Abstract: Today, Enterprises act in an increasingly interconnected world and in different kinds of collaborative networks. They are part of business ecosystems in which they interact with their customers, partners and competitors. The processes of analyzing and planning the intertwinement of business and IT architecture within enterprises has been successfully supported by enterprise architecture management (EAM) approaches. In this paper, we analyze four cases from different industries (health care, logistics, retail, and education) and argue that the intra-organizational concepts of enterprise architectures (EA) and EAM need to be extended to grasp the challenges of the enterprises' interconnectedness. Beyond the known concepts of extended enterprise architecture and federated architectures, we define five stages of extended architectures. Additionally, we describe challenges and existing solutions, which are relevant for this extended perspective.

Abstract: Current approaches for enterprise architecture lack analytical instruments for cyclic evaluations of business and system architectures in real business enterprise system environments. This impedes the broad use of enterprise architecture methodologies. Furthermore, the permanent evolution of systems desynchronizes quickly model representation and reality. Therefore we are introducing an approach for complementing the existing top-down approach for the creation of enterprise architecture with a bottom approach. Enterprise Architecture Analytics uses the architectural information contained in many infrastructures to provide architectural information. By applying Big Data technologies it is possible to exploit this information and to create architectural information. That means, Enterprise Architectures may be discovered, analyzed and optimized using analytics. The increased availability of architectural data also improves the possibilities to verify the compliance of Enterprise Architectures. Architectural decisions are linked to clustered architecture artifacts and categories according to a holistic EAM Reference Architecture with specific architecture metamodels. A special suited EAM Maturity Framework provides the base for systematic and analytics supported assessments of architecture capabilities.

Abstract: We report on a recent industrial project carried out by Exformatics A/S in which the company used the declarative DCR Graphs notation to model and implement the grant application process of a Danish foundation. We present the process and discuss the advantages of the approach and challenges faced both while modelling and implementing the process. Finally, we discuss current work on extensions to the DCR Graphs notation aiming to address the challenges raised by the case study and to support the declarative, agile approach.

Abstract: NoSQL databases have emerged as the solution to handle large quantities of user-generated contents still guaranteeing fault tolerance, availability and scalability. Each NoSQL database offers differentiated properties and characteristics as well as different data models and architectures. As a result, the development of applications exploiting such kind of technology is strictly dependent on the specific NoSQL solution being adopted, and the migration from a NoSQL to the other requires the development of ad-hoc code managing the transfer of data. In order to mitigate such issue, this paper proposes an interoperable migration system for columnar NoSQL databases. The proposed approach is based on an orginal Metamodel, capable of preserving both strong and weak consistency between data updates, secondary indexes and various data types. Moreover, the approach allows developers to easily add support for new databases.

Abstract: Approaching a comprehensive performance benchmark for on-line transaction processing (OLTP) applications in a cloud environment is a challenging task. Fundamental features of clouds, such as the pay-as-you-go pricing model and unknown underlying configuration of the system, are contrary to the basic assumptions of available benchmarks such as TPC-W or RUBiS. In this paper, we introduce a systematic performance benchmark approach for OLTP applications on public clouds that use virtual machines(VMs). We propose WPress benchmark, which is based on the widespread blogging software, WordPress, as a representative OLTP application and implement an open source workload generator. Furthermore, we utilize a CPU micro-benchmark to investigate CPU performance of cloud-based VMs in greater detail. Average response time and total VM cost are the performance metrics measured by WPress. We evaluate small and large instance types of three real-life cloud providers, Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure and Rackspace cloud. Results imply that Rackspace cloud has better average response times and total VM cost on small instances. However, Microsoft Azure is preferable for large instance type.

Abstract: Enterprise Architecture (EA) management is a well-defined practice for conducting coherent analysis, design, planning, and implementation for the successful execution of business strategy. In practice many organizations are struggling with EA frameworks since the processes to manage the EA are not adequately supported. In this paper we examine Adaptive Case Management (ACM) as an emerging paradigm to support agile, lean, and collaborative processes for EA management (EAM). In contrast to traditional workflow management, ACM empowers end users to adapt their processes at run-time. Based on the findings of an extensive literature review we derived requirements for ACM and developed a prototype based on these requirements to support processes for EAM. We applied our solution for the development of a planned state of the architecture in the EA department of a German insurance organization. The findings from expert interviews with three enterprise architects and two EA consultants of this insurance organization are very promising and provide valuable insights how more effective process support for EAM can be achieved in the future.

