The Pennsylvania State University. The Graduate School AN APPLICATION OF A THESAURUS PROCESS MODEL TO HUMAN RESOURCE BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING

Transcription

1 The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering AN APPLICATION OF A THESAURUS PROCESS MODEL TO HUMAN RESOURCE BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING A Thesis in Industrial Engineering by Taiwo O. Odewade 2013 Taiwo O. Odewade Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science May 2013

2 The thesis of Taiwo O. Odewade was reviewed and approved* by the following: Soundar Kumara Allen E., & Allen, M., Pearce Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Thesis Co-Advisor E. Christopher Byrne Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Research Associate ARL Thesis Co-advisor Paul M. Griffin Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Head of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School

3 iii ABSTRACT Organizations are increasingly using Business Process Models (BPMs). However, these models have two major drawbacks. First, the BPMs, mostly are in a non-machine-readable format, which makes them inaccessible to machine learning and intelligent queries. Secondly, semantic heterogeneity, by which we mean the inconsistency in vocabulary and other language usage across organizational personnel, leads to inconsistency in interpretation of models. Past approaches to eliminate semantic heterogeneity include the enforcement an official standardized vocabulary and even defining entire modeling languages, but history has shown enterprise-wide vocabulary enforcement is expensive at best and often infeasible. Semantic Business Process Modeling (SBPM) purports to resolve semantic heterogeneity without relying on language standardization, by instead relying on users a priori knowledge of the business processes to support correct, consistent interpretation of models. This strong assumption imposes severe limitations on the applicability of these models. This thesis demonstrates any business process can be modeled using a thesaurus that is machine-readable to support software applications and mitigates semantic heterogeneity by explicitly mapping it. With this approach, we posit that specialized technical skills will not be needed to interpret the process model, allowing organizations to implement the models minimal user training. The interactive query capability provided by the thesaurus structure, and supported by numerous commercial software packages for thesaurus maintenance and creation, eliminates or reduces the need for any assumptions on a priori user knowledge. The Thesaurus Business Process Model (TBPM) we propose in this work is compliant with the ISO 9001(Quality Management Systems) standard, which is used as a benchmark in most organizations in

4 iv improving the management of information flow. Thesauri have been written about in context of linguistic and database design search engines, where semantic heterogeneity is a natural phenomenon, but never in the process modeling literature, which also requires mitigation of semantic heterogeneity. To validate the claims, this thesis includes TBPM of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) human resource development process (HRDP). The USMC HRDP model is interactive to improve collaboration among specialized sub units. In addition, it also provides necessary information to fully integrate the HRDP management with agencies external to the management process. This thesis concludes with ideas for going beyond resolution of semantic heterogeneity to resolution of heterogeneity of model structure across all types of BPMs.

5 v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES... vii LIST OF TABLES... ix Chapter 1 Introduction Motivation Problem Description Uniqueness and Contributions Thesis Organization... 6 Chapter 2 Framework and Literature Review Business Process Model Process Modeling Literature Review Flow Chart UML 2.0 Activity Diagram (AD) Colored Petri-Net (CPN) Role Activity Diagram (RAD) Data Flow Diagram (DFD) The Integrated Definition for Function Modeling (IDEF) Process Model Structure Semantic heterogeneity Chapter 3 Research Methodology Introduction Thesaurus BPM (TBPM) Example of a BPM Methodology Outline the representational requirements and logical framework of a process model Mathematical structure of a thesaurus business process model Formulate the process space of a process model as a thesaurus Manipulation and transformation of the process space Result and analysis procedure Chapter 4 Application Introduction Current process map of the MPP Use of the Thesaurus terminology standard library Explicit differentiation between sub-processes and data entry... 39

6 vi Employing the use of data analysis on data entry Framework of the Thesaurus Process Space Software Implementation and Browser GUI Server Interface Call level Interface Process Model GUI Proposed Framework Example Implementation Chapter 5 Validation Validation Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future Work Conclusion Future Work Appendix A Terminology and Relations Tables Reference

7 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Manufacturing and vendor inquiry process Figure 2: The Principal approach of the BPM Figure 3: Expense request payment business process model Figure 4: Expense payment request business process model Figure 5: Expense request payment thesaurus business process model Figure 6: Concepts relations graphical representations Figure 7: Shows the process instance map of Manning control for forecasting enlisted accessions training Figure 8: Shows the process instance map of Manning control for forecasting officer accessions training Figure 9: Shows the use of the terminology standard for the forecasting enlisted accessions training Figure 10: Shows the use of the terminology standard for the forecasting officer accessions training Figure 11: Shows the use of the Business Process Owner and Has Child Process terminology standards Figure 12: Shows the use of input terminology relationships in forecasting enlisted accessions training Figure 13: Shows the use of input terminology relationships in forecasting Officer Accessions training Figure 14: shows the input sub-process that can be used in both the officer and enlisted accession management Figure 15: Depicts the relationship between a sub-process and the data entry Figure 16 Organization structure of enlisted marine population per MOS Figure 17: Shows a sample graph of the maximization of the employment quality Figure 18: Perpetual management control cycle

8 Figure 19: This figure illustrates the process space among sub-processes in the MP process model Figure 20: This figure illustrates what makes up the process model sub-process space Figure 21: Shows the terms listed alphabetically on the main screen of the TBPM Figure 22: Shows the second screen produces when a term is clicked Figure 23: Shows the overview of the ISO 9001:2008 process approach requirement viii

9 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Manufacturing and vendor similar tasks Table 2: BPMN language core modeling elements Table 3: Context of the attributes Table 4: ISO standard used for the construction of the process model Table 5: Forces affecting the MPP Table 6: Shows the attributes of the sub-process space Table 7: Process model call level interface Table 8: ISO 9001 and TBPM Key Process Space Management Requirement check list Table 9: Shows the MM Recruit Distribution process space Table 10: Shows the MM Enlisted staffing process space Table 11: Shows the MM Officer Staffing process space Table 12: Shows the Partners & Common Processes process space Table 13: Shows the MP Manning Control process space Table 14: Shows the MP Target Force process space Table 15: hows the MP Officer Inventory Plan process space Table 16: Shows the MP Enlisted Inventory Plan process space

10 Chapter 1 Introduction In most organizations, business process models are used to automate workflow related tasks and to provide a platform to query the process space. However, business process models (BPMs) can be modeled in different ways in the same organization. Thus, the issue of continual bi-directional translation or semantic heterogeneity among business process models (BPM) emerges. In the current age, different groups in an organization are remotely as well as automatically trying to solve problems related to various tasks from finance to customer relations. It is a common practice in organizations to refer to the same business task or subtask in different groups of an organization. In an organization, such as a manufacturing company, parts used in the manufacturing processes are coordinated with individual vendors in order to make the parts readily available. Both manufacturing and vendors can have a model representation of the process showing the workflow of the parts. Manufacturing for example may have a generic workflow BPM while the vendor may have its own BPM for the same task. Therefore, the two units, manufacturing and vendors, should clearly be able to understand what information needs to be communicated and how it needs to be communicated to ensure the minimization of error in accomplishing the task. For example, Figure 1 depicts a (simplified) manufacturing and vendor s business process view of the organizations task. In both processes, vendors inquire about parts are utilized. However, the events are treated different in both organizations. Table 1 illustrates terms that refers to the same task in both organizations but treated differently due to lack of understanding of each other s organizational process. This forms the motivation of my thesis.

11 2 Table 1: Manufacturing and vendor similar tasks Manufacturing Vendor Vendor inquiries about parts Vendor inquiries about parts Accounting inquiry query processing Accounting inquiry query processing Generate quotation Inquiry Complete quotation Inquiry Figure 1: Manufacturing and vendor inquiry process Though in the two models, generate quotation Inquiry and complete quotation Inquiry, represent the same task, due to the labels (terms) used, these two can be thought of as being distinct. This is due mainly to, the use of domain specific terminologies and interfaces by different organization as a means of improving high fidelity words which indirectly makes their models incomparable. Therefore, it becomes necessary to resolve the issue of semantic heterogeneity as a means of improving communications between BPM across the organization.

