Automated two-phase business model-driven synthesis of conceptual database models

Abstract

Existing approaches to business process model-driven synthesis of data models are characterized by a direct synthesis of a target model based on source models represented by concrete notations, where the synthesis is supported by monolithic (semi)automatic transformation programs. This article presents an approach to automated two-phase business process model-driven synthesis of conceptual database models. It is based on the introduction of a domain specific language (DSL) as an intermediate layer between different source notations and the target notation, which splits the synthesis into two phases: (i) automatic extraction of specific concepts from the source model and their DSL-based representation, and (ii) automated generation of the target model based on the DSL-based representation of the extracted concepts. The proposed approach enables development of modular transformation tools for automatic synthesis of the target model based on business process models represented by different concrete notations. In this article we present an online generator, which implements the proposed approach. The generator is implemented as a web-based, service-oriented tool, which enables automatic generation of the initial conceptual database model represented by the UML class diagram, based on business models represented by two concrete notations.

Automatic derivation of the initial conceptual database model from a set of business process models

“…After the transformation rules were upgraded and formalized [16], the automatic MDSDM from a collection of the UML ADs was presented in 2012 [25]. Based on the experimentally confirmed [7,20] semantic capacity of data-centric BPMs, a two-phase BPM-driven approach to the CDM synthesis was proposed [21], and the first online service-oriented BPM-driven CDM generator (M-lab Generator) was implemented [19]. Finally, the AMADEOS system [36,14] was launched, as the first online web-based system for BPM-driven CDM synthesis.…”

“…The automatic generation of the object-object associations is specified by two transformation rules: T 8 -association between the existing object and the corresponding activation class, and T 9 -tasks having input and output objects of different types. In order to overcome disadvantages of the direct synthesis, AMADEOS implements the two-phase CDM synthesis [21,19], which means that the extracting and generating actions are decoupled and separated into two consecutive activities (phases). In the first phase, appropriate extractors extract specific concepts from the source BPM and represent them by BMRL 12 .…”

“…12 BMRL (Business Model Representation Language) is a simple domain-specific language aimed at representing the BPM concepts having the semantic capacity for automatic CDM synthesis. For the complete specification of BMRL, we refer the readers to [21,19]. 13 For the complete formal specification of the rules for the both phases we refer the readers to [21,19].…”

“…The first very important milestone in our progress was the indirect two-phase CDM synthesis [21], which enables and facilitates derivation of the target data model from differently represented BPMs. By applying the two-phase CDM synthesis approach, we have launched the AMADEOS 3 system [19,36,14], which was the first online web-based system enabling automatic CDM derivation from BPMs that may be represented by two different notations and differently serialized. However, AMADEOS was able to automatically generate a CDM based on a single BPM, as the large majority of the existing MDSDM tools.…”

Run-time interpretation of information system application models in mobile cloud environments

“…AGM provides full modeling capability for the structural aspects of a system, including schemes for data storage and user interface definitions. The structural model is complete, meaning that the interpreter can execute them without requiring additional programming code to render database schema [20] or augment the user interfaces. For dynamic system definition, the AGM is supplemented by action scripts contained in P rocess nodes, meaning that an additional mapping exists from each P rocess node to executable artifacts or source code, if required.…”