Querying Semantically Enriched Business Processes

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper we present a logic-based approach for querying business process repositories. The proposed solution is based on a synergic use of an ontological framework (OPAL) aimed at capturing the semantics of a business scenario, and a business process modelling framework (BPAL) to represent the workflow logic. Both frameworks are grounded in logic programming and therefore it is possible to apply effective reasoning methods to query the knowledge base stemming from the fusion of the two. A software platform has been developed and the first tests are encouraging.

Ontology-Based Querying of Composite Services

“…Both components are seamlessly connected thanks to their grounding in first order logic (in particular, logic programming) and therefore it is possible to apply effective reasoning methods to query the knowledge base encompassing the two. A preliminary evaluation of the implemented reasoning engine was conducted to prove the feasibility of the approach [25]. In particular, the rule-based implementation of the OWL reasoner and the effective goal-oriented evaluation mechanism of the LP engine shown good response time and significant scalability.…”

Semi-Automatic Process Composition via Semantics-Enabled Sub-Process Selection and Ranking

“…Semantic annotation of sub-processes is performed without constraining the adoption of a unique domain ontology and the sub-process selection relies on an hybrid approach to identify mapping between concepts across different ontologies. The scalability of the framework is partially ensured since: 1) ontology matching is performed off-line only when new ontologies are added to the system; 2) high-level compatibility checking and cohesion/coupling metrics evaluation present good response time [6,7]; 3) fine-grained queries are polynomial and the query engine presents considerable scalability [5]. Additional tools must be added to the framework to support the annotation of component subprocesses and the specification of local and global constraints and to provide enhanced, user-friendly interfaces for business process designers.…”

“…domain ontologies. Within the framework presented here, the BPAL reasoning framework [5] is exploited for the management of the BP repositories, specifically: (1) the possibility of importing BPMN processes (in their XPDL linear form) through a direct translation into BPAL; (2) support for the semantic annotation and the reasoning over the ontologies (in particular, OWL-RL is fully supported); (3) a query language, QuBPAL, based on the SELECT-FROM-WHERE paradigm, to express queries over repositories of semantically annotated BPs also in terms of local and global constraints; (4) a query engine, based on Prolog, that provides efficient, sound and complete evaluation of QuBPAL queries.…”

A Knowledge Representation Formalism for Semantic Business Process Management

“…Initially, a set of approaches was proposed to apply techniques borrowed from the Semantic Web to the BP management context SUPER (2011). In Missikoff et al (2011) an ontology-based approach for querying business process repositories for the retrieval of process fragments to be reused in the composition of new BPs is presented. The proposed solution is composed by an ontological framework (OPAL) aimed at capturing the semantics of a business scenario, and a business process modelling framework (BPAL) to represent the workflow logic of BPs.…”