4SEE: a model-driven simulation engineering framework for business process analysis in a SaaS paradigm

The intrinsic geographical distribution and the increasing complexity are two significant properties of modern business processes (BPs) that have not been fully addressed by existing simulation tools for BP analysis. Quantitative analysis of BPs is essential both at design time, to predict the BP quality of service (QoS), and at execution time, to dynamically reconfigure the BP and guarantee the pre-agreed QoS. In this respect, this work proposes a model-driven QoS-aware framework for simulation-based quantitative analysis of BPs. Specifically, the framework adopts a distributed simulation approach that replicates the service-oriented infrastructure of a BP into the corresponding simulation infrastructure based on the HLA-Evolved standard. The proposed framework assumes a scenario in which service providers publish a set of simulation-oriented services that can be subsequently used by interested consumers to dynamically discover and evaluate the QoS of the offered services. Key to the economical feasibility of this scenario is that a model-driven approach is used to automate the derivation of the simulation software from the BPMN (Business Process Model & Notation) models of the actual BPs. The paper presents both the proposed model-driven framework, named 4SEE, and an example application to a BP for an e-commerce scenario