A framework for integrating real-world events and business processes in an IoT environment

Abstract

Business process management is essential for companies to document, execute, monitor, and optimize their business processes. These processes are often influenced by external events occurring in the process context, especially when considering Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios. Modeling constructs for different types of events are part of the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard. However, when the integration of external events needs to be supported by process-oriented information systems, the gap between conceptual process model and its implementation needs to be bridged. We elicited the requirements for this integration using an use case from the IoT domain. Based on them, we propose a framework that outsources the management of events to an event processing platform that the process engine subscribes to. The BPMN process model is extended with annotations to specify the type of expected events. Further, we implement a system that realizes the proposed integration.