Control and data dependencies in business processes based on semantic business activities

  • Authors:

  • Zhangbing Zhou;Sami Bhiri;Manfred Hauswirth

  • Affiliations:

  • National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland;National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland;National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Control and data dependencies are important information in business processes that supports process modeling, analysis, and execution. However, sequencing constraints, which are prescribed by control structures, obfuscate the true sources of dependencies. In addition, most work improperly equalizes sequencing constraint and control dependency, and regards data dependencies as a flow of data processing relying on sequencing constraints. In this paper, business activities are described with a semantic description that defines precondition, effect, input, and output. Based on which we specify what control and data dependencies are. Control dependencies are related to the precondition and the effect. Mandatory data dependencies are related to the input and the output, while optional data dependencies are derived from possible conditions on business activities. All control and data dependencies are optimized into a minimal dependency graph which captures essential dependencies to be preserved. A sequencing constraint is possibly due to control and/or data dependencies. A clear view on the relation and the difference between sequencing constraint and control/data dependency is crucial to better support process modeling, analysis, and execution.