TY - CHAP A1 - Schneid, Konrad A1 - Usener, Claus A. A1 - Thöne, Sebastian A1 - Kuchen, Herbert A1 - Tophinke, Christian ED - Hung, Chih-Cheng ED - Papadopoulos, George A. T1 - Static Analysis of BPMN-Based Process-Driven Applications T2 - Proceedings of the 34th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing N2 - Process-Driven Applications (PDA) require less coding, for their business logic is defined by a business process model which can be executed by a process engine. However, inconsistencies between process model and dependent source code artifacts cause runtime errors and reduce development productivity. This paper targets at making the development of PDAs more efficient: It proposes a broader approach to statical analysis which also covers consistency constraints between model and code. When integrated into common analysis tools or a continuous integration pipeline, defects like broken code references or data-flow anomalies can be detected at an early stage without launching the entire application and its process interpretation engine. The approach is demonstrated by a prototype called viadee Process Application Validator (vPAV), which was developed for BPMN-based process models. The prototype has already been used in various BPM projects, attesting high benefit and potential. KW - BPM KW - BPMN KW - Business Process KW - Process-Driven Application KW - Static Analysis Y1 - 2019 UR - https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3297280.3297289 SN - 978-1-4503-5933-7 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3297280.3297289 SP - 66 EP - 74 PB - ACM CY - New York, NY, USA ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schneid, Konrad A1 - Thöne, Sebastian A1 - Kuchen, Herbert T1 - Feature Development in BPMN-Based Process-Driven Applications T2 - Business Process Management Forum / Hrsg. Dirk Fahland, Chiara Ghidini, Jörg Becker, Marlon Dumas N2 - In the context of Continuous Software Engineering, it is acknowledged as best practice to develop new features on the mainline rather than on separate feature branches. Unfinished work is then usually prevented from going live by some kind of feature toggle. However, there is no concept of feature toggles for Process-Driven Applications (PDA) so far. PDAs are hybrid systems consisting not only of classical source code but also of a machine-interpretable business process model. This paper elaborates on a feature development approach that covers both the business process model and the accompanying source code artifacts of a PDA. The proposed solution, Toggles for Process-Driven Applications (T4PDA), equipped with an easy to use modeling tool extension, enables the developer to safely commit unfinished work on model and source code to the project’s mainline. It will be kept inactive during productive deployments unless the feature is finally released. During an AB/BA crossover design experiment, the T4PDA approach, including the provided tool support, showed higher software quality, a faster development process, and contented developers. KW - Feature-driven Development KW - Continuous Software Engineering KW - Process-Driven Application Y1 - 2020 SN - 978-3-030-58638-6 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58638-6_3 SN - 1865-1348 SP - 35 EP - 50 PB - Springer International Publishing ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schneid, Konrad A1 - Kuchen, Herbert A1 - Thöne, Sebastian A1 - Di Bernardo, Sascha T1 - Uncovering Data-Flow Anomalies in BPMN-Based Process-Driven Applications T2 - Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing N2 - Process-Driven Applications flourish through the interaction between an executable BPMN process model, human tasks, and external software services. All these components operate on shared process data, so it is even more important to check the correct data flow. However, data flow is in most cases not explicitly defined but hidden in model elements, form declarations, and program code. This paper elaborates on data-flow anomalies acting as indicators for potential errors and how such anomalies can be uncovered despite implicit and hidden data-flow definitions. By considering an integrated view, it goes beyond other approaches which are restricted to separate data-flow analysis of either process model or source code. The main idea is to merge call graphs representing programmed services into a control-flow representation of the process model, to label the resulting graph with associated data operations, and to detect anomalies in that labeled graph using a dedicated data-flow analysis. The applicability of the solution is demonstrated by a prototype designed for the Camunda BPM platform. KW - BPMN KW - Data-Flow Anomalies KW - Process-Driven Application KW - Control-Flow Graph Analysis Y1 - 2021 SN - 9781450381048 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3412841.3442025 SP - 1504 EP - 1512 PB - Association for Computing Machinery CY - New York, NY, USA ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schneid, Konrad A1 - Stapper, Leon A1 - Thöne, Sebastian A1 - Kuchen, Herbert T1 - Automated Regression Tests: A No-Code Approach for BPMN-based Process-Driven Applications T2 - 2021 IEEE 25th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC) N2 - BPMN-based Process-Driven Applications (PDA) require less coding since they are not only based on source code, but also on executable process models. Automated testing of such model-driven applications gains growing relevance, and it becomes a key enabler if we want to found their development on continuous integration (CI) techniques.While process analysts are typically responsible for test case specifications from a business perspective, technically skilled process engineers take the responsibility for implementing the required test code. This is time-consuming and, due to their often different skills and backgrounds, might result in communication problems such as information losses and misunderstandings. This paper presents a new approach which enables an analyst to generate executable tests for PDAs without the need for manual coding. It consists of a sophisticated model analysis, a wizard-based specification of test cases, and a subsequent code generation. The resulting tests can easily be integrated into CI pipelines.The concept is underpinned by a user-friendly tool which has been evaluated in case studies and in real-world implementation projects from different industry sectors. During the evaluation, the prototype proved a more efficient test creation process and a higher test quality. KW - Model-Based Testing KW - BPMN KW - Process-Driven Application KW - No-Code Y1 - 2021 SN - 978-1-6654-3579-6 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/EDOC52215.2021.00014 SN - 2325-6362 SP - 31 EP - 40 PB - IEEE CY - Gold Coast, Australia ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schneid, Konrad A1 - Thöne, Sebastian A1 - Herbert, Kuchen T1 - Semi-automated Test Migration for BPMN-Based Process-Driven Applications T2 - Enterprise Design, Operations, and Computing. Hrsg. João Paulo A. Almeida, Dimka Karastoyanova, Giancarlo Guizzardi, Marco Montali, Fabrizio Maria Maggi, Claudenir M. Fonseca N2 - Automated regression tests are a key enabler for applying popular continuous software engineering techniques. This paper focuses on testing BPMN-based Process-Driven Applications (PDA). When evolving PDAs, the affected test cases must be identified and co-evolved as well. In this process, affected test cases can be overlooked, misunderstandings may occur during communication between different roles involved, and implementation errors can arise. Regardless of possible error sources, the entire test migration process is time-consuming. This paper presents a new semi-automated test migration process for PDAs. The concept builds on previous work on creating regression tests using a no-code approach. Our approach identifies the modifications of the PDA and classifies their impact on previously defined tests. The classification indicates whether existing test code can be migrated automatically or whether a manual revision becomes necessary. During an AB/BA experiment, the concept and the developed prototype proved a more efficient test migration process and a higher test quality. KW - Test migration KW - Software evolution KW - Process-Driven Application KW - BPMN Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-3-031-17603-6 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17604-3_14 SN - 0302-9743 SP - 237 EP - 254 PB - Springer International Publishing CY - Cham ER -