Complementing the BPMN to enable data-driven simulations of business processes

Abstract

Business Process Simulation is a useful and widely adopted technique that fits process analysts with the ability to estimate the performance impact of important business decisions before the actions are actually deployed. In order for the simulation to provide accurate and reliable results, process models need to consider not just the workflow dynamics, but also many important factors that may impact on the overall process performance, which constitute what we refer to as the Process Context. In this paper we formalize a new Business Process Simulation Model which strictly integrates to the BPMN 2.0 standard and encompasses all the features of a business process in terms of Process Workflow and Process Context respectively. It allows designers to build a resourcebased perspective of a business process that enables the simulation of complex data-driven behaviors. To prove the viability of the proposed approach, a case study is finally discussed. The results obtained from the case simulation are also reported.