12 3 1.1 Motivation It has becomes necessary to semi-automate the bi-directional translation among BPM with domain specific terminologies as a means of resolving the issue of semantic heterogeneity and improving the information retrieval system performance. This forms the motivation of the current thesis. The main idea of the thesis is to combine a semantic framework, BPM methodology and the thesaurus terminology structure in automating the mediation of various process spaces in an organization repository. The fundamental approach of resolving the issue of semantic heterogeneity is, finding a one-to-one similarity between terms used in describing the activities among the process spaces of an organization repository. The approach use in this thesis is representing the process space of a BPM using a thesaurus as a means of allowing machine reasoning for bi-directional translation between BPM. Figure 2 shows the principal overview of the BPM. Figure 2: The Principal approach of the BPM

13 4 The assumption made in this thesis is that there is only a one-to-one mapping between process model elements. The assumption is made in order to prevent possible process element relationship mapping explosion. Thus, preventing a computational intractability of the algorithm used for computing the similarity metrics between process elements in a model. 1.1 Problem Description Nowadays, many enterprises and organizations employ information systems to support the execution of their business processes. Examples of such information systems used include Enterprise resource planning (ERP), Customer relationship management (CRP) or Workflow Management Systems. These processes are readily available across the enterprise in order to facilitate collaboration across organizational boundaries in performing common tasks. However, different organizations in the enterprise may use specific vocabulary, terminologies or structural representations for modeling their business processes. Therefore, the issue of semantic heterogeneity arises. A brief description of semantic heterogeneity in process modeling is as follows: Although the process space of an organization is well documented in a computer system (e.g. stored in a process model form, fragments of code, data structure, etc.), an expert is required in order to query and manipulate the process space regularly. For example, when a list of resources or events that meet a required definition is needed, business analysts have to compose such results manually, which Is time consuming, costly and error prone. This makes it difficult to compare business processes across the organizations. Due to the fact that, BPM s can be represented using the same modeling language in different ways in the same organization it becomes important to structure the process space of the BPM. The primary issue in business process management is mediating semantic heterogeneity among business processes. Semantic heterogeneity is caused by the variations of the manner in which information is structured in a

14 5 business process. This also makes it difficult for a business process to share information even when they have similar processes. Thus, the main objective is allowing business processes to retain domain specific terminologies and interfaces and still facilitate information sharing. According to [1], as an organization grows, the number of business processes grows and therefore the number of shared business processes also grows. An appropriate technique for resolving the issue of semantic heterogeneity among business process models caused by using different abstraction levels for process element terminology is by using a semantic business process model SBPM framework [2]. An SBPM is used to help resolve the issue of business process interoperability and interconnectivity across the enterprise. The SBPM approach developed for the business process model is based on measuring the degree of similarity of elements within different models by using an automated domain specific semantics metric based on an adaptive thesaurus from [3] used in order to retrieve only the semantic information contained within the models. Resolving the issue of semantic heterogeneity involves measuring the degree of semantic similarity between process (search) models. In summary, semantic similarity is defined from various prospective, which are mostly broken down into three groups: Similarity between texts: This is based on the comparing of labels that appear among business process models (activity labels, event labels, gateway labels, etc.). Similarity between structures: This is based on observing that the business process model has a graphical topology. This could also take into account similarity between texts. Similarity between behaviors: This is based on comparing the behavior of two elements in a business process model when a task is executed. Unfortunately, it has been shown in a series literature surveys that measuring the degree of similarity process modeling techniques have various downfalls when assessed in light of its

15 6 compliance to ontological and terminological principles [5, 6, and 7]. The repercussion is that most of the information used in the construction of the process models remains abstruse to both human translators and software tools. This thesis is composed of analyzing the compliance of the thesaurus process modeling principles to well establish process modeling domain specific terminology principles and to widely established ontology principles used in the classification and organization of vocabularies in process modeling. 1.2 Uniqueness and Contributions The contributions of this thesis are, (1) outline the semantic representation requirement of a BPM s process space, (2) represent the process space in the form that provides the tools necessary for machine-accessible representation and manipulation of the process space of a BPM, (3) describe the scope of the semantic transformation of a process model, and (5) explain the benefits and drawbacks of using a thesaurus to semantically structuring the process space of a BPM. 1.3 Thesis Organization In Chapter 2, the framework and literature is reviewed to summarize work done in process modeling that is related to this thesis. The research methodology is described in Chapter 3, which also includes examples and mathematical structure of a thesaurus business process model (TBPM). In chapter 4, the TBPM was applied to the Marine Corps manpower process (MP) with an example implementation of the framework. In Chapter 5, the TBPM was validated and analyzed based on its compliance with the ISO 9001:2008 process approach requirement. Chapter 6 contains the conclusion and future work. Appendix A contains the terms and relationships table of the entire human resource development processes (HRDP) process space.

16 7 Chapter 2 Framework and Literature Review 2.1 Business Process Model A business process model (BPM) is a collection of logically related activities and task(s) performed to accomplish an organizational goal. It is often visualized as sequential flowchart of activities and task(s) with decisions being made at each process. Each of the activities or tasks that need to be accomplished is denoted as an element in the business process model. There are various process modeling languages found in literature that are used to adequately formulate the process space of a process model. However, most modeling languages rely heavily on the designers view of the model. Thus, the issue of semantic bottleneck arises. Semantic bottleneck is when it becomes difficult to query and manipulate the BPM without the use of a human mediator in facilitating the exchange of information. Process models are used mostly as a knowledge base of logical information flow and viewed in order to retrieve information valuable to the organization such as, what work needs to be done, who is in charge of doing the work, at what time and location will it be done, what parts are needed and what is the final product. The BPM framework consists of four different perspectives namely, functional perspective, organizational perspective, behavioral perspective and informational perspective. The four perspectives are used to ensure that all the fundamental building blocks of a process model are taken into account. Many modeling notations are available to capture the business processes such as, Petri Nets, EEML (Extended Enterprise Modeling Language), UML Activity Diagram etc. However, the modeling notations used as a bench mark to illustrate the functionality of a BPM in the thesis is based on the business process modeling notation (BPMN) language from [4].The BPMN language is used as a tool in order to define the behavior of an element in a business process. In

17 8 BPMN there are three core modeling elements: activity ( a ), events ( e ) and gateways ( g ).The manufacturing and vendor inquiry process in Figure 1 is an example of two business processes using the BPMN language. The BPM modeling nomenclature and attributes are similar to ontology in the way the elements are used to illustrate the framework process models in literature. Thus, a process model can be viewed has a structured list of terms with relations and definitions that constantly changes based on the state of the model to provide a desired outcome for an organization. BPM are created in most organizations as a software tool used in monitoring the state of the organization in completing its desired objective. However, most process modeling tools have very limited degree of mechanization because of the lack of uniform process model representation of the organization at a semantic level. This in turn makes it difficult to generate an intelligent query and interpretations of the process model search space. Thus, most process models have inadequate machine accessible knowledge base and lack the ability to modify the process model without the use of human intervention. In this thesis we will prove that: (1) there is a need to unify the view of a process model in a machine accessible representation form in order to allow the process model to be queried using standardized expression consistent with business semantics (e.g. ISO 9001), (2) the process space in most process models lack machine accessible representation at a semantic level, and (3) machine accessible representation is a major advantage in mechanization (reduction in the use of human intervention) of process models. Furthermore, we will show that (4) a thesaurus provides a suitable machine accessible representation of the process model knowledge space. As an outcome, we propose (5) a combination of a thesaurus and a BPM and develop a combined process modeling technique called a Thesaurus Business Process Model (TBPM). The aim of the

18 TBPM is to support both the creation of process models and allow the process space to query able by the use of logical expressions consistent with business semantics Process Modeling Literature Review To further understand and study the behavior of a system, a process model is constructed using a particular modeling language and sharing a particular viewpoint of the designer. Current process modeling languages are not built on a descriptive logic-based process space representation, and thus they are unsuccessful at making the entire process space of the process model open to machine reasoning and querying. The lack of machine accessible representation of the process space in the BPM causes difficulties when using it among various parties in an organization. Thus, the following issues arise: 1. Process blindness: Occurs when it becomes difficult for business professionals and managers in an organization to determine if a specific process is made up of existing activities. Therefore, it becomes difficult querying the process space of the BPM by using logical expressions. Thus, the problem of how to improve a process model by checking the process practicability (e.g. before a new product is lunch) or process space comparisons (e.g. The use of the International Organization for Standardization for terminology principle) are done by professional analysts and not by people who use the models. 2. Process goals and implementation complexity: There is no distinguishable separation between the process goals and implementation specification which makes it complex for managers in the organization to manage the process space of a BPM. 3. Modification requires professional experts: Modification of the process model requires interaction between professional experts (e.g. IT personal) and business

