1 Ontology-based Semantic Annotatoin of Process Template for Reuse Yun Lin, Darijus Strasunskas...

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Ontology-based Semantic Annotatoin of Process

Template for Reuse

Yun Lin, Darijus StrasunskasDepart. Of Computer and Information ScienceNorwegian Univ. Of Science and Technology

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Agenda

Problem Statements Proposed Approach – Semantic Annotation

Ontological Basis and Meta-Model Mediator Semantic Annotation of Process Template

Applications Conclusions and Future Work

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Problem Statement

A process template is abstracted from a process model instance for reuse purpose.

Reuse of process templates improves the quality of process modeling by reflecting previous knowledge and experience.

Process templates are stored in the distributed model repositories.

Storage and retrieval of process templates have to be considered.

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Problem Statement

Reuse limitations of current model templates : Same process modeling language Same modeling tool Difficult to be queried beyond an enterprise Same terms are required when querying

(keyword-based query)

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Problem Statement

The limitations are caused by semantic interoperability problems.

Semantic interoperability problems: Model level

Terms are used differently for the same concept in two models, e.g. ‘Client’ in model A and ‘Customer’ in model B; ‘purchase’ in model A and ‘buy’ in model B.

Conceptualization mismatches, e.g. ’City’ is a class in model A and it is a attribute of another class in model B; ’finish’ is an action in model A but it is a state in model B.

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Problem Statement

Semantic interoperability problems: Meta model level

Same concept but different terms are used in different modeling languages, e.g. ‘agent’ (ActionWorkflow) ‘actor’ (Core Plan Representation)

Same terms but the concepts are not totally same, e.g. ’activity’ is the atomic concept in PSL (Process Specific Language), but it is not an atomic concept in WooRKS

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Assumption: process models in a same domain have common concepts process modeling languages have sufficient similarities of

constructs

Common understanding(process ontology)

Model

Meta-model

Common understanding(domain ontology)

Model

Meta-model

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Proposed Approach

A common semantic annotation structure for process templates.

Model profile annotation

Model content annotation

Meta-model annotation

Figure1. Three model annotation aspects

Model as a whole product

Model fragments

Modeling language

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Proposed Approach

Model Profile Annotation The basic description information about a process

model template such as problem domain of the template, name of the template, author of the template, date of creation and etc.

Refer to the description structure of patterns

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Proposed Approach

Model Content Annotation Contents of a process template: process and

doamin parts Process part: workflow description Domain part: object-relation model (class model, ER

model) Reference ontology

Process reference ontology, process patterns, thesaurus

Domain reference ontology, domain thesaurus

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Proposed Approach

Model Content Annotation Assumption: all process templates can be

represented in XML/RDF. Markup annotation approach ’semAnn’:

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Proposed Approach

Meta-model Annotation Mapping process modeling languages into a

semantics agreed process template modeling language.

Annotate schema (XML Schema or RDF Schema)

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Ontological Basis

General Process Ontology (GPO) A set of concepts usually for describing semanitcs

of a process Based on BWW-ontology and refer to other

process ontologies and process modeling languages, such as TOVE, PIF-CORE, EEML, BPMN, BPML, PSL etc.

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General process ontology (GPO)

Activity

Artifact

State

Transformation

participates_in

Exception

handled_by

raises

Condition

has

has

changes performed_by

ordering

resulted_from

Actor-role

interacts with

is_kind_of

partof

constrained_by

Set Attributelist Atom

{ }

+

RML graphical notations

Basic constructs:

Aggregation

Generalization (disjoint)

Generalization (overlapping)

Association

Classification

Hierarchical abstraction constructs:

Unspecified relation between A and B

Into function A B

Onto function A B

A relation, where each element of A canrelate to one element of B

A 1:1 partial correspondence between A and B

Functions (f: A B):

A B

A B

A B

A B

A B

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Process Template Modeling Language (PTML)

Process templates are models and a neutral process modeling language provides a unified way to represent process templates.

Constructs of PTML try to cover most common and core constructs of various process modeling languages.

PTML is derived from GPO. PTML is defined in RDFS or OWL.

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Flow Junctioncombine

Activity_element

Input

Output

Exception_element

has_condition

Artificate_element

has_artifact

combine

combine

State_property

Actor-role_element

has_actor-role

has_state

has_state

has_input

has_output

has_exception

from tohandled_by

Condition_element

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Note: PTML is not intended to be created as a

completed executable process modeling language.

Impossible to make exact one-one construct mapping between PTML and a specific process modeling language.

A way of storing and representing the core model of process.