Abstract: SmartLife ecosystems are emerging as intelligent user-centered systems that will shape future trends in technology and communication. Biological metaphors of living adaptable ecosystems provide the logical foundation for self-optimizing and self-healing run-time environments for intelligent adaptable business services and related information systems with service-oriented enterprise architectures. The present research in progress work investigates mechanisms for adaptable enterprise architectures for the development of service-oriented ecosystems with integrated technologies like Semantic Technologies, Web Services, Cloud Computing and Big Data Management. With a large and diverse set of ecosystem services with different owners, our scenario of service-based SmartLife ecosystems can pose challenges in their development, and more importantly, for maintenance and software evolution. Our research explores the use of knowledge modeling using ontologies and flexible metamodels for adaptable enterprise architectures to support program comprehension for software engineers during maintenance and evolution tasks of service-based applications. Our previous reference enterprise architecture model ESARC--Enterprise Services Architecture Reference Cube--and the Open Group SOA Ontology was extended to support agile semantic analysis, program comprehension and software evolution for a SmartLife applications scenario. The Semantic Browser is a semantic search tool that was developed to provide knowledge-enhanced investigation capabilities for service-oriented applications and their architectures.

Abstract: Business process automation improves organizations' efficiency to perform work. In existing business process management systems, process instances run independently from each other. However, synchronizing instances carrying similar characteristics, i.e., sharing the same data, can reduce process execution costs. For example, if an online retailer receives two orders from one customer, there is a chance that they can be packed and shipped together to save shipment costs. In this paper, we extend the concept of batch activities to batch regions consisting of a set of connected activities instead of a single activity. Further, we use concepts from the database domain and introduce data views to business processes to distinguish process instances which can be synchronized. We also evaluate the concepts introduced in this paper with a case study comparing costs for normal and batch processing.

Abstract: Nowadays, business process modeling and system-supported executions have become a commodity in many companies. Most systems, however, focus on modeling and execution of static, pre-defined processes with standards like the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). While these static process executions are applicable to a number of traditional processes like purchase orderings or back orderings, they fail at representing variant-rich, flexible processes. One solution for supporting flexible processes is Adaptive Case Management (ACM), where a case manager creates an individual execution path for each process instance, such as a doctor defining a clinical pathway for a specific patient. We found out, however, that both approaches are too strict, either supporting static process definitions with only a limited set of pre-defined flexibility or allowing maximum flexibility but requiring a highly skilled knowledge worker. To overcome this problem, we propose an implementation framework for Production Case Management (PCM) that combines concepts from traditional process management and adaptive case management. PCM combines the modeling of small, static process fragments with the execution flexibility of ACM.

Abstract: The operational support of knowledge-intensive business processes constitutes a big challenge. In particular, this process type is characterized as non-predictable, emergent, goaloriented, and knowledge-creating. Today, knowledge-intensive business processes are solely driven by professionals utilizing their skills and expertise whereas no support is provided by processaware information systems. In particular, the management of knowledge-intensive tasks (i.e., defining, updating, distributing, enacting, monitoring and assessing of tasks) is still accomplished manually by the knowledge workers based on pen and paper with the well-known drawbacks. This work presents two case studies of knowledge-intensive business processes. Based on the insights gained from these studies, we derive the core challenges as well as the requirements for an process-aware information system supporting knowledge workers in the management of the tasks emerging in the context of knowledge-intensive business processes.

Abstract: Distributed database systems represent an essential component of modern enterprise application architectures. If the overall application needs to provide reliability and availability, the database has to guarantee these properties as well. Entailing non-functional database features such as replication, consistency, conflict management, and partitioning represent subsequent challenges for successfully designing and operating an available and reliable database system. In this document, we identify why these concepts are important for databases and classify their design options. Moreover, we survey how eleven modern database systems implement these reliability and availability properties.

