Configurable services in the cloud: Supporting variability while enabling cross-organizational process mining

Abstract

The Software as a Service (SaaS) paradigm is particularly interesting in situations where many organizations need to support similar processes. For example, municipalities, courts, rental agencies, etc. all need to support highly similar processes. However, despite these similarities, there is also the need to allow for local variations in a controlled manner. Therefore, cloud infrastructures should provide configurable services such that products and processes can be customized while sharing commonalities. Configurable and executable process models are essential for realizing such infrastructures. This will finally transform reference models from "paper tigers" (reference modeling à la SAP, ARIS, etc.) into an "executable reality". Moreover, "configurable services in the cloud" enable cross-organizational process mining. This way, organizations can learn from each other and improve their processes. © Springer-Verlag 2010.