19 10 experts. Therefore, the process is labor intensive which reduces the organizational abilities of the organization. 4. Manual development of process model: The development of the process model is done manually according to the organizational need, which often requires numerous organizational experts. 5. Process space definition and interpretation complexity: It is infeasible to utilize machine reasoning in understanding the functionality of the basic activities in the process space and how it affects the process model. 6. Complexity in B2B bi-directional Translation: It is difficult to collaborate among businesses. At an initial glance at both process models the terminology may seem the same, but after a deeper analysis they may turn out be different. Thus, there are no standards in process modeling which allows for ambiguity in the interpretation of the process space. For example, the word check semantically might mean a checkbook to an accountant or a validation process for an engineer. The aim of this section is to introduce various business processes modeling techniques found in literature and also, to show how inefficient they are in representing the processes and associated information. According to [8] a process is defined as a structured, measured sets of activities designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market. There are various definitions found in literature. However, they all have the same underlining meaning: a process transforms a set of one or more inputs into a set of one or more outputs based on a defined set of control measures. Some of the most widely used modeling techniques are reported in the next section.

20 Flow Chart Flow chart is one of the first modeling techniques used in modeling the business process. The major advantage in using flowcharts is the ability to show the structure of the entire system. A flow chart graphically represents the logical sequence of activities that needs to be accomplished in order to accomplish the organizational goals. The flow chart was created by computer scientists dating back to the 1960s [22], and was intended to be used to represent the computer programming logic flow. However, due to the generic nature of the techniques in capturing the sequential flow of information it has been applied in various areas that involve the sequential flow of information. Despite being very easy to use and interpret, flow charts are no longer considered a dominant process modeling technique because they do not provide enough tools required to model a business process effectively. Thus, flow charts are used as a simple high level graphical representation of how the elements in a process model communicate and they are intended to be used as a narrative description of process models when the true model becomes difficult to understand UML 2.0 Activity Diagram (AD) The AD is considered as the standard in an object oriented process modeling (OO modeling) technique. Based on [10], AD is effective in capturing the details in the design of a BPM in a form that is suitable to translate to other programming languages. The AD technique serves as the basis for representing other techniques because only common modeling construction and notations are used in capturing the concepts of a model. The recent version of the AD [15] has 13 core modeling notations. However, the modeling notation can be further grouped into three different categories:

21 12 Behavior diagram: describes the entire BPM functionality at a higher level of abstraction Interaction diagram: used to further visualize behavior diagram functionality of the objects interactions Structure diagrams: shows the static structure of the model by capturing the type and instances of individual objects and the overall model application. The uses of the various modeling notations can vary from a high level abstraction of the object diagrams, depicting a relationship and interactions between business functions, to a lower level object diagrams that illustrates the instances of an object and how their relationships impacts other objects Colored Petri-Net (CPN) The Colored Petri-net modeling technique is a graphical language used for constructing and designing process models. CPNs are mainly used in cases where processes need to be synchronized and communicated amongst them. CPN is an extension of the regular petri-nets where different types of objects are depicted by different colors. The graphical representation of the technique makes it easy to visualize the complex CPM model structure in order to understand the interaction of individual processes. CPN integrates both hierarchical decomposition and data structuring with the same quality as the regular petri-nets [13]. Furthermore, the hierarchical decomposition of the CPN technique makes it easy to model large BPM using a set of separate sub-process.

22 Role Activity Diagram (RAD) The Role Activity Diagram technique is a high-level visual language used in capturing the dynamics and structural role of a process model [13]. RAD has various BPM reported applications found in literature ([16], [17], [18]), especially involving BPM with task like applications. RAD is reasonably simple and intuitive to use and understand. It can be constructed and interpreted by anyone with minimum prior knowledge about the technique. RAD is in fact an object oriented modeling language and is based on the object state transition diagrams. The role object describes how the state of an object changes states based on the interactions and actions that occurred. The major disadvantage of this technique is that processes are viewed as a sequence of activities and cannot be decomposed into sub processes, making viewing the entire process space difficult Data Flow Diagram (DFD) A Data Flow Diagram technique is a graphical representation of a business process diagram that shows the flow of information or data between activities [13]. The processes in the model are represented from the data view point, i.e. it can be viewed as a way of data organization from its original state. The Action Diagram is a unique case of the DFD with much simpler notations and allows contextual analysis [13]. Thus, DFD is different from AD in the sense that, it distinguishes between knowledge and information by showing both data and material flows of data that concerns the performer.

23 The Integrated Definition for Function Modeling (IDEF) The Integrated Definition for Function Modeling technique is a family of techniques that are capable of addressing all the modeling requirements enterprise [13, 19]. An IDEF in the IDEF family is chosen based on the user s specifications. The most used versions of the IDEF s are: IDEF0, IDEF1, IDEF1X, IDEF2, IDEF3, IDEF4 and IDEF5. However, the only versions used in constructing BPM are IDEF0 and IDEF1. The modeling languages mentioned above cover the fundamental framework (functional perspective, organizational perspective, behavioral perspective and informational perspective) of building a process model [19]. However, querying of the process space is hampered by the terminology used in the naming convention for the process element actions and the roles each process element plays in the process model. These are attributes of natural language generally added by the modeler. Thus, the identifiers used in modeling the process models are generally ambiguous and confusing and leaves room for speculation for both human and machine interpretation. Therefore, the semantics of the process element in a process model has to be well defined in a machine accessible representation in order to facilitate intelligent queries and machine reasoning. 2.3 Process Model Structure In building a process model, the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) language based on generic modeling concepts was introduced in section 2.1. In BPMN graphical specification, the notations are categorized into four sub categories [4]. These categories are flow object, connecting object, swimlanes and artifacts. However, only the flow object and connecting object define the control flow (behavioral) perspective of the process model.

24 Thus, in this thesis the BPMN language, process models are modeled using only two core elements: flow objects (events, Activity and Gateway) and connecting objects (sequence flow, message flow, and association). The flow objects and connecting objects are the core elements used in describing the behavior of a business process. The flow objects and the connecting object are defined in Table 2. Table 2: BPMN language core modeling elements Flow Object Element Description Notation 15 Event An event is an activity or task that will occur during the course of a business process Activity An activity is a task that needs to be performed in order to meet a specific goal. Gateway A gateway controls the branching and gathering of the sequence flow of information. Thus, this is used to determine the merging, branching, forking and joining of parts. Connecting Object Element Description Notation Sequence Flow Message Flow Associative Flow The Sequence Flow shows the connection of two or more flow object in the order in which it will be performed. The message flow shows the flow of messages between two participating connecting object that are ready receive and send messages. The Association flow is used to representing information associated within flow objects. An arrow head indicates the direction of flow. The Flow objects consist of what action to perform, the order (parallel, sequential, iteration) of elements that are involved in the decision process and the event generated at the completion of the event. Connecting objects are lines connecting flow objects with each other,

25 16 with different kind of arrows representing the type of message and the relationship between the flow objects. Figure 3 shows a simple Expense Request Payment Business Process Model with eight flow objects and nine connecting objects. The flow object can be further distinguished into different types. However, they still share similar behavior and add no advantage to the BPM. When abstracting a business process model as graph, a flow object can be represented as a node and the connecting objects can be modeled as a vertex. Thus, the business process model can be modeled as a graph of nodes and vertices. Furthermore, based on the BPMN graphical representation of the business process model, the business process model has the following properties: It uses only core modeling elements namely, event, activity and gateway There are no cycles and iterative processes are only supported through a blocked iteration (e.g., through gateways) A BPM has a single starting event and a single ending event. Each BPMN element (flow object and connecting objects) has an attribute associated with it. The attributes can vary from a set of values to a singular value of an element. The attribute of an object will be retrieved using the attribute name and the name of the object in question. For example in Figure 3, the cost attributes for node seven is: the account funds from each bank account.