Abstract: Methods for risk assessment in information security suggest users to collect and consider sets of input information, often notably different, both in type and size To explore these differences, this study compares twelve established methods on how their input suggestions map to the concepts of ArchiMate, a widely used modeling language for enterprise architecture Hereby, the study also tests the extent, to which ArchiMate accommodates the information suggested by the methods (eg, for the use of ArchiMate models as a source of information for risk assessment) Results of this study show how the methods differ in suggesting input information in quantity, as well as in the coverage of the ArchiMate structure Although the translation between ArchiMate and the methods' input suggestions is not perfect, our results indicate that ArchiMate is capable of modeling fair portions of the information needed for the methods for information security risk assessment, which makes ArchiMate models a promising source of guidance for performing risk assessments

Abstract: Combining enterprise architecture and operational data is complex (especially when considering the actual 'matching' of data with enterprise architecture objects), and little has been written on how to do this. Therefore, in this paper we aim to fill this gap and propose a method to combine operational data with enterprise architecture to better support decision-making. Using such a method may result either in an enriched enterprise architecture model (which is very suitable as a basis for model-based architecture analyses), or in a warehouse data model where operational data is enriched with enterprise architecture metadata (which leads to more traceability by easing the retrieval and interpretation of raw data, and of business analytics results). The method is illustrated by means of a case study. Also, a model to store enterprise architecture, operational data and time is presented on which new forms of analysis may be performed.

Abstract: Companies today interact in an increasingly competitive environment and seek to leverage the potentials of IT for generating new business models and for changing existing ones. For these business models, companies have to align the respective business and IT architectures. This task can be supported by using enterprise architecture management. In this paper, we first analyze the potentials for integrating enterprise architecture (management) and business model (management). Second, the components of different approaches for describing business models are compared to each other. Third, we present a concept for integrating business models into enterprise architectures. Fourth, we outline an integration of business model management and enterprise architecture management processes.

Abstract: One of the key strengths of service oriented architectures, the concept of service composition to reuse and combine existing services in order to achieve new and superior functionality, promises similar advantages when applied to resources oriented architectures. The challenge in this context is how to realize service composition in compliance with the constraints defined by the REST architectural style and how to realize it in a way that it can be integrated to and benefit from existing service composition solutions. Existing approaches to REST service composition are mostly bound to the HTTP protocol and often lack a systematic methodology and a mature and standards based realization approach. In our work, we follow a comprehensible methodology by deriving the key requirements for REST service composition directly from the REST constraints and then mapping these requirements to a standard compliant extension of the BPEL composition language. We performed a general requirements analysis for REST service composition, defined a meta model for a corresponding BPEL extension, realized this extension prototypically and validated it based on a real world use case from the eScience domain. Our work provides a general methodology to enable REST service composition as well as a realization approach that enables the combined composition of WSDL and REST services in a mature and robust way.

Abstract: In this paper, we first describe the tension between type-safety and flexibility in EA analysis tools. We then present a web-based system that combines the benefits of static typing with the flexibility of a dynamic and collaborative meta-modeling platform. In particular, we describe the underlying meta-model, the syntax and semantics of the expression language, and derive an associated type system, including polymorphic types, sub-typing, and limited type inference. We then demonstrate the benefits of static type-safety for enterprise architects, like syntax highlighting, code completion, code navigation, and refactoring, in particular in presence of dynamic meta-model changes. The paper ends with a description of a case study using the tool for the analysis of the application landscape complexity using data from four German banks.

Abstract: ArchiMate is a widely-adopted enterprise architecture language based on the "service orientation" paradigm. Although its support for service orientation has had great impact in the representation of (service-oriented) enterprise architectures in the last 10 years, the representation of services in ArchiMate is not without problems. In particular, the predominance of the perspective of service as "unit of functionality" hides some important social aspects inherent to service relations and makes some of the models that the language produces ambiguous. In order to address some of these issues, in this paper we discuss an ontological analysis of service modeling fragments of ArchiMate's Business layer. This analysis is based on UFO-S, a reference ontology that characterizes the notion of service by applying the concepts of commitments and claims and harmonizing several views of services from a broad perspective. We contribute to: (i) providing real-world semantics to service modeling fragments in ArchiMate based on the notion of service commitments/claims, and (ii) offering recommendations in the form of modeling patterns to ensure expressiveness and to clarify the semantics of service elements.

