Advanced topics in database research

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Hershey • London • Melbourne • Singapore

 







  

 

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Keng Siau

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA

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Advanced Topics in Database Research, Volume 4 is part of the Idea Group Publishing series

named Advanced Topics in Database Research (Series ISSN 1537-9299).

ISBN 1-59140-471-1

Paperback ISBN 1-59140-472-X

eISBN 1-59140-473-8

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Preface ............................................................................................................. vi

Chapter I

Dynamic Workflow Restructuring Framework for Long-Running

Business Processes....................................................................................... 1

Ling Liu, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Calton Pu, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Duncan Dubugras Ruiz, Pontifical Catholic University of RS,

Brazil

Chapter II

Design and Representation of Multidimensional Models with

UML and XML Technologies ...................................................................50

Juan Trujillo, Universidad de Alicante, Spain

Sergio Luján-Mora, Universidad de Alicante, Spain

Il-Yeol Song, Drexel University, USA

Chapter III

Does Protecting Databases Using Perturbation Techniques

Impact Knowledge Discovery? .................................................................96

Rick L. Wilson, Oklahoma State University, USA

Peter A. Rosen, University of Evansville, USA

Chapter IV

Simultaneous Database Backup Using TCP/IP and a Specialized

Network Interface Card .......................................................................... 108

Scott J. Lloyd, University of Rhode Island, USA

Joan Peckham, University of Rhode Island, USA

Jian Li, Cornell University, USA

Qing (Ken) Yang, University of Rhode Island, USA

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Chapter V

Towards User-Oriented Enterprise Modeling for

Interoperability .......................................................................................... 130

Kai Mertins, Fraunhofer Institute IPK, Berlin

Thomas Knothe, Fraunhofer Institute IPK, Berlin

Martin Zelm, CIMOSA Association, Germany

Chapter VI

Using a Model Quality Framework for Requirements

Specification of an Enterprise Modeling Language .......................... 142

John Krogstie, SINTEF ICT and IDI, NTNU, Norway

Vibeke Dalberg, DNV, Norway

Siri Moe Jensen, DNV, Norway

Chapter VII

Population of a Method for Developing the Semantic Web Using

Ontologies .................................................................................................. 159

Adolfo Lozano-Tello, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain

Asunción Gómez-Pérez, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid,

Spain

Chapter VIII

An Evaluation of UML and OWL Using a Semiotic Quality

Framework.................................................................................................. 178

Yun Lin, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,

Norway

Jennifer Sampson, Norwegian University of Science and

Technology, Norway

Sari Hakkarainen, Norwegian University of Science and

Technology, Norway

Hao Ding, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,

Norway

Chapter IX

Information Modeling Based on Semantic and Pragmatic

Meaning ...................................................................................................... 201

Owen Eriksson, Dalarna University, Sweden

Pär J. Ågerfalk, University of Limerick, Ireland, and

Örebro University, Sweden

Chapter X

Higher-Order Types and Information Modeling ................................ 218

Terry Halpin, Northface University, USA

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Chapter XI

Criteria for Comparing Information Modeling Methods:

Informational and Computational Equivalence ................................... 238

Keng Siau, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA

Chapter XII

COGEVAL: Applying Cognitive Theories to Evaluate

Conceptual Models .................................................................................. 255

Stephen Rockwell, University of Tulsa, USA

Akhilesh Bajaj, University of Tulsa, USA

Chapter XIII

Quality of Analysis Specifications: A Comparison of FOOM

and OPM Methodologies ....................................................................... 283

Judith Kabeli, Ben-Gurion University, Israel

Peretz Shoval, Ben-Gurion University, Israel

Chapter XIV

Interoperability of B2B Applications: Methods and Tools ........... 297

Christophe Nicolle, Université de Bourgogne, France

Kokou Yétongnon, Université de Bourgogne, France

Jean-Claude Simon, Université de Bourgogne, France

Chapter XV

Possibility Theory in Protecting National Information

Infrastructure ............................................................................................. 325

Richard Baskerville, Georgia State University, USA

Victor Portougal, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Chapter XVI

Enabling Information Sharing Across Government Agencies......... 341

Akhilesh Bajaj, University of Tulsa, USA

Sudha Ram, University of Arizona, USA

About the Authors.................................................................................... 367

Index ............................................................................................................ 377

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The Advanced Topics in Database Research book series has been re￾garded as an excellent academic books series in the fields of database, soft￾ware engineering, and systems analysis and design. The goal of the book series

is to provide researchers and practitioners the latest ideas and excellent works

in the fields. This is the fourth volume of the book series. We are fortunate

again to have authors that are committed to submit their best works for inclu￾sion as chapters in this book. In the following, I will briefly introduce the 16

excellent chapters in this book:

Chapter I, “Dynamic Workflow Restructuring Framework for Long-Run￾ning Business Processes”, applies the basic concepts of ActivityFlow specifi￾cation language to a set of workflow restructuring operators and a dynamic

workflow management engine in developing a framework for long-running busi￾ness processes. The chapter explains how the ActivityFlow language supports

a collection of specification mechanisms in increasing the flexibility of workflow

processes and offers an open architecture that supports user interaction and

collaboration of workflow systems of different organizations.