26 17 Figure 3: Expense request payment business process model 2.4 Semantic heterogeneity Semantic heterogeneity in BPM s is a phenomenon whereby Elements labels (term) has disparities in the interpretation of the meaning of a term. This issue plays a major role in facilitating collaborations across organizational boundaries in performing common tasks. The major source of disparities in BPM is the use of different designers in the development of the BPMs. Three kinds of semantic heterogeneity were identified: syntactic heterogeneity, linguistic heterogeneity, and contextual heterogeneity. Syntactic Heterogeneity occurs when two element labels have the same meaning but have a slightly different spelling. For example, in one model the developer may use a label to create invoice while in another may use created invoice. Thus, in Syntactic Heterogeneity only the syntax of an elements label is considered. Linguistic Heterogeneity is when BPM s across the organization use different terminology. The difference in an element name can be classified as: synonyms (the same concept but different meaning). For example, a BPM might have an element identifier in one

27 18 model as Employee Sex, but in another model, the element identifier could be Employee Gender. Contextual heterogeneity is when not only the elements labels themselves are considered in measuring the semantic similarity between terminologies, but when the context in which it is used is also being considered. Thus, this similarity measure takes into account the elements that precede and succeed the element. The similarity measure is essentially useful in situations where an element label is used multiple times in the same BPM.

28 19 Chapter 3: Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction In essence, the major obstacle is semantically representing the process space of a process model in order to provide scalable techniques and tools used for manipulation and representing a machine accessible knowledge base. In order words, for the process space of a process model to be machine accessible, each of the model elements (events, function, activities connectors, etc.) have to be semantically represented and described during the creation of the model. Consequently, in this thesis a combination of BPM and thesaurus is proposed to help tackle the issue of semantic heterogeneity in process models. Thus, the combination yields an improved process model called the Thesaurus Business Process Model (TBPM). The TBPM covers the fundamental framework (functional perspective, organizational perspective, behavioral perspective and informational perspective) and the semantic framework of the process model. This will allow the process space to be machine-accessible and also allows for machine-reasoning. Thus, the process space of a process model will be semantically annotated or in a machine accessible representation that allows the software to propose new facts about the processes with an underlying knowledge base. The approach of the TBPM is as follows: 1. Annotate individual process model element s basic tasks and activities of a BPM semantically using both the fundamental framework and a thesaurus; 2. Capture the landscape of the modeling language in a form that can be represented as a thesaurus, because this will allow for model validation and evaluation; 3. Store the domain knowledge of the process model in an axiomatic form using natural language rule formulation;

29 20 4. Mapping of process elements from various process models into a virtual repository so that the process space is retrievable to machine reasoning without the need for software or business analysts; 5. Represent the process query space in an thesaurus query language; 6. Model the objective of the professional s expertise as the goals of the process model, and 7. Use a thesaurus execution environment such as MultiTes PRO (thesaurus software builder) in mediating the actual process space element and process queries space Thesaurus BPM (TBPM) Thesauri are commonly used as linguistic references in retrieving specific relationships of a specific vocabulary. It is used to annotate the knowledge base on an information source in order to make it accessible to retrieve information based on the relations they have in common. A thesaurus structures, organizes and preserves the knowledge space. It is assumed that the user of the BPM has an adequate knowledge of how a thesaurus works. Also, the features of the thesaurus will be introduced to the user with more extensive definitions in later sections. The BPM thesaurus captures the relationships and meaning of each element in the model. The relationships between each element are named to combat the issue of semantic heterogeneity in the bi-directionality translation between asymmetric relations of element labels. Thus, the relationship between elements terms can be written in the form element term 1 relation element term 2. The International Standards Organization (ISO) [3, 9] is used as the standard to measure the quality of the thesaurus process model. The thesaurus relationship used can be seen in Table 3 and were standard put forward by [4]. Based upon the attributes in [4] the relationships of a process model were defined in the context of attributes by a tuple R=<I, IO, V, P > with

30 21 I = all instances of the specific attribute, IO= all the input and output relationship of each attribute, V= all values of each attribute P= all properties of specific attribute In Table 3 the list of all attribute relationships of a TBPM are given and organized by the categories instances, IO sets, Value, and Properties which are part of the standard BPM attributes relationship from [4]. The attributes relationships were chosen in order to allow the relationship between terms to be automatically inferred and thus the TBPM designer does not have to explicitly enter the information. This also allows the expansion of nominal compound interpretation of terms between models which in turn increases the vocabulary of the combined TBPM. Further interpretation of the topic introduced will be described in detail in the next section. Table 3: Context of the attributes. Attributes Instances IO sets Value Property Context Has_Name Has_Property Has_Value Has_Target Has_Name Has_Target Has_Source Produce_Output Is_Outputed_by Has_Name Has_property Has_Value Has_Name Has_sibling_Property Has_value

31 Example of a BPM Consider a typical expense payment request example in Figure 4: when the expense payment request arrives in the organization, the accounting department checks to see what account should be billed and then forward the information to the manager who enters the information in the Petri-net software and then automatically updates his account information. There the manager checks his inventory to make sure he has enough materials in his inventory and either rejects the order or moves forward with it. What does the expense process request model describe? A machine learning software knows that there are eight process actions that need to take place before the goal of the process model has been accomplished from the point of view of the accounting department. However, this process model was made for the accounting department and shares only the terminology of the accounting department. The manager might have a similar process model but, due to different terminology, the processes are not compactable and the process space of both departments cannot be queried by the other department. A human is able to understand that Prepare Check for ZNA bank used in a similar context is the same as Develop ZNA bank billing data but, matching reasoning can only use the semantic information in the process space to make that conclusion. Thus, the thesaurus acts as a mediator of heterogeneity of the process among various models. Figure 6 shows the expense payment request model in a thesaurus representation. In the thesaurus process model an element s labels will be modeled as a vocabulary. For example in Figure 4, the preparing check for ZNA bank activity can be modeled as a node with a vocabulary preparing check for ZNA bank. Therefore, the relationship between preparing a check for ZNA bank and selecting a bank based on minimum transaction cost is: preparing a check for ZNA bank target is to select bank based on

32 minimum transaction cost, and vice versa select a bank based on minimum transaction source of preparing a check for ZNA bank. 23 Figure 4: Expense payment request business process model. Figure 5: Expense request payment thesaurus business process model

33 Methodology The objective of this thesis is to develop models for the bi-directional translation between (1) the business expert view of the enterprise process space and (2) the software experts (IT personal) actual implementation of the process space. In many companies, process models are mostly used for documentation purposes and are built by the process model software expert under the guidance of the business expert. This process takes time and increases the chance of errors in the models. In this thesis, we propose a novel approach based on using a thesaurus as a process model which increases the level of automation between process models by bridging the gap between software and business experts in an organization. A thesaurus can be used by anyone and gives the business expert more freedom to add or remove data from the process space of the process model. The major addition of the approach is the use of a thesaurus to mediate the two viewpoints of a process models by automating or semi-automating the process space which in turn facilitates machine reasoning. The methodology is broken down into four separate phases. 1. Outline the semantic representation requirement of a BPM s process space, 2. Formulate the process space of a process model as a thesaurus, 3. Manipulation and transformation of the process space, 4. Result and analysis procedure of the semantic representation of the process space Outline the semantic representation requirement of a BPM s process space, The logical framework and design philosophy of the process modeling technique will be designed using a thesaurus concept- centered design. The terminological principles of the process space will be based on the standards produced by the International Standard Organization (ISO).The ISO standards used are listed in Table 4 and will be further illustrated in Chapter 4.