Abstract: Service selection is an important concept in service oriented architectures that enables the dynamic binding of services based on functional and non-functional requirements. The introduction of the concept of on-demand provisioned services significantly changes the nature of services and as a consequence the traditional service selection process does not fit anymore. Existing approaches for service selection rely on the always on semantic of services, an assumption that is not valid for on-demand provisioned services. We tackle this problem by adapting the traditional service selection process and by defining an additional step covering the changes introduced by the concept of on-demand provisioning. Our solution comprises an extended architecture for on-demand provisioning, a metamodel for a service registry, and a detailed definition and discussion of the adapted and extended service selection process. The work presented in this paper allows keeping the advantages of dynamic service binding at runtime and combining them with the advantages of Cloud computing exploited through the concept of on-demand provisioning.

Abstract: Cognoscenti is an experimental system for exploring different approaches to supporting of complex, unpredictable work patterns. The tendency with such work environments is to make increasingly sophisticated interaction patterns, which ultimately overwhelm the user with options. The challenge is to keep the necessary cognitive concepts very simple, allow the knowledge worker a lot of freedom, but at the same time offer structural support where necessary for security and accesscontrol. Cognoscenti is freely available as an open source platform with a basic set of capabilities for tracking documents, notes, goals, and roles which might be used for further exploration into knowledge worker support patterns.

Abstract: A critical activity in Enterprise Architecture (EA) projects is building models for communicating a consolidated enterprise structure. This is achieved by modeling elements belonging in a plurality of domains (e.g., business, processes, technology, information) and making explicit the relationships existing between them. After models are completed, they are used to support the analysis of the enterprise. However, the increasing size and complexity of these models has made this a difficult task for humans alone, and has fostered the research around automatic analysis methods. The problem is that usability concerns that are very important for modeling languages usually go against automation requirements. One example of this is ArchiMate, a widely used language for creating and visualizing EA models. On the one hand, ArchiMate has a low number of elements compared to the domains it addresses. This makes the language simple and easy to learn, but seriously limits the kinds of analysis that can be performed. On the other hand, ArchiMate does not include mandatory attributes in any element, which makes the modeling task easier, but also hinders the quality of the analyses. The hypotheses that we have studied are that to provide automatic analysis methods it is necessary to: 1) have the possibility of extending any metamodel with specialized and typed concepts and relations, with the level of granularity that the analysis requires, 2) and to force the presence of attributes that depend entirely on the selected analysis method. To study this, we have created a model-based tool for analyzing ArchiMate models called iArchiMate. This tool makes it possible to create and run analysis functions, and also to extend the ArchiMate metamodel with the elements that specific analysis require. This paper discusses and illustrates the motivations and requirements for supporting automatic model analysis, the requirements of analysis methods, and the core characteristics of iArchiMate.

Abstract: With numerous enterprise architecture management (EAM) methodologies, frameworks, and tools, there are still no universally excepted standard on what Enterprise Architecture (EA) really means to practicing architects. Traditionally practitioners concentrated on specific aspects of EA, such as tools, repositories, components and frameworks. However, little attention was given to the architect, which completes this trio of system perspectives (people, process a technology). This paper reports on the research findings of a study that investigated diverse factors and attributes that affects the worldview and ultimately the school of thought of the practicing architect. The study used a literature analysis, an exploratory survey with practicing architect feedback and as contribution identified the dominant architect attributes that affects and influences the various schools of thought of architects. The findings may assist EA stakeholders concerned with having the right type of person acting as an architect fulfilling a specific architecture function within an EA team or EA practice.

Abstract: Ensuring compliance to laws and regulations in their business processes is a burdensome obligation for today's companies. Compliance requirements cover many areas of business and IT, including process design, deployment and run-time. Past approaches only covered some of these aspects. In this work we introduce a generic compliance descriptor, integrating different technical compliance implementations and keeping the link between laws, requirements and implementations, thus facilitating compliance in face of changes in laws, processes, and IT.

Abstract: Human-centric processes are part of most organizations and their execution steps are typically not known initially. Consequently, standard business process modeling approaches are not suitable for modeling informal processes because they typically concentrate on the explicit modeling of the execution steps. In this work, we analyze properties of informal processes and requirements for supporting their correct enactment. We review existing approaches and evaluate their suitability in terms of modeling informal processes. Based on these results, we present a resource-centric approach by employing the concept of Informal Process Essentials which is used to create executable informal process models with dynamically changing interrelated resources.

