Reasoning with Taskless BPMN

Ivo Velitchkov | 18 April 2013

@kvistgaard

Transformation

State

Why BPMN?

CyberneticsSemantic technologiesBPMN

Variety Execution EA

Why ST?

@kvistgaard

Cybernetics

“The scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the

machine.“ ~ Norbert Weiner

“…deals with all forms of behaviour… electronic, mechanical, neural, or

economic” ~ W. Ross Ashby 

"The art of effective organization“~ Stafford Beer

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/renespitz/3383392840/sizes/o/in/photostream/

"The science and art of understanding“~

H. Maturana

@kvistgaard

- State

- Transformation

- Variety

@kvistgaard

Transformation

@kvistgaard

Transformation

@kvistgaard

Transformation (pre-defined)

rules

@kvistgaard

Transformations (pre-defined)

rules

Objective: green circle

@kvistgaard

Transformations (pre-defined)Objective: green circle

square

s

reds

greens

circle

s

@kvistgaard

I know shapes

I know colours

I can change colours

We can change shapes

Transformation (knowledge-based)

capabilities

@kvistgaard

- State

- Transformation

- Variety

@kvistgaard

horse

walk -> trot -> canter -> gallop

image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muybridge_race_horse_gallop.jpg

“By a state of a system is meant any well-defined condition or property that can be recognised if it occurs again.” (R. Ashby)

@kvistgaard

transition

transformation

relative

State

also dynamicvariety

12:30 = 06:03

walk -> trot -> canter -> gallop

example: horse

complexity

control

@kvistgaard

tablet tablethandheld handheldread read*write write*clay {many}

V1 < V2

Image source: http://www.katapi.org.uk/BibleMSS/ElAmarnaT.htm

@kvistgaard

P

PP

P

P

P

P

PP P

P

P

M

@kvistgaard

P

PP

P

P

P

P

PP P

P

P

MP

@kvistgaard

Transformation

State

Why BPMN?

CyberneticsSemantic technologiesBPMN

Variety Execution EA

Why ST?

Why BPMN?

• 76 implementers• Increasing adoption

• Problems with semantics of many elements (lanes, tasks, some gateways and events)

• Very weak on data and rules• Can’t express many common

situations, yet has enormous number of elements

• Missing time dimension• Not suitable for knowledge

processes• ….

@kvistgaard

con

sensu

s

coherence

A

C

D

G

B

Why BPMN?

Based on Consensus/Coherence model of D. Snowden. Source: http://cognitive-edge.com

@kvistgaard

“A Task is an atomic Activity within a Process flow. A Task is used when the work in the Process cannot be broken down to a finer level of detail. “

BPMN2.0, p. 156

…so you can’t

Tasks are atomic

@kvistgaard

Tasks try to restrict what should be done during run time with what is known during design time

… and that’s often not much

Tasks are restrictive

@kvistgaard

Let’s see what will happen without BPMN tasks

Task-free

@kvistgaard

BPM

N

Without tasks, we’ll have…

… a leaner BPMN

@kvistgaard

Without tasks, our models can…

...absorb more variety

@kvistgaard

“The definition of these states, e.g., possible values and any specific semantic are out of scope of this specification. Therefore, BPMN adopters can use the State element and the BPMN extensibility capabilities to define their states.”

@kvistgaard

@kvistgaard

@kvistgaard

START C1 C2 C3 C4 END

A B

C

1. A in START2. C1=true for A; B in START3. A waiting for C3; C1=true for B4. C3=true for A; C2=true for B; C in START

@kvistgaard

[ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]

@kvistgaard

@kvistgaard

Job Application example

@kvistgaard

…with interruption

@kvistgaard

…using only conditional events

@kvistgaard

Two types of use cases so far:

• Process improvement– Derive to-be models• But not from as-is, from ideal process (inspired by

Ackoff ideal design) + constraints

• Case management with some degree of uncertainty

The first results

@kvistgaard

Transformation

State

Why BPMN?

CyberneticsSemantic technologiesBPMN

Variety Execution EA

Why ST?

@kvistgaard

• OPEN – Open world assumption– Open-source data

• NATURAL– Descriptions are close to the natural language, yet

understandable by machines– Rules are a natural part of the semantic web

ecosystem

Why using Semantic Technologies?

@kvistgaardSource: http://leirdal.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/semanticcake2.jpg`

@kvistgaard

[ ]

@kvistgaard

A

@kvistgaard

COREONTOLOGY

DOMAINONTOLOGY

DOMAINONTOLOGY

DOMAINONTOLOGYDOMAIN

ONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY A

ONTOLOGYA

ONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGY

AONTOLOGYA

ONTOLOGYA

ONTOLOGY

@kvistgaard

CLASSES PROPERTIES

Core Civil Service Ontology

@kvistgaard

ST

Leaner and easier BPMNCan deal with more uncertaintyExecution through inferenceOpen Enterprise Architecture