Title
Role network model-based support for RESTful business processes.
Abstract
The WWW is increasingly used for process-intensive business scenarios that connect services and applications together. Imperative programming and centralised traditional workflow engines lack the flexibility to support such distributed systems. RESTful business process (RESTfulBP) is an architectural style that introduces a set of constraints and uses process fragments to enable process coordination and choices at the endpoints to improve system adaptability, especially for human-intensive Web-based business processes. However, the original solution had two limitations: 1) the endpoint process fragments cannot distinguish between obligation and permission semantics to communicate richer choices of next-steps, and 2) it was time-consuming to create process fragment variants in an imperative style (either using complex workflow models or manually). In this paper, we propose a rule-based approach using the Role Network Model (RNM) to address these limitations. We introduce deontic logic into a process fragment and enable declarative generation of process fragments from rules. The proposed solution is evaluated in a real-world property valuation application using the B2B standard process from the Australian lending industry. The evaluation indicates that the new approach has improved both the design and runtime adaptability of the resulting system. Through surveys of other users employing our approach, it further demonstrates improved expressiveness, usability and general usefulness.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1016/j.datak.2014.08.001
Data & Knowledge Engineering
Keywords
Field
DocType
Workflow management,Business process,Human-intensive systems,REST,Rule-based,RNM
Artifact-centric business process model,Data mining,Business process management,Business process,Computer science,Business process modeling,Business process discovery,Business Process Model and Notation,Business rule,Database,Process mining
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
94
PA
0169-023X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
34
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Xiwei Xu136033.53
Xin Ye251.41
Liming Zhu393377.31
Qinghua Lu416327.59