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International Symposium on Dependable Software Engineering: Theories, Tools, and Applications

SETTA 2016: Dependable Software Engineering: Theories, Tools, and Applications pp 297–314Cite as

Time-Bounded Statistical Analysis of Resource-Constrained Business Processes with Distributed Probabilistic Systems

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 9984))

Abstract

Business processes often incorporate stochastic decision points, either due to uncontrollable actions or because the control flow is not fully specified. Formal modeling of such business processes with resource constraints and multiple instances is hard because of the interplay among stochastic behavior, concurrency, real-time and resource contention. In this setting, statistical techniques are easier to use and more scalable than numerical methods to verify temporal properties. However, existing approaches towards simulation techniques of business processes typically rest on shaky theoretical foundations. In this paper, we propose a modular approach towards modeling stochastic resource-constrained business processes. We analyze such processes in presence of commonly used resource-allocation strategies. Our model, Distributed Probabilistic Systems (DPS), incorporates a set of probabilistic agents communicating among each other in fixed-duration real-time. Our methodology admits statistical analysis of business processes with provable error bounds. We also illustrate a number of real-life scenarios that can be modeled and verified using this approach.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank S Akshay for his invaluable comments on the draft and Ansuman Banerjee for the early discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Ratul Saha

  2. Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai, India

    Madhavan Mukund

  3. Xerox Research Center India, Bengaluru, India

    R. P. Jagadeesh Chandra Bose

Authors
  1. Ratul Saha
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  2. Madhavan Mukund
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  3. R. P. Jagadeesh Chandra Bose
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ratul Saha .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Carl von Ossietzky Universität, Oldenburg, Germany

    Martin Fränzle

  2. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    Deepak Kapur

  3. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Naijun Zhan

A Appendix

A Appendix

figure b
Table 1. Resource-task matrix (truncated) with average time taken by the resource.
Full size table

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Saha, R., Mukund, M., Bose, R.P.J.C. (2016). Time-Bounded Statistical Analysis of Resource-Constrained Business Processes with Distributed Probabilistic Systems. In: Fränzle, M., Kapur, D., Zhan, N. (eds) Dependable Software Engineering: Theories, Tools, and Applications. SETTA 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9984. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47677-3_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47677-3_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47676-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47677-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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