Protos2CPN: Using colored Petri nets for configuring and testing business processes

Abstract

Protos is a popular tool for business process modelling used in more than 1,500 organizations. It has a built-in Petri-net-based simulation engine which shows key performance indicators for the modelled processes. Reference process models offered for Protos reduce modelling efforts by providing generic solutions which only need to be adapted to individual requirements. However, the user can neither inspect or interact with simulations running in Protos, nor does Protos provide any explicit support for the adaptation of reference models. Hence, we aim at a more open and configurable simulation solution. To realize this we provide two transformations from Protos models to colored Petri nets (CPNs), which can be executed by CPN Tools. The first transformation enables the usage of the extensive simulation and measuring features of CPN Tools for the simulation of Protos models. The second transformation creates colored Petri nets with dedicated features for process configuration. Such configurable process models can be restricted directly within the process model without changing the model's structure and provide therefore dedicated adaptation features for Protos' reference process models. © Springer-Verlag 2007.