Chapter II, “Design and Representation of Multidimensional Models with

UML and XML Technologies”, presents the use of the Unified Modeling Lan￾guage (UML) and the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema in ab￾stracting the representation of Multidimensional (MD) properties at the con￾ceptual level. The chapter also provides different presentations of the MD models

by means of eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT).

Chapter III, “Does Protecting Databases Using Perturbation Techniques

Impact Knowledge Discovery”, examines the effectiveness of Generalized

Additive Data Perturbation methods (GADP) in protecting the confidentiality

of data. Data perturbation is a data security technique that adds noise in the

form of random numbers to numerical database attributes. The chapter dis￾cusses whether perturbation techniques add a so-called Data Mining Bias to

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the database and explores the competing objectives of protection of confiden￾tial data versus disclosure for data mining applications.

Chapter IV, “Simultaneous Database Backup Using TCP/IP and a Spe￾cialized Network Interface Card”, introduces a prototype device driver, Real￾time Online Remote Information Backup (RORIB) in response to the problems

in current backup and recovery techniques used in e-business applications. The

chapter presents a true real time system that is hardware and software inde￾pendent that accommodates to any type of system as the alternative to the

extremely expensive Private Backup Network (PBN) and Storage Area Net￾works (SANs).

Chapter V, “Towards User-Oriented Enterprise Modeling for

Interoperability”, introduces user oriented Enterprise Modeling as a means to

support new approaches for the development of networked organizations. The

chapter discusses the structuring of user requirements and describes the initial

design of the Unified Enterprise Modeling Language (UEML) developed in a

research project sponsored by the European Union.

Chapter VI, “Using a Model Quality Framework for Requirements Speci￾fication of an Enterprise Modeling Language”, introduces a Model Quality Frame￾work that tackles the selection and refinement of a modeling language for a

process harmonization project in an international organization. The harmoniza￾tion project uses process models that prioritize what was to be implemented in

the specialized language and develops a support environment for the new har￾monized process.

Chapter VII, “Population of a Method for Developing the Semantic Web

Using Ontologies”, introduces an ONTOMETRIC method that allows the evalu￾ation of existing ontologies and making better selection of ontologies.

Chapter VIII, “An Evaluation of UML and OWL Using a Semiotic Quality

Framework”, systematically evaluates the Unified Modeling Language (UML)

and Web Ontology Language (OWL) models by using a semiotic quality frame￾work. The chapter highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the two model￾ing languages from a semiotic perspective. This evaluation better assists re￾searchers in the selection and justification of modeling languages in different

scenarios.

Chapter IX, “Information Modeling Based on Semantic and Pragmatic

Meaning”, introduces an information modeling approach based on the speech

act theory to support meaningful communication between different actors within

a social action context. The chapter discusses how taking both semantic and

pragmatic meaning into consideration will theoretically justify problems central

to information modeling—the identifier problem, the ontological problem, and

the predicate problem.

Chapter X, “Higher-Order Types and Information Modeling”, examines

the advisability and appropriateness of using higher-order types in information

models. The chapter discusses the key issues involved in implementing the model,

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suggests techniques for retaining a first-order formalization, and provides good

suggestions for adopting a higher-order semantics.

Chapter XI, “Criteria for Comparing Information Modeling Methods: In￾formational and Computational Equivalence”, introduces an evaluation approach

based on the human information processing paradigm and the theory of equiva￾lence of representations. This evaluation approach proposes informational and

computational equivalence as the criteria for evaluation and comparison.

Chapter XII, “COGEVAL: Applying Cognitive Theories to Evaluate Con￾ceptual Models”, proposes a propositional framework called COGEVAL that is

based on cognitive theories to evaluate conceptual models. The chapter iso￾lates the effect of a model-independent variable on readability and illustrates

the dimensions of modeling complexity. This evaluation is particularly useful for

creators of new models and practitioners who use currently available models to

create schemas.

Chapter XIII, “Quality of Analysis Specifications: A Comparison of FOOM

and OPM Methodologies”, shows that the Functional and Object Oriented

Methodology (FOOM) is a better approach in producing quality analysis mod￾els than the Object-Process Methodology (OPM). The comparison is based on

a controlled experiment, which compares the quality of equivalent analysis models

of the two methodologies, using a unified diagrammatic notation.