34 25 Table 4: ISO standard used for the construction of the process model ISO Standard Title of ISO Standard Number ISO 704:2000 ISO :2000 ISO :2000 ISO 2788:1986 Terminology work -- Principles and methods Terminology work -- Vocabulary -- Part 1: Theory and application Terminology work -- Vocabulary -- Part 2: Computer applications Documentation -- Guidelines for the establishment and development of monolingual thesauri ISO 16642:2003 ISO 9001:2008 Computer applications in terminology -- Terminological markup framework Quality Management Systems In this thesis, only the standard that we considered relevant and appropriate for process modeling were considered and not everything contained in the standards were used. However, the ISO 9001:2008 notations and standards were used as the cornerstone of the relations and terms definition. The ISO is used in describing the relations between an object and its representation using terminologies. The main objective of the ISO in process modeling is to establishment of general principles that govern the definition and designation formulation, provide a common language for effective communication between objects, and provide the tools necessary in understanding the terminology objects and the context of use. The ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems (QMS) provides a set of principles using a simple approach in the management of business activities in an effort to achieve a consistent customer satisfaction. The ISO 9001:2008 standard requirements are set of international management standards and guidelines that place an emphasis on the process

35 26 documentation, keeping of record, customer satisfaction and improvement of business process also known as the process approach. The process approach is a set of standards and guidelines promoted by the ISO and used in the management and organization of a process model s process space by creating a wellstructured knowledge based network of the interaction between processes. The objective of the process approach is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization in achieving its defined goals. The process approach can be applied in the process modeling of major management system that require process documentation, clarification and understanding of the processes and its requirement. The ISO process approach is a holistic processes modeling approach, compared to a traditional approaches. It understands that while an organization is organized by fictional department, generally using a hierarchical organization of relationships, the departments performs their given task as a unit. Thus process approach is used to structure the process space of a process model in order to better understand the interactions between different groups in an organization. The ISO has four fundamental content that are central to the terminology standard namely, objects, concepts, designation, and definitions. The four fundamental concepts are defined according to [ISO 9001:2008] as follows: Object: verbal designation of a general concept in a specific subject field [ISO 9001:2008]. Concept: unit of knowledge created by a unique combination of characteristics [ISO 9001:2008]. Definition (terms, names or symbols): representation of a concept by a descriptive statement which serves to differentiate it from related concepts [ISO 9001:2008].

36 27 Designations: Also known as, terms, names or symbols are used to represent a concept [ISO 9001:2008]. In order words, the higher the concept system complexity, the easier it is in the clarification of relations among various concepts. The concept relations are represented graphically or formally as a list. However, graphical representations are more commonly used and are depicted in Figure 7. Figure 6: Concepts relations graphical representations. As depicted in Figure 6, relations in the thesaurus process model will be organized into three categories equivalence, hierarchical and associative relations, which are defined based on the ISO standard definitions. The relations are formally defined using the reflexive, symmetric

37 and transitive abstract relations properties, in which the standard mathematical definitions and are given below Mathematical structure of a thesaurus business process model The use of a thesaurus for linguistic support for information retrieval was adopted from [3]. The semantic distance between two terms in a process model will be calculated based on the minimum number of terms between both vocabularies. Thus, each element in the process model will be modeled has a weighted graph of relationships and terms. A thesaurus is defined in this thesis as a pair of vocabulary V and relations R where, vocabulary is a set of one or more terms and relations is a set of one or more relation. Therefore, the TBPM is defined as a weighted graph of element labels, elements attributes or relations and element type or function. Thus, the TBPM is a tuple (V, R, F, W) and is in one-to-one correspondence with the graph G = G i where G i = (T, R i ) is the graph of R i, for i = 1,..., k.the notation used to graphically illustrate a TBPM is as follows. T= (V, R, F, W): is a query able TBPM. T A = (V A, R A, F A, W A ): is a particular TBPM, V= (V, R, F, W) is the non-empty sets of all element labels (nodes) R V X V is the set of set of directed elements attributes (edges) F: [Activity, Event, Gateway, Sequence Flow, etc,] is the function that maps vocabulary to Types W is the weight associated with each elements attribute SM(V A, V B ): is the similarity between BPM T A and T B SM(v A, v B ): is the similarity between terms in BPM T A and T B Source: R N returns the source vocabulary of the directed relationship

38 29 target: R N returns the target vocabulary of the directed relationship type: V F returns the type of a vocabulary type: R F returns the type of relations attribute: R returns the attributes of the vocabulary the number of incoming sequence flow The number of instances to be created for an activity1 The node to be canceled for a canceled event. TBPM can be seen from 4 different perspectives as mentioned in Chapter 2 however, only the behavior prospective is taken into account. Definition 1 (Semantic path metrics): The semantic path metrics is the number of common terms in-between two terminologies. Let L (P) R+ be defined the length of the path P={v 1,v 2,.v n } or the distance between two terms. The path length can be defined using n i=1 Minkowski Functional as L(P)=( W(vi, vi + 1) r ) 1/2, where r is an integer greater than zero. Definition 2 (Semantic distance metrics): The semantic distance is the degree of closeness between two terminologies in a process model. Thus, the semantic distance metric is the minimum path length between two terminologies. Let v i and v j be two terminologies in the process model, the semantic distance between them is defined as D(v i,v j ) = min{ L(P) P is the path from vi to vj} Formulate the process space of a process model as a thesaurus This phase involves formulating the process space as a thesaurus in the form that provides the tools necessary for machine-accessible representation and manipulation the process

39 30 space of the process model. We propose a method that enhances the process space and is mainly based on mapping the terms in the process models. Thus, we claim that mapping of terms and relationship in the process space is essential to effectively manipulate the process space of a process model. The terms are mapped to the thesaurus concepts which occur within the syntactic unit boundaries. With the most used syntactic unit being the simple noun phrase. Underspecifying the process space (i.e., identifying terms as a simple noun phrase) will be adequate enough in mapping a process space to a thesaurus as opposed to, employing more elaborate ontology analysis Manipulation and transformation of the process space This phase involves manipulation of the process space which is the second most important way of accessing information from the process space. This involves modification of an existing process space, creating a new process space or combing multiple process spaces in order to make data more machine readable. The functionality of the process space manipulation requires similar representations as illustrated Section and also includes the following attributes, (1) being able to generate process space query into a thesaurus searchable format, (2) the ability to resolve a given process space query into an organized format (e.g., thesaurus will be distributed using OWL), and (3) create a thesaurus based process space engine that is capable of executing the resulting organized data. Basically, most process modeling languages cover only part of the requirement highlighted above which make them incapable of process space manipulation. For instance, the orchestration of the process space of the BPMN language can be defined which can allow one to query the process space without making any significant changes to the model.

40 Result and analysis procedure The use of MultiTes PRO together with the BPMN business process modeling software tool will be analyzed in order to inspect the conformity of the thesaurus models in using the good practices analogues with ontology and terminology design principles. Thus the thesaurus representation will be analyzed based on its compliance with the ISO 9001:2008 terminology standard and also on ontological principles found in literature. In order for a process model to be ISO 9001:2008 compliant the process space has to clearly identify the key process management requirements: 1. Identification of the key processes. 2. Identification of how the processes fit and impact each other. 3. Assign the responsibility of managing the processes on a regular basis 4. Determine a criteria of measuring the performance of the processes based its process objectives 5. Establish a procedure for controlling the processes and how they relate to the overall objectives of the organization. 6. Identify the resources required in each processes and create a map of its process logic in order to ensure its task are completed. 7. Determine a mode of communication in order to ensure everyone affected or perform the processes understand the working of the processes 8. Ensure the objectives of the processes are being met by monitoring and assessing the performance of the processes. 9. Identify what can be done to improve the overall performance of the processes based on the key process measures.

41 32 Our objective is to show that a thesaurus process model meets the entire requirement of the ISO 9001:2008 terminology standard and also the requirements of modeling space ontological principles found in literature. Lastly, the benefits of employing the thesaurus in process modeling will be analyzed in light of the goal of both process modeling technique and ontological principles.

42 33 Chapter 4 Application 4.1 Introduction The Marine Corps manpower process (MP) consists of Manning Controls, Target Force, Officer Inventory Plan and Enlisted Inventory Plan business operations that are managed from a technical perspective rather than from a business expert view. Each MP business operations are broken down into various sub-divisions with each division working individually to complete their assigned task in order to meet the overall objective of the MP business operation. The technique used by the various sub-divisions is collecting the information needed from a previous division and sending the final product to the preceding division without the need to document their processes. Thus, each division is blindsided by previous and preceding divisions processes, which makes changes at any level of the MP complicated. The major drawback of current techniques used in describing the MP is the lack of machine-accessible data. The lack of machine- accessible data is due to the following reasons: 1. There is no standard terminology in place to formalize the process space of the MP 2. Lack of documentation among various sub-processes of the MP, which makes it difficult for sub-processes to understand each other 3. The documentation of the process space is in a non-machine-readable format, which makes it difficult to query the process space 4. It is unsuccessful at making the entire process space of the MP accessible to machine learning and intelligent queries Thus, because the current techniques used are not built on expressive logic, many discussions and human labor are required in order to accomplish the objective of the MP. In order to accomplish the goal of the MP, a software tool capable of processing the MP requirement and

43 simple enough that anyone with a basic knowledge on how a thesaurus works can add or remove data from the MP process space with minimum or no software programming skills Current process map of the MP The MP is currently viewed as a chain of connecting sub-processes with data entry passed down from lower sub-processes to higher sub-processes and requirements passed down from higher sub-processes to lower sub-processes. Most documentation are done in house and data entries are treated as sub-processes as opposed to instances of the entity. An example of the current process map of the MP business operation units of the Manning control can be seen in Figures 7 and 8. Figure 7: Shows the process instance map of Manning control for forecasting enlisted accessions training.

