/faculteit technologie management Business Process Simulation A Tool Survey Monique Jansen-Vullers Mariska Netjes

/faculteit technologie management Purpose of the research Business Process Simulation –Find the most appropriate tool for BPS –Find directions for further tailoring towards BPS

/faculteit technologie management Agenda Selection of BPS tools Selection of evaluation criteria Evaluation results Conclusions

/faculteit technologie management BPS tools Business Process Modeling tools –Protos –ARIS Business Process Management tools –Filenet –Flower General purpose simulation tools –Arena –CPN Tools

/faculteit technologie management Evaluation criteria for BPS tools Modeling capabilities Simulation capabilities Output analysis capabilities

/faculteit technologie management Modeling capabilities Ease of model building Formal semantics and verification Workflow patterns Resource and data perspective Level of detail, transparency and suitability for communication

/faculteit technologie management Simulation capabilities Performance dimensions Distributions Animations Scenario’s

/faculteit technologie management Output analysis capabilities Statistics Format What-if analysis Conclusion making support

/faculteit technologie management Protos Strong: –Ease of model building –Resource and data perspective –Transparency and communication suitability Weak: –Performance dimensions –Animation –Scenario’s –All output analysis capabilities Too weak in simulation and output capabilities

/faculteit technologie management ARIS Strong: –Level of detail and transparency –Resource and data perspective –Performance dimensions Weak: –Formal semantics –Workflow patterns –Scenario’s –Statistics Strong in modeling and quite ok in simulation and output capabilities

/faculteit technologie management Filenet Strong(er): –Ease of model building –Transparency Weak: –Formal semantics –Distributions –Almost all output analysis capabilities Too weak in simulation and output capabilities

/faculteit technologie management Flower Strong: –Resource and data perspective –Level of detail and transparency Weak: –Formal semantics –All simualtion capabilities –All output analysis capabilities Too weak in simulation and output capabilities

/faculteit technologie management Arena Strong: –Level of detail and transparency –All simulation capabilities –Statistics Weak: –Formal semantics None of the capabilities are identified as really weak

/faculteit technologie management CPN Tools Strong: –Formal semantics –Almost all simulation capabilities –Statistics Weak: –Ease of model building –Level of detail and transparency –Conclusion making support Strong in simulation and analysis capabilities; Modeling process and output analysis weak

/faculteit technologie management Conclusion Protos, Filenet and Flower do not qualify as solid BPS tools ARIS, Arena and CPN Tools are solid BPS tools No ‘ best tool’ in general Different strong points, e.g. –Intuitive modelling language –Formal foundation –Output analysis support

/faculteit technologie management Further research i.r.t. CPN Tools Business Process Modeling –Making models more transparent for business users –Creation of building blocks in CPN Tools Which blocks are necessary How to store and call building blocks Output analysis more transparent for business users –Visualization –Output statistics (dynamically and statistically) –What-if analysis

/faculteit technologie management Thank you for your attention! Questions?