. Bachelor thesis, University of Ulm. file
Schultz, Stefan (2012) Implementierung einer Komponente zur Ausführung von Mikro-Prozessen in einem datenorientierten Prozess-Management-System. Diploma thesis, Ulm University. file

2011

Pröbstle, Andreas (2011) Technische Konzeption und Realisierung der Modellierungskomponente für ein datenorientiertes Prozess-Management-System. Diploma thesis, Ulm University. file

2010

Scheb, Christian (2010) Entwicklung eines Usability-Konzepts für die Laufzeitumgebung eines datenorientierten Prozess-Management-Systems. Diploma thesis, Ulm University. file
Wagner, Nicole (2010) Entwicklung eines Usability-Konzepts für die Modellierungsumgebung eines datenorientierten Prozess-Management-Systems. Diploma thesis, Ulm University. file