44 35 Figure 8: Shows the process instance map of Manning control for forecasting officer accessions training. In both the maps, data entries are viewed by the users as sub-processes of the Manning Control business operations as opposed to data that needs to be collected and evaluated by the Manning Control sub-processes in order to evaluate the future time horizon accessions requirements based on the time horizon accessions and attrition rates. The data entry in Figure 7 and Figure 9 share similar sup-process with different data source. Thus, it very easy to confuse the instances of sub-processes in the forecasting of officers and forecasting of enlisted Marine

45 36 sub-process. Based on both the figures there are three basic issues that needs be resolved in order to make the process space of the MP machine accessible are: 1. Use of the Thesaurus terminology standard library, 2. Explicit differentiation between sub-processes and data entry, and 3. Employing the use of data analysis on data entry Use of the Thesaurus terminology standard library Constructing a functioning MP process model is analogous to assembling a car, each part is generally manufactured by different suppliers. However, when they come together they have to fit in place perfectly in order to meet the manufacturing specifications. Each MP business operations should be able to create a business process model and add it to the process model repository using the thesaurus terminology standard library. Standardization of terminology is a well-known method used in order to understand how sub-processes corresponded to another as explained in Chapter 3. Thus, it helps by clarifying the relationship between two connecting sub-processes. For example, if the original forecasting officer accessions training and forecasting enlisted accessions training processes from Figures 7 and 8 were standardized using the thesaurus terminology standards library from Table 3, the issue of semantic ambiguity will be resolved which will make it easier to understand the process space map.

46 37 Figure 9: Shows the use of the terminology standard for the forecasting enlisted accessions training.

47 38 Figure 10: Shows the use of the terminology standard for the forecasting officer accessions training. In employing the new thesaurus terminology standard on the MP process model, relations such as Has Child_Process with dual Has_Parent_Process, are used to describe the relationship between two terms in order to facilitate the reduction of ambiguity between terms. For example, the relationship between Manpower Planning and Manning Control can be written as Manpower Planning Has_Child_Preocess Manning Control or Manning Control Has_Parent_Process Manpower Planning. More importantly, Manning Control is owned by MPP- 50(Manpower Plans and Policy, Integration and Analysis). Therefore, the relationship between

48 39 Manning Control and MPP-50 can be written as Manning Control Bussiness_Process_owner MPP-50 or MPP-50 owned by Manning Control as shown in Figure 11. Thus, the issue of relationship ambiguity will be resolved or reduced significantly if the relationship between two terms can be better explained by introducing the appropriate thesaurus terminology standards in the MP. Thus, anyone with a basic understanding of how a thesaurus works and how the MP business operations functions will be able to understanding the MP process and how it may affect its sub-division. Figure 11: Shows the use of the Business Process Owner and Has Child Process terminology standards Explicit differentiation between sub-processes and data entry The data collected by the lower sub-processes are used to make a recommendation on future planning horizons. The information collected is usually in the form of numbers. For

49 40 example, the officer forecasting sub-process may need to know the average number of accessed officers in a particular MOS in the past 3 years in order to make a decision for the next 3 years planning cycle on the number of officers to retain or recruit in order to keep the Marine Corps at full strength. Thus, the data entry information is essential in order to make prediction on the future horizon planning cycle. However, as seen in Figures 9 and 10, the information provided by this data entry is clustered together to make a sentence in order for the data entry to resemble a sub-process. For example, in Figure 11 the terminology Get aggregate accession mission from MPP-20 (broken out by male/female) is not of the standard terminology standard we have mentioned so far. It is in the form of a request and some information has to be gathered in order to accomplish the task. Therefore, this sub-process should be treated in this context as an input as opposed to a subprocess. Thus, the Get aggregate accession mission from MPP20 (broken out by male/female) sub-process should be broken down into smaller sub-process of an input instance and can be written as MPP-20 produce Output Aggregate Accession Rate Has_Property Male (or Female) or Male (or Female) Is_Property_Of Aggregate Accession Rate Is_Outputed_By MPP-20. The new terminology standards make it a lot easier to differentiate between generic relationships (associative relationship, equivalence relationships and hierarchical relationship) and input relationship types. In Figure 12 and Figure 13, the MPP mapping differentiates between the generic sub-processes and data entry and thus, further clarifies the relationships between the terms.

50 Figure 12: Shows the use of input terminology relationships in forecasting enlisted accessions training. 41

51 42 Figure 13: Shows the use of input terminology relationships in forecasting Officer Accessions training.

52 43 In both terminology graphs there are missing data sources from some of the information requirements. However, due to the removal of semantic heterogeneity in the data entry by the use of a well-structured thesaurus terminology standard, it is a lot easier to see the connection between the source of the data entry MPP-20(Manpower Plans and Policy, Enlisted Plans) and the input requirements. Thus, all input criteria have a data source from a business operation and a data entry to a sub-process. Since both terminology graphs share similar input criteria both, different MPP business operations input source. The input criteria can be represented as a subprocess in which all the data entry are gathered or calculated. For example, the data source of most of the activities in the Forecast enlisted initial Accessions Training are from the MPP- 20(Manpower Plans and Policy, Enlisted Plans) department which is processed by in input criteria before being sent to the Forecast enlisted initial Accessions Training. Take note that in both the terminology graphs the input criteria is the same in the enlisted case as in the officer case. This situation where enlisted cases are treated separately from officer cases, but have similar sub-processes, arises all over MP processes and they are almost always the same process with different data sources. Therefore, the input criteria sub-process can be viewed as seen in Figure 14 as a subprocess with an input source and an output data entry. This sub-process will be used in the forecasting of officer and enlisted accession management.

53 44 Figure 14: shows the input sub-process that can be used in both the officer and enlisted accession management. Thus, the process space can be further simplified in order to reduce the issue of semantic heterogeneity amongst terminologies in the process space. Furthermore, the relationship between the forecasting of accession management and the business operational department can be depicted as seen in Figure 16. The figure clearly distinguishes between a sub-process and an input criteria process which elevates the issue of semantic heterogeneity.

54 45 Figure 15: Depicts the relationship between a sub-process and the data entry Employing the use of data analysis on data entry There is no clear description on how the data collected by the input criteria process are used to make decisions among various sub-processes or how the values are passed down among the sub-processes. For example, the forecasting initial accessions training sub-process and end strength plan will be computed based on what the USMC HRDP department believes is the need in the future time horizon. This information will passed down and adjusted among various department sub-processes based on what they believe is visible before getting to the forecasting initial accessions training sub-process. Thus, the full career options of a Marine has to be considered by the MPP business operations during the development of the retention rates, attrition rates, school seat allocation, and special assignment allocation. The MPP business

55 46 operations plans must also consider factors the plan is attempting to shape, such as the end strength, current and target inventory budget and policy constraint. Then billets of the forecasting initial accessions training sub-processes are filled based on the future time horizon end strength requirement received from the forecast enlisted T2P2 sub-process, the accession rate and attrition rate information retrieved. The future end strength of the sub-process will be optimized by balancing the accession and attrition rate. However, balancing the accession and attrition rate is analogous to UPS redistributing its route when some of its trucks are unavailable because they are being maintained in a shop or during holiday periods when the amount of delivery increases. In the case of UPS, they can optimize their strength by the redistribution of working trucks across various locations in order to account for the loss in manpower. The reason why UPS can make this assumption is because all UPS trucks are identical, Marines are different. Therefore, more information about the individual Marines are required in the model in order to make better predictions of the end strength. The sub-processes of the MPP business operations should tailor the forecasting of specific Marine populations using the following dimensions: 1. Grade 2. MOS 3. YOS 4. Age 5. Level Of education 6. Combat experience 7. Overseas tour 8. Marital Status 9. Parenthood Status.

