Skip to main content

Verifying Resource Compliance Requirements from Natural Language Text over Event Logs

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Business Process Management (BPM 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14159))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Process compliance aims to ensure that processes adhere to requirements imposed by natural language texts such as regulatory documents. Existing approaches assume that requirements are available in a formalized manner using, e.g., linear temporal logic, leaving the question open of how to automatically extract and formalize them for verification. Especially with the constantly growing amount of regulatory documents and their frequent updates, it can be preferable to provide an approach that enables the verification of processes with requirements in natural language text instead of formalized requirements. To this end, this paper presents an approach that copes with the verification of resource compliance requirements, e.g., which resource shall perform which activity, in natural language over event logs. The approach relies on a comprehensive literature analysis to identify resource compliance patterns. It then contrasts these patterns with resource patterns reflecting the process perspective, while considering the natural language perspective. We combine the state-of-the-art GPT-4 technology for pre-processing the natural language text with a customized compliance verification component to identify and verify resource compliance requirements. Thereby, the approach distinguishes different resource patterns including multiple organizational perspectives. The approach is evaluated based on a set of well-established process descriptions and synthesized event logs generated by a process execution engine as well as the BPIC 2020 dataset.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://dblp.org/, last access: 2023-06-19.

  2. 2.

    https://scikit-learn.org/stable/install.html, last access: 2023-06-19.

  3. 3.

    https://www.sbert.net, last access: 2023-06-19.

  4. 4.

    https://spacy.io/usage/linguistic-features, last access: 2023-06-19.

  5. 5.

    https://cpee.org, last access: 2023-06-19.

  6. 6.

    https://doi.org/10.4121/uuid:52fb97d4-4588-43c9-9d04-3604d4613b51 last access: 2023-06-19.

References

  1. IEEE standard for eXtensible event stream (XES) for achieving interoperability in event logs and event streams. IEEE Std 1849–2016, pp. 1–50 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEESTD.2016.7740858

  2. van der Aalst, W.M.P., de Beer, H.T., van Dongen, B.F.: Process mining and verification of properties: an approach based on temporal logic. In: On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems, pp. 130–147 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/11575771_11

  3. van der Aalst, W.M.P., van Hee, K.M., van der Werf, J.M.E.M., Kumar, A., Verdonk, M.: Conceptual model for online auditing. Decis. Support Syst. 50(3), 636–647 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2010.08.014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Barrientos, M., Winter, K., Mangler, J., Rinderle-Ma, S.: Verification of quantitative temporal compliance requirements in process descriptions over event logs. In: Indulska, M., Reinhartz-Berger, I., Cetina, C., Pastor, O. (eds.) CAiSE 2023. LNCS, vol. 13901, pp. 417–433. Springer, Cham (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34560-9_25

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Bellan, P., Dragoni, M., Ghidini, C.: Extracting business process entities and relations from text using pre-trained language models and in-context learning. In: Enterprise Design, Operations, and Computing, pp. 182–199 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17604-3_11

  6. Bellan, P., Ghidini, C., Dragoni, M., Ponzetto, S.P., van der Aa, H.: Process extraction from natural language text: the PET dataset and annotation guidelines. In: Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Natural Language for Artificial Intelligence (NL4AI 2022), vol. 3287, pp. 177–191. CEUR-WS.org (2022). http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3287/paper18.pdf

  7. Berti, A., van Zelst, S.J., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: Process mining for python (PM4Py): bridging the gap between process- and data science. CoRR abs/1905.06169 (2019). http://arxiv.org/abs/1905.06169

  8. Brown, T.B., et al.: Language models are few-shot learners. In: Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (2020). https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2020/hash/1457c0d6bfcb4967418bfb8ac142f64a-Abstract.html

  9. Brunello, A., Montanari, A., Reynolds, M.: Synthesis of LTL formulas from natural language texts: state of the art and research directions. In: 26th International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning, TIME, LIPIcs, vol. 147, pp. 17:1–17:19 (2019). https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.TIME.2019.17

  10. Cabanillas, C., Ackermann, L., Schönig, S., Sturm, C., Mendling, J.: The RALph miner for automated discovery and verification of resource-aware process models. Softw. Syst. Model. 19(6), 1415–1441 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-020-00820-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Friedrich, F., Mendling, J., Puhlmann, F.: Process model generation from natural language text. In: Mouratidis, H., Rolland, C. (eds.) CAiSE 2011. LNCS, vol. 6741, pp. 482–496. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21640-4_36