Abstract: In today's rapidly changing business environment a company's business and related information systems underlie constant change. The field of evolutionary business information systems deals with applications that can be modified partially by stakeholders regarding content and behavior with the objective to align to new business requirements. A possibility to change the behavior of an application could be achieved by modification of the underlying business processes. Subject-oriented business process management (S-BPM) realizes an approach where process models can be interpreted by an appropriate workflow engine and directly executed by stakeholders using a generic application working on it. In that way the generic application can be seen as a primary system on which a secondary design can be performed by editing the process models. In this paper we compare evolutionary business information systems with subject-oriented business process management with the objective to infer software requirements for implementing an evolutionary business information system on the basis of S-BPM, where the system behavior is a result of the continuous evolution of the underlying business processes.

Abstract: Cloud developers have to make several decisions when running their application in a cloud environment that may lead to conflicting objectives, inefficient deployment, and inappropriate or not existing adaptation strategies. Proper decision-support tools and processes are therefore needed to make cloud developers aware of the issues that need to be considered when deploying and running applications in the Cloud. Current decision support tools for cloud developers do not provide a structured and organized process in which the cloud developers can systematically check their choices when planning the deployment, execution, and adaptation of applications in the Cloud. In this paper, we combine two previous works and introduce an approach for identifying the options for (re-)deploying application in cloud providers infrastructures and the possible strategies of adaptation that can be used by the deployed application at runtime. The key contribution is a support process that synthesizes the two approaches. We also describe a case study where our support process is applied and we indicate the alternatives for application (re-)deployment and adaptation.

Abstract: In Adaptive Case Management (ACM) systems, knowledge workers have the flexibility to deal with unpredictable situations. Compared with a classical BPM approach the extensive prescriptive process analysis and definitions are replaced by context-sensitive proposals, which is more suited for knowledge-intensive work. Thus, it is vital that ACM systems support knowledge workers with knowledge captured from previous work which can be ambiguous for the system. This paper proposes an approach to support knowledge workers based on the knowledge previously applied by others in the form of a User Trained Agent that learns from ad hoc actions taken by knowledge workers to suggest best next actions for the current situation. The proposed best next actions are analyzed for coherence.

Abstract: Semantically annotating business processes is about enriching the elements of a process description (e.g., activities, events) with annotations taken from an ontology defining the domain semantics of the elements of the process. Semantic annotations enable to provide business analysts with tools and services that, by exploiting automated reasoning and inference engines, facilitate the analysis, search and validation of business processes. However, besides the benefits deriving from these automated services, semantic annotations have further unexplored implications on the modelling of business processes. In this paper we present a principled experimental user evaluation showing, as main outcomes, that semantic annotations also directly impact (i) on the modelling process, suggesting that they favour a more accurate and careful design of the models, and (ii) on the resulting process models, as the models obtained using semantic annotations are qualitatively better than those obtained without using them.

Abstract: Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP) are a collection of widely used patterns for integrating enterprise applications and business processes. These patterns represent a "de-facto" standard for design decisions when integrating enterprise applications. In previous work, the EIP control and data flow syntax and semantics have been expressed in the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) as a semantic model for message-based integration. However, exceptions during message processing were left for further studies. In this work, we specify common exceptional situations in integration systems and derive exception types, for which we define a compliant representation in BPMN, resulting in general patterns for exception handling and compensation. The patterns extend previous work by the Exception Flow, evaluated syntactically and semantically for representative integration scenarios.

Abstract: Although the popularity of activity-centric process management systems (PrMS) has increased during the last decade, there still exist business processes that cannot be adequately supported by these PrMS. A common characteristic of these processes, which is neglected by current activity-centric PrMS, is their need for object-awareness, i.e., the explicit processing of business data and business objects respectively. In the PHILharmonicFlows project, characteristic properties of object-aware processes were identified and an advanced framework for their proper support was designed. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept prototype implementing some of the fundamental concepts of the PHILharmonicFlows framework. Overall, this initiative will result in a new generation of process management technology.