56 47 Furthermore, in the enlisted populations the leadership progression flow of individual Marines is in the form of a leadership triangle. Thus, there are more need for junior enlisted Marines as seen in Figure 16. Therefore in order to keep the Marines at full strength, the population at each organizational level has to be kept at full strength. The problems with the organization of enlisted marine populations per MOS are: 1. Movement between ranks requires time in service and the MOS may not be qualified personnel to occupy some positions at a higher level of the organization. 2. At higher levels of the organization, only enlisted Marines from feeder MOS (MOS with similar training) can transfer into the MOS with additional schools and training. 3. Issuing promotional or retainment bonus in order to retain qualified Marines in a particular MOS. 4. Issuing enlistment bonuses to new recruits in order to fill the junior enlisted Marine because the junior enlisted rank is the largest population of the MOS. Figure 16: Organization structure of enlisted marine population per MOS

57 48 Thus, in order for the statistical tool to be successful, it needs to be able to access information on each individual Marine and forecast the strength of the MOS in the future time cycle based on the four factors stated above. Therefore, the process model should have a tool that retrieves information based on the nine dimensions stated above and compute the end strength of the MOS based on the end strength requirement per MOS issued by the USMC HRDP. In developing the requirements of the sub-process, capable mathematical analysis tools has to be created for managing the MPP. Therefore, it becomes necessary to identify the forces that influence the sub-processes accountable for the dynamics of the MPP (Table 5). The MPP management precisely needs to optimize the control mechanism in order to optimize the MPP process. The MPP business operations takes into consideration the full spectrum of career availability to each Marine when developing allocations for programs and special assignments, retention rates, school seat allocations and attrition rates. The MPP must also consider constraints and policies such has end strength, current inventory budget and target inventory. Table 5: Forces affecting the MPP Data Source Accession Employment Control Mechanism Accession Plan: Classification Plans & Execution, Training Input Plan, Bonuses Billet staffing & assignments, Training staffing & assignments, Overstaff staffing & assignments, Mobilization assignments Progression Transfer Attrition Progression plans & execution, including promotions, re-enlistments and lateral moves Transfer Plans including prior service Active & Reserve recruiting Employment policy (e.g. priority given to individual preferences) The control mechanism is a billet of fundamental requirements and derived requirements at any given future time horizon, which also includes the infinite horizon. The goal is to minimize

58 49 the difference between the end strength requirement and employment of the actual force as seen in Figure 18. In a given future time horizon, the derived requirements are generally in disagreement with the fundamental requirement. Therefore, an approach on balancing both requirements is required. The employment control mechanism is the piece of the MPP which determines to what degree each requirement is met. Optimization of the average of the fundamental requirements and derived requirements over a given time window is an intuitive approach but will generally result in concentrated periods with extreme mismatches and shortages. Therefore, constraints of the requirements are needed as well. Thus, dynamically optimizing the fundamental employment has to be done iteratively and cyclically, in a 3 step process: 1. Assessing the fundamental and derived requirements metrics in relations with the current employment inventory and how it relates to present inventory requirements, 2. Forecasting the future fundamental and derived requirements metrics using the control mechanisms in search of an optimal control procedure, and 3. Executing the optimal employment solution found in step 2.

59 Figure 17: Shows a sample graph of the maximization of the employment quality (From: Marine Corps Software requirements Specification [26]) 50

60 51 Figure 18: Perpetual management control cycle (From: Marine Corps Software requirements Specification [26]) After step 3, the cycle repeats itself as illustrated in Figure 18. There are potentially many solutions for this problem. However; majority of the solutions will end up being not feasible due to the constraint placed on the control mechanisms. This information will be viewed in the process space of the process model as a data entry with retrievable attributes and values. For example, if the data entry of the Forecasting Enlisted

61 52 Initial Accessions Training sub-process is queried, the control mechanisms that make up the process and how decisions are made should be provided to the user as follows. 1. Forecast Enlisted Initial Accessions Training a. Has Parent Process: Forecast Enlisted T2P2 b. Is Outputted By: MPP-30 c. Data Entry: Accession i. Has control Mechanism: Classification Plans & Execution ii. Has control Mechanism: Training Input d. Data Entry: Attrition i. Has control Mechanism: Employment policy e. Has Process Requirement: For each MOS_i, [Boot_Out_Manyears x (MOS_i / Total_Class_Plan) x (MOS_i_time_to_train) / 365] averaged over 3 years of class plan data < E(t+1) R(t+1) f. Has Fundamental Requirements: R(t +1) The process requirement terminology relation can be visualized as constraints on the employment process and is used in order to generate optimal employment solutions for the Forecast Enlisted Initial Accessions Training sub-process. Thus, the three additional terminology standards Has Process Requirement, Has End strength Requirement and Has Funder mental Requirements are tools used in analyzing and generating potential employment solutions in the MPP business operations. 4.3 Framework of the Thesaurus Process Space The process space of the process model is constructed using the relations standard proposed in chapter 3(Table 3). The process space was further standardized based on the

62 53 requirement, needs and functionalities of the MP process map proposed in chapter 4. The Process space structures the entire information in the MP process map data base thus, for the process model to generate queries that can be understood at every level of the organization the terminologies used have to be standardized based on its fundamental requirements of the TBPM. The MP process map can be viewed from two perspective, namely technical and business expert point of view. The technical expert point of view is a bird eye view of the entire sub-process that makes up the MP process map. The technical expert view the MP process map from the system point of view in order to understand the continuity of information among various sub- processes (department). The business expert point of view is a rigorous analysis of what the sub-processes encompasses of and how it affects the rest of the organization. The business experts are usually well knowledgeable about a particular sub-process and need more detailed information about the sub-process. For example, the business expert wants to know how the information received by the sub- processes and data generated based on a historical data set are broken down based on the sub-process algorithm and how it is used to generate data and requirement for the following stages of the MP process map. Thus, based on the technical and business expert point of view of the MP process map the MP process space can be categorized into 2 categories, namely global process space and sub-process process space. The sub-process space explores all the attributes of a sub-process by providing a detail map of what the sup-process is composed of. The sub-process space needs to be well defined in order to facilitate a better understanding of the objectives, assessments and results of the subprocess and how it impacts the outcome of other organization. The sub-process space is broken down into five major categories based on the fundamental requirements of all the forces affecting the MP process as shown in Table 6. The sub-process space contains all the requirement and

63 54 functionality that influence the MP process model and provides the user with all the activities of the sub-process when queried. In Figure 20, a depiction of the sub-process space when a subprocess is queried is illustrated has a map of the MP fundamental requirements in order to further simplify the process space query-able knowledge base and making it machine accessible. The global process space maps only the interaction between sub-processes and contains only two types of relations namely Has_ Child_Process and Has_ Parent_Process as depicted in Figure 19.The process space abstract the user from the functionality, requirement and results of the process model and provides only hierarchical relations among sub-processes. The process space is limited to two relations in order to facilitate data exploration with query expansion of subprocesses and also to combat the issue of semantic heterogeneity among the sub-processes. Thus, the sub- process space provides the user with a detail analysis of the inner workings of the sub process while the global process space provides the user with a system point of view of the interaction of various sub-processes. Figure 19: This figure illustrates the process space among sub-processes in the MP process model.

64 55 Table 6: Shows the attributes of the sub-process space Attribute Terminology Department Information Process Owner Process Role List of Auditors & verifiers Department Involved Job Function Process Description Process Evaluation Input & Output Set Input Deliverables Input Requirement Has Source Output Deliverable Output Requirement Has Target Output Generated Output Receivers Data Source Accession Employment Progression Transfer Attrition Data Analysis Software / GUI Used Historical Data Used Date Generated Performance Measure Indicator Process Sequential Logic Data Entry Fundamental Requirement

65 Figure 20: Process model sub-process space. 56

66 Software Implementation and Browser GUI The process model is implemented using client-server architecture; the server is implemented using a mixture of MultiTes PRO and Microsoft Visual Basic software while the client is implemented in MultiTes PRO in order to facilitate web-base access by online GUIs. The call level interface facilitates computer access while the GUI is used to facilitate human access. The main advantage of using the client-server approach is the facilitation of asynchronous queries by multiple users without multiple programs overhead running Server Interface The MultiTes PRO and Microsoft Visual Basic software s are used in implementation of the server interface. The MultiTes PRO software is used in constructing the process space of the process model by mapping the sub-processes of the organization business operations and also acts as a repository for the process models, thereby facilitating the creation and evaluation of new subprocess. The Microsoft Visual Basic software is used as the forecasting analysis tool in which the control mechanism and end strength requirements can be adjusted by the user. When the management controls analysis option is clicked on the call level interface, a second screen with the data analysis tools poops up, allowing the user to perform analysis of the MPP business operations Call level Interface The thesaurus terminology was used to construct the call level interface in order to facilitate functional calls using the MultiTes PRO software. The process model implementation is based on a generic object in MultiTes PRO, with methods of accepting inputs and returning information. In Table 7, a list of the functions arguments and returns are given.