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Hashmi, M., Governatori, G., Lam, H.-P., Wynn, M.T.: Are we done with business process compliance: state of the art and challenges ahead. Knowl. Inf. Syst. 57(1), 79–133 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10115-017-1142-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ji, Z., et al.: Survey of hallucination in natural language generation. ACM Comput. Surv. 55(12), 248:1–248:38 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1145/3571730

  14. Köpf, A., et al.: Openassistant conversations - democratizing large language model alignment. CoRR abs/2304.07327 (2023). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.07327

  15. Ly, L.T., Maggi, F.M., Montali, M., Rinderle-Ma, S., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: Compliance monitoring in business processes: functionalities, application, and tool-support. Inf. Syst. 54, 209–234 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2015.02.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Mangler, J., Rinderle-Ma, S.: Cloud process execution engine: architecture and interfaces (2022). https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2208.12214

  17. Narouei, M., Takabi, H., Nielsen, R.: Automatic extraction of access control policies from natural language documents. IEEE Trans. Dependable Secur. Comput. 17(3), 506–517 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/TDSC.2018.2818708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Neuberger, J., Ackermann, L., Jablonski, S.: Beyond rule-based named entity recognition and relation extraction for process model generation from natural language text. CoRR abs/2305.03960 (2023). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2305.03960

  19. OpenAI: GPT-4 technical report (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Quishpi, L., Carmona, J., Padró, L.: Extracting decision models from textual descriptions of processes. In: Business Process Management, pp. 85–102 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85469-0_8

  21. Russell, N., van der Aalst, W.M.P., ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Edmond, D.: Workflow resource patterns: identification, representation and tool support. In: Pastor, O., Falcão e Cunha, J. (eds.) CAiSE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3520, pp. 216–232. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/11431855_16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  22. Sai, C., Winter, K., Fernanda, E., Rinderle-Ma, S.: Detecting deviations between external and internal regulatory requirements for improved process compliance assessment. In: Indulska, M., Reinhartz-Berger, I., Cetina, C., Pastor, O. (eds.) CAiSE 2023. LNCS, vol. 13901, pp. 401–416. Springer, Cham (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34560-9_24

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Semmelrodt, F., Knuplesch, D., Reichert, M.: Modeling the resource perspective of business process compliance rules with the extended compliance rule graph. In: Bider, I., et al. (eds.) BPMDS/EMMSAD -2014. LNBIP, vol. 175, pp. 48–63. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43745-2_4

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Taghiabadi, E.R., Gromov, V., Fahland, D., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: Compliance checking of data-aware and resource-aware compliance requirements. In: Meersman, R., et al. (eds.) OTM 2014. LNCS, vol. 8841, pp. 237–257. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45563-0_14

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  25. Türetken, O., Elgammal, A., van den Heuvel, W., Papazoglou, M.P.: Capturing compliance requirements: a pattern-based approach. IEEE Softw. 29(3), 28–36 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2012.45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Voglhofer, T., Rinderle-Ma, S.: Collection and elicitation of business process compliance patterns with focus on data aspects. Bus. Inf. Syst. Eng. 62(4), 361–377 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-019-00594-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Winter, K., van der Aa, H., Rinderle-Ma, S., Weidlich, M.: Assessing the compliance of business process models with regulatory documents. In: Dobbie, G., Frank, U., Kappel, G., Liddle, S.W., Mayr, H.C. (eds.) ER 2020. LNCS, vol. 12400, pp. 189–203. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62522-1_14

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Wolter, C., Schaad, A.: Modeling of task-based authorization constraints in BPMN. In: Alonso, G., Dadam, P., Rosemann, M. (eds.) BPM 2007. LNCS, vol. 4714, pp. 64–79. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75183-0_5

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work has been partly funded by SAP SE in the context of the research project “Building Semantic Models for the Process Mining Pipeline” and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – project number 277991500.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Henryk Mustroph .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Mustroph, H., Barrientos, M., Winter, K., Rinderle-Ma, S. (2023). Verifying Resource Compliance Requirements from Natural Language Text over Event Logs. In: Di Francescomarino, C., Burattin, A., Janiesch, C., Sadiq, S. (eds) Business Process Management. BPM 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14159. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41620-0_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41620-0_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-41619-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-41620-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics