A variety of drivers for process modeling efforts, from low-level service orchestration to high-level decision support, results in many process models describing one business process. Depending on the modeling purpose, these models differ with respect to the model granularity. Business process model abstraction (BPMA) emerged as a technique that given a process model delivers a high-level process representation containing more coarse-grained activities and overall ordering constraints between them. Thereby, BPMA reduces the number of models capturing the same business process on different abstraction levels. In this paper, we present an abstraction approach that derives control flow dependencies for activities of an abstract model, once the groups of related activities are selected for aggregation. In contrast to the existing work, we allow for arbitrary activity groupings. To this end, we employ the behavioral profile notion that captures behavioral characteristics of a process model. Based on the original model and the activity grouping, we compute a new behavioral profile used for synthesis of the abstract process model.

1. Business Process Model Abstraction based on Behavioral Profiles Sergey Smirnov 1 , Matthias Weidlich 1 , and Jan Mendling 2 1 Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany 2 Humboldt-Universit ä t zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

6. Addressed Use Case: Get Process Quick View ? ? ? ? ?

9. Behavioral Profile: Example BP = ( PM , + PM , || PM ) + F + + E + D || || || + C || + B + A F E D C B A

10. Abstraction Approach Derive behavioral profile Generate abstract model behavioral profile Generate abstract model -> || + Z -> + W + -> Z || -> V + V -> + Y -> -> + X W Y X -> + + + F -> -> + G -> + H -> -> -> -> -> F + + + -> -> G + + + -> -> H + I -> + E -> || + D -> -> -> + C -> -> -> -> + B -> -> -> -> -> + A I E D C B A

11. Abstraction Approach: Step I Derive behavioral profile Generate abstract model behavioral profile Generate abstract model -> || + Z -> + W + -> Z || -> V + V -> + Y -> -> + X W Y X -> + + + F -> -> + G -> + H -> -> -> -> -> F + + + -> -> G + + + -> -> H + I -> + E -> || + D -> -> -> + C -> -> -> -> + B -> -> -> -> -> + A I E D C B A

12. Derive Behavioral Profile + + + F + G + H F + + + G + + + H + I + E || + D + C + B + A I E D C B A

13. Abstraction Approach: Step II Derive behavioral profile Generate abstract model behavioral profile Generate abstract model -> || + Z -> + W + -> Z || -> V + V -> + Y -> -> + X W Y X -> + + + F -> -> + G -> + H -> -> -> -> -> F + + + -> -> G + + + -> -> H + I -> + E -> || + D -> -> -> + C -> -> -> -> + B -> -> -> -> -> + A I E D C B A

14. Identify Behavioral Relations for Activity Groups BCG GH + + + F + G + H F + + + G + + + H + I + E || + D + C + B + A I E D C B A

15. Identify Behavioral Relations for Activity Groups BCG GH + G + G + H C B

16. Identify Behavioral Relations for Activity Groups BCG GH Majority voting with priority + G + G + H C B

17. Identify Behavioral Relations for Activity Groups BCG GH

18. Combine Relations into Behavioral Profile + W + V + + Z + Y + X W V Z Y X

19. Abstraction Approach: Step III Derive behavioral profile Generate abstract model behavioral profile Generate abstract model -> || + Z -> + W + -> Z || -> V + V -> + Y -> -> + X W Y X -> + + + F -> -> + G -> + H -> -> -> -> -> F + + + -> -> G + + + -> -> H + I -> + E -> || + D -> -> -> + C -> -> -> -> + B -> -> -> -> -> + A I E D C B A

21. Behavioral Profile Consistency Problem (I) X Y + Z + Y -1 + X Z Y X

22. Behavioral Profile Consistency Problem (II) X Y Y Z Z X Duplication of activities contradicts abstraction use case ! + Z + Y -1 + X Z Y X

23. Behavioral Profile Consistency Problem (III) X Y Z + Z + Y -1 + X Z Y X