67 58 Table 7: Process model call level interface Function Argument Return Find ancestors of: sub-process list <sub-process> Find common ancestors of: list <sub-process> list <sub-process> Find immediate relatives of: sub-process,by: relation list <sub-process> Find semantic distance from: sub-process,to: sub-process distance Find shortest Path from: sub-process,to: sub-process list <sub-process> Find neighborhood around: term radius: distance list <sub-process> List all Path from: sub-process,to: sub-process list <Path > Find data entries of: sub-process list <data entry> Find Process requirement of: sub-process list <requirement> Find End strength requirement of: sub-process list <requirement> Find common data entries of: list <sub-process> list <data entry> Process Model GUI Using the basic thesaurus and process model definitions of relations and graph implementations in Chapter 3, the process model content and form can be implemented with respect to the thesaurus terminology standard relations in order to facilitate manipulation of the MP process space. The GUI for the process model has three screens as shown in Figures The first screen provides the user with terms organized alphabetically. When a term is clicked, a second screen pops up displaying all of its relationships organized by its relations in order to facilitate querying in terms of semantic paths between two different terms and to facilitate data analysis of the sub-process management control cycle s process space. The third screen shows the advanced search tool used to facilitate data analysis of the process space.

68 Figure 21: Terms listed alphabetically on the main screen of the TBPM. 59

69 60 Figure 21: Second screen when a term is clicked Figure 22: Advanced search tool displayed in the third screen

70 Proposed Framework - Example Implementation To further understand the MP process space an example implementation illustrating the functionalities of proposed framework is introduced. The MP process affects and is affected by decisions made in other departments such as the Manpower Management (MM) process, Structure & Manning (TFSD) process, Training& Education (TECOM) process, etc., therefore the framework should focus more on the connectivity of the process spaces. There are also, bidirectional data being generated and transferred among sub-processes in this department however, due to the lack of understanding of each other s process space, querying of each other s process space becomes impossible. Thus, the framework will illustrate how the bi- directional data transfer within the entire organization (e.g. how the transfer of data is accomplished and what terminologies are used among the department) is accomplished, the use of a thesaurus to map the process space and the benefits of using a thesaurus process space. The assumptions made during the illustration of the framework are, each department creates its own TBPM using its own version of the thesaurus terminology standard, and each department has limited to no knowledge about the other department process and the only mode of data transfer is one-on-one(online data transfer). The process spaces of the MP process, MM process, TFSD Process and TECOM Process are reproduced using different versions of the TBPM thesaurus terminology library (The terminology and relations table can be seen in Appendix A). The MP process space is used as the benchmark in studying the semantic similarities between various process spaces benefits and capabilities. An example will be used to illustrate how the thesaurus will be used to generate information by the user. An user may need some information on how Authorized Strength Report (ASR) data is utilized, reproduced and transferred within the organization. The user will undergo this following process in order to generate useful results:

71 62 1. Use the thesaurus to search the process space of the MP process for any information concerning the ASR input deliverables, output deliverables, process logic and process owner information. 2. Use the information linking the departments and information gathered about the ASR in searching other departments process space 3. Annotate similar processes from other process space in order to make it easier for others to query the process space. 4. Develop a process that links the MP process space to the order process space with respect to the ASR data and information. In doing so, we found numerous processes that link the MM process and TFSD Process to the MP process. The processes use and update the ASR data however; the initial ASR data is generated in the TFSD process where it is known both as a process and an output deliverable of the TFSD process. In the MM process it is used as a benchmark as a means to recreate the MSR process because the ASR was found not to be feasible. Thus, the MM process uses a newer version of the ASR data and calls it MSR. The following are the benefits of using a thesaurus in creating the process space: 1. It is possible to search the process space in terms of the terminology due to the thesaurus being used to create the process space 2. Using a thesaurus made it possible to search for terminologies based on a subject category 3. It is easy for a new user to use the process model with little to no knowledge about a process model because of its similarity to the thesaurus 4. Using the thesaurus made it possible to find physical connectivity between various process spaces.

72 63 5. Using the thesaurus to create the process space provide a structural language for of the process model which makes querying the process space efficient and effortless. Application of a thesaurus in process modeling is a valuable tool in most linguistic querying of the process space. The results obtained prove the effectiveness of using a thesaurus in creating the process space. The use of a thesaurus in creating the process space provided a controlled vocabulary of selected list of words which are then used to identify units of information for information searching and retrieval. The controlled vocabularies provide a one-toone correspondence between words by clarifying the issues of homographs and synonyms which reduces the ambiguity of the process space. In other words a controlled vocabulary makes a process space easier to search.

73 64 Chapter 5 Validation 5.1 Validation The TBPM was validated and analyzed based on its effectiveness in modeling a process and in accordance to its compliance with the ISO process modeling requirements. The validation and analysis of a BPM is a crucial process in ensuring the TBPM meets all standardized requirements of a BPM. In this thesis, the TBPM was validated and proven based on its compliance with the ISO 9001:2008 process approach requirement. The process approach requirement is described by the ISO 9001:2008 standard as: "The application of a system of processes within an organization, together with the identification and interaction of these processes, and their management" [23]. In order to assure the TBPM truly behaves as anticipated, it becomes necessary to account for how individual activities of the process behave when it is executed. The ISO 9001:2008 process approach is well-established in the area of process modeling and takes into account how individual actives in the process space behave in achieving formal process modeling language. The 9001:2008 standard documents places an emphasis on managing the key processes by properly documenting the interaction of the processes. The requirement for managing the processes are scattered under various heading throughout the document. Figure 23 shows the model representation requirement and an overview of how the ISO 9001:2008 process approach works in achieving its goal of automating the process model s process space. The standard requirement for the management of the processes can be found in several chapters in the ISO 9001:2008 document and the most relevant once are listed in Table 8. Also in

74 65 Table 8, is a comprising of the TBPM guideline and ISO 9001:2008 process approach highlighting how all the requirements are met with. Table 8: ISO 9001 and TBPM Key Process Space Management Requirement check list. Reference ISO Key Process Space Management Requirement TBPM Key Process Space Management Requirement Requirement Met 4.1 (a) & NOTE; 7.1; 7.2; 7.4.1; (d); 6.0; 7.2.3; (b); (b); (c) Identification of the key processes Identify the resources required in each processes and create a map of its process logic in order to ensure its task are completed. Identification of how the processes fit and impact each other Determine a mode of communication in order to ensure everyone affected or perform the processes understand the working of the processes (a) Assign the responsibility of managing the processes on a regular basis 4.1 (e); (c); 8.2.3; 8.4 (c) Ensure the objectives of the processes are being met by monitoring and assessing the performance of the processes. 4.1 (c); 5.4 Determine the criteria of measuring the performance of the processes based on its process objectives (a); 8.5 Identify what can be done to improve the overall performance of the processes based on the key process measures (d) Establish a procedure for controlling the processes and how they relate to the overall objectives of the organization Define the process and its relationship to other process Identify the input data, input deliverable and process logic Develop a process and relationship map of the process space Define all the types of relationships in the process space with emphasis on standardizing the relations Identify the process owner relation Define the process performance measure in order to monitor and assess the process space Define the performance measure criteria in the process space Define the how the overall performance measure can be improved Define standardized terminology in order to help control the vocabulary in the process space. Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes yes Yes Yes

75 66 Figure 23: Shows the overview of the ISO 9001:2008 process approach requirement Therefore, we can see from Table 8 that the application of the thesaurus in the process space of a BPM is an effective and novel approach in mapping and defining the process space of a BPM. Based on Table 8, the TBPM meets the standard requirements of the ISO 9001:2008 process approach requirement thus; the TBPM is validated by the ISO 9001:2008 process approach. Thus, since the TBPM meets all the requirements of the ISO 9001:2008 process approach, the TBPM is validated has an effective process model.