Business Process Management WS 2012 Exercise 1 - IAAS

Prof. Dr. Frank Leymann / Olha Danylevych
Institute of Architecture of Application Systems
University of Stuttgart
Task 1.1
Business Process Management
WS 2012
Exercise 1
Date: 21.09.12 (13:00 – 14:30, Room V38.02)
a) Discuss the categories of workflows according to the business value and repetition aspects
(see Chapter 1.7 from the book “Production Workflow” F. Leymann, D. Roller, Prentice Hall
2000).
b) What are the phases of the Business Process Management Lifecycle (as defined in the
lecture)?
Task 1.2
In the lecture we introduced the following simple entity-relationship modeling language.
(You can find a description of one of many variants of the so called ER-Model in the most of
the database textbooks, e.g. T.J. Teorey, “Database Modeling & Design – The Fundamental
Principles”). An entity has a name and at least one attribute. An attribute has a name and an
elementary type. A relationship has a name and combines two (not necessarily distinct)
entities. Given a relationship between two entities, an instance of that relationship links to
instances of those entities (one entity instance per entity). Relationship instances are not
compulsory: an instance of an entity E1 that can be connected by a relationship to another
entity E2 is not necessarily connected to any or all the instances of E2. (This is a case of
optional entity in a relationship.) An entity that takes part in a relationship has a cardinality,
which provides information about the number of instances of that entity which are involved
in the relationship.
In ER diagrams entities are usually depicted as rectangles, the attributes as ellipses, and the
relationships as diamonds. Attributes belonging to one entity are connected with the latter
by a line. The same holds with the entities and the relationships they are involved in.
Depict the structure of this ER diagram modeling language using the ER diagram modeling
language itself.
Task 1.3
The slides 25 (“Business Process: Control Flow”) and 26 (“Business Process: Data Flow”) of
the lecture “Business Engineering” present the main elements of a control and data flow
description of a business process. Model them in an ER Diagram so that all the elements,
their relationships, and their attributes are represented.
Hint: You don’t need to represent the “Fork activities” and “Join activities” explicitly.
Task 1.4
Create a Petri net and its start marking for the following process of coin online ordering. An
online coins seller receives an order. The seller confirms to the customer the reception of the

order, and in parallel he packages of the coins in an envelope. An envelope has a stamp on
it, and is optionally insured. Finally, the envelope is sent over the post and new stamps are
bought.
Task 1.5
Given is the following Petri net N:
1. Identify one reachable marking in N as well as the transition sequence that is required to
reach this marking.
2. Identify one non-reachable marking. Explain why the marking is not reachable.
3. Create a reachability graph for N.