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Semantic Annotation of Process Template Applications

Annotate process templates and store them in repositories

Retrieval desired process templates Reuse found process templates in new

projects

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DataLocal

process template

Reference domain ontology, thesaurus

Process template

General Process Ontology (GPO)

Annotated process template

Profile annotation information

Local domain model

Meta model of a specific process

modeling language

Meta model of the Process Template

Modeling Language

(PTML)

link to link to

annotated_by(model content

annotation)

represented_by represented_by

store_in

annotated_by(model profile annotation)

annotated_by(model content annotation)

mapping

map

ping

derived_from


annotation)

annotated_by(meta model annotation)

Domain part

Process part

Meta model part

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A Simple Example

An EEML process template – a purchase process

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A Simple Example

An EEML process model template includes: Task: purchase Personrole: client (defined in the local domain

model) The local process template is exported into a XML

file, and linked to the local domain model in which roles and resources are defined.

The EEML is defined in XMLS or DTD.

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DataLocal

process template


Process template




Local domain model


modeling language


Modeling Language

(PTML)

link to link to


annotation)


store_in



mapping

map

ping

derived_from


annotation)


Domain part

Process part

Meta model part

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A Simple Example

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DataLocal

process template


Process template




Local domain model


modeling language


Modeling Language

(PTML)

link to link to


annotation)


store_in



mapping

map

ping

derived_from


annotation)


Domain part

Process part

Meta model part

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Meta-model Annotation

Meta model mapping EEML: task PMTL: activity element EEML: personrole PMTL: actor-role element

Mapping Reasoning with general process ontology SKOS(Simple Knowledge Organization Systems) Other mapping tools

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Meta-model Annotation

SKOS is an RDF schema for representing thesauri and similar types of knowledge organization system (KOS).

Construct task in EEML is replaced by ‘Activity_element’ in PTML.

Process template is a RDF or OWL-based file.

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Model Content Annotation – domain content annotation

Local domain model is a local domain ontology

Reference domain ontology or thesaurus is an agreed collection of concepts and their relations within a certain domain.

Local concepts are annotated by common understanding concepts.

Mapping of local doamin ontology and reference domain ontology

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Model Content Annotation – domain content annotation

Person

Customer

client



annotation)

Domain model annotation

<skos:Concept rdf:about="uri://domainmodel#client"> <skos:preLabel>client</skos:preLabel> <skos:altLabel>customer</skos:altLabel> </skos:Concept>

Local domain model (ldm)

<rdfs:Class rdf:id=”client”/> …

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Model Content Annotation – process content annotation

Annotate model fragments using GPO Apply the underlying relationship between GPO and PTML Annotate fragments with composed constructs (workflow

patterns)

Use ’semAnn’ annotation way

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Annotatoin Result

The abstracted template is represented by the process model template language.

The IDs of model elements are reindexed. The semantics of the model elements are

also annotated by the general process ontology.

The terms can be replaced by synonym. The annotated domain model is linked to the

template.

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Template Query Application

Query annotate

General process ontology

Annotated query

DataAnnotated

process model template

search

Reference domain ontology

Process model template result

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Template Reuse Application

Three operations on a template Domain specialization Process Refinment Required process modeling language

transformation

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Conclusions and Future Work Semantic interoperability issue of process models is vital in the following

scenario: Process models exchange Process models integration Process knowledge sharing

Process templates retrieval and reuse are applications normally used in above scenario.

Related work Services-oriented: Bernstein et al., ’Towards High-Precision Service Retrieval’;

Michael Kifer et al. ’A Logical Framework for Web Service Discovery’; Patil et al. ’METEOR-S Web Service Annotation Framework’ etc.

Process Ontology: MIT process handbook, OWL-S, PSL, Aitken and Curtis’s ’Design of a Process Ontology: Vocabulary, Semantics and Usage’, UEML

XML-based model exchange: XMI, Vanderhaeghen et al. ’XML-based Transformation of Business Process Models – Enabler for Collaboratiive Business Process Managemenrt’ and others

Contributions: Two-level semantic interoperability of process templates: meta-model level and model

level. Semantic annotation structure GPO and PTML

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Conclusions and Future Work This is ongoing work. Some work is refined after this paper

GPO is refined (GPO and PTML are combined); Semantic Annotation Model (Semantic Web Services technology

is applied, such as OWL-S.) Goal-driven query

Future work Continue to enrich semantics covered by GPO (refer to some

process modeling languages comparison framework) Formulize semantics of GPO Refine semantic annotation model Semantic reasoning with annotation information (semantics

mapping, WordNet, Racer) Prototype of semantic annotation and semantic retrieval of

process templates

1 Ontology-based Semantic Annotatoin of Process Template for Reuse Yun Lin, Darijus Strasunskas...

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