Pi calculus-based bitransformation of state-driven model and flow-driven model

Abstract

State- and flow-driven process modelling paradigms are both widely practised in the business process modelling domain. From the perspective of both from their syntax structure and intentioned application scopes, they are quite different. But one of our findings is that any one of them usually can be replaced by the other in a variety of real cases. It is shown with theoretical approach in this work that these two paradigms are equal in expressiveness power in that they can be mutually transformed into each other without any semantic losses. The motivation of this work is to suggest that researchers argue less about which method is more powerful and pay more attention to the exploration of better ways to combine different style models in addressing real problems. In this paper, (bi)simulation of Pi calculus is applied to prove the correctness of the bitransformation of two paradigms. A hybrid business model composed of a state-driven ATM machine and flow-driven withdraw processes is also illustrated with a concrete banking scenario to show how the result of bitransformation can be applied to facilitate the integration, understanding and verification of hybrid business models into real business cases. Copyright © 2006 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.