The document proposes using the SyBeL modeling language to integrate business process models defined using BPMN with domain ontologies. SyBeL allows encoding the BPMN process steps and flows while also describing the associated data model and linking it to concepts from relevant ontologies. This provides a unified view of the business process and domain semantics. As a case study, the document models the initial phase of a mediation process and links it to a simplified ontology of condominium disputes. The SyBeL modeling generates artifacts like automated documentation to help support the business process.

1. A Lightweight Formalism for the
Integration of BPMN Models with
Domain Ontologies
Giuseppe Della Penna, Roberto Del Sordo, Benedetto
Intrigila, Nicolò Mezzopera, and Maria Teresa Pazienza
AI meets Business Processes
Workshop at the XIII Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial
Intelligence
Turin (Italy), December 6, 2013
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2. About my Company
• What we do:
Web Applications development
And other things….
• How we do:
Start with process descriptions
Realize the Web Application that
implements the process,
using in most cases the
Webratio Suite as development
tool (www.webratio.com)
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3. The context: describing the process
• We use BPMN to collect information about
the business processes and create prototypes
to submit to the management;
• Once the process is clarified, we begin to
describe the business objects that are used
during the process (data model);
• In some cases, a deeper understanding of the
domain semantics is required in order to
design the data model;
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4. The context: retrieving the information
• The semantic information is often already
available through previously defined ontologies;
• In other cases it is possible to extract the
information from the available documentation;
• Finally, using open source tools (like Semantic
Turkey: http://semanticturkey.uniroma2.it/) it is
possible to build ontologies starting from raw
information;
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5. The context: putting all together
• When working with complex domains…
– Ontologies seem to be a good choice to organize
the semantic information needed to build the data
model;
– BPMN allows to describe the flow of events and
tasks in a very natural way.
• So why not integrate the two description
approaches?
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6. The approach
• Rather than directly insert semantic
annotations in the BPMN, we create an
integrated view using the SyBeL language;
• SyBeL is an XML based language to specify the
behaviour of software systems;
– SyBeL describes the control flow in a way that is
very similar to BPMN;
– SyBeL also supports the description of simple data
models as structures with properties and actions.
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7. SyBeL: Behaviour Description Language
• A language that allows to encode processes as
flows of events (user-triggered and systemgenerated);
• Each event is defined by the action to be
executed and the variables that store results
or parameters;
• Flows can contain conditional branches and
unconditional jumps.
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8. SyBeL: Domain Description Language
• A language that allows to declare data
structures and types;
• Five basic simple types (string, number,
boolean, binary and any) and two type
constructors (collections and entity types);
• Entity types are sets of recursively typed
properties and parametric actions;
• Collections are lists of recursive typed objects;
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9. SyBeL: Type system and semantics
• The SyBeL type system was designed with
semantics in mind:
– SyBeL entities can be seen as a programmerfriendly view of ontologies;
– Ontology attributes and relations are encoded
using properties, actions and type derivation;
– The semantic connection is explicited by the
“modelReference” attribute that can be used on
entity types, properties and actions;
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10. Putting all together with SyBeL
• Use SyBeL behaviour description language to
encode the BPMN-defined process without
loss of information;
• Use the SyBeL domain description language to
extract information from the ontologies, build
data structures with semantic annotations and
assign a type to each element referenced by
the process;
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11. The Case Study
• We considered Mediation as a relevant
interest case study (Condominium Dispute);
• Mediation aims to ease the access to justice
and reduce the overhead of the civil courts,
trying to reach an agreement between the
parties;
• Mediation is a complex process: in the case
study we considered just the initial phase;
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12. The initial phase sub-process
• The “proposer” party starts the mediation
process by creating a new application request
through dedicated online portal.
• The proposer attaches all the needed supporting
documentation to the application;
• The coordinator evaluates the completeness of
the documentation and assigns the mediation to
a mediator, possibly including also a group of
experts in the case of very complex cases;
• If the documentation is incomplete or incorrect,
the application is sent back to the proposer
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13. BPMN of the initial phase sub-process
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14. The ontological aspects
• In many cases, the proposer may request
mediation without the support of a lawyer, thus
the produced documentation may be invalid or
be incomplete;
• A system to support the proposer may be based
on an ontological description of the
condominium disputes;
• The ontologies can connect different types of
dispute to the evidences and documentation
required to facilitate the mediator decision
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15. The simplified ontology
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16. SyBeL modelling: Data model
• Using the SyBeL tools we produced the data
model needed to support the process;
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17. SyBeL Data Model: graphical view
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18. SyBeL modelling: behaviour
• The BPMN steps are transformed in actions
executed on the domain entities;
• BPMN process branches are encoded as
alternative flows;
• Each event can be textually described to
better link to the corresponding BPMN step;
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19. SyBeL behaviour fragment
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20. SyBeL modelling: artifacts
• The SyBeL tools also provide automatic
generation of useful documents, as an
example we produced HTML process
documentation;
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21. SyBeL HTML process documentation
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22. Conclusions
• In most cases it is necessary to add semantic
information to process description to define the
target domain;
• We can assume semantic information was always
described in ontologies;
• Instead of directly integrating the BPMN with
semantic information, we use SyBeL modeling
language to merge process information with
ontologies;
• Using the tools provided in SyBeL we can produce
a variety of useful artifacts and documents.
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23. A Lightweight Formalism for the
Integration of BPMN Models with
Domain Ontologies
Thank you for your attention
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