Chapter XIV, “Interoperability of B2B Applications: Methods and Tools”,

introduces a Web-based data integration methodology and tool framework called

X-TIME in supporting the development of Business-to-Business (B2B) design

environments and applications. The chapter develops X-TIME as the tool to

create adaptable semantic-oriented meta models in supporting interoperable

information systems and building cooperative environment for B2B platforms.

Chapter XV, “Possibility Theory in Protecting National Information Infra￾structure”, introduces a quantitative approach called Possibility theory as an

alternative to information security evaluation. This research responds to the

national concern of the security of both military and civilian information re￾sources due to information warfare and the defense of national information

infrastructures. This approach is suitable for information resources that are

vulnerable to intensive professional attacks.

Chapter XVI, “Enabling Information Sharing Across Government Agen￾cies”, attends to the increased interest in information sharing among govern￾ment agencies with respect to improving security, reducing costs, and offering

better quality service to users of government services. The chapter proposes a

comprehensive methodology called Interagency Information Sharing (IAIS) that

uses eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to facilitate the definition of infor￾mation that needs to be shared. The potential conflicts and the comparison of

IAIS with two other alternatives are further explored.

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These 16 chapters provide an excellent sample of the state-of-the-art re￾search in the field of database. I hope this book will be a useful reference and

a valuable collection for both researchers and practitioners.

Keng Siau

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA

October 2004

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Dynamic Workflow Restructuring Framework for Long-Running Processes 1

Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written

permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

Chapter I

Dynamic Workflow

Restructuring Framework

for Long-Running

Business Processess

Ling Liu, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Calton Pu, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Duncan Dubugras Ruiz, Pontifical Catholic University of RS, Brazil

ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a framework for dynamic restructuring of long￾running business processes. The framework is composed of the ActivityFlow

specification language, a set of workflow restructuring operators, and a

dynamic workflow management engine. The ActivityFlow specification

language enables the flexible specification, composition, and coordination

of workflow activities. There are three unique features of our framework

design. First, it supports a collection of specification mechanisms, allowing

workflow designers to use a uniform workflow specification interface to

describe different types of workflows involved in their organizational

processes. A main objective of this characteristic is to help increase the

flexibility of workflow processes in accommodating changes. The

ActivityFlow language also provides a set of activity modeling facilities,

enabling workflow designers to describe the flow of work declaratively and

incrementally, and allowing to reason about correctness and security of

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2 Liu, Pu and Ruiz

Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written

permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

complex workflow activities independently from their underlying

implementation mechanisms. Finally, it offers an open architecture that

supports user interaction as well as collaboration of workflow systems of

different organizations. Furthermore, our business process restructuring

approach enables the dynamic restructuring of workflows while preserving

the correctness of ActivityFlow models and related instances. We report a

set of simulation-based experiments to show the benefits and cost of our

workflow restructuring approach.

INTRODUCTION

The focus of office computing today has shifted from automating individual

work activities to supporting the automation of organizational business pro￾cesses. Examples of such business processes include handling bank loan

applications, processing insurance claims, and providing telephone services.

Such a requirement shift, pushed by technology trends, has promoted the

workflow management systems (WFMSs) based computing infrastructure,

which provides not only a model of business processes but also a foundation on

which to build solutions supporting the coordination, execution, and management

of business processes (Aalst & Hee, 2002; Leymann & Roller, 2000). One of the

main challenges in today’s WFMSs is to provide tools to support organizations

to coordinate and automate the flow of work activities between people and

groups within an organization and to streamline and manage business processes

that depend on both information systems and human resources.

Workflow systems have gone through three stages over the last decade.

First, homegrown workflow systems were monolithic in the sense that all control

flows and data flows were hard-coded into applications, thus they are difficult

to maintain and evolve. The second generation of workflow systems was driven

by imaging/document management systems or desktop object managements.

The workflow components of these products tend to be tightly coupled with the

production systems. Typical examples are smart form systems (e.g., expense

report handling) and case folder systems (e.g., insurance claims handling). The

third generation workflow systems have an open infrastructure, a generic

workflow engine, a database or repository for sharing information, and use

middleware technology for distributed object management. Several research

projects are contributing toward building the third generation workflow systems

(Mohan, 1994; Sheth, 1995; Sheth et al., 1996). For a survey of some of the

workflow automation software products and prototypes, see Georgakopoulos,

Hornick, and Sheth (1995) and Aalst and Hee (2002).

Recently, workflow automation has been approached in the light of Web

services and related technology. According to Alonso, Casati, Kuno, and

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Dynamic Workflow Restructuring Framework for Long-Running Processes 3

Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written

permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

Machiraju (2004), the goal of Web services is to achieve interoperability

between applications by using Web application standards, exemplified by SOAP

(an XML messaging protocol), WSDL (Web Services Description Language),

and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), to publish and

discover services. According to the W3C (2004) definition of Web services, a

Web service is “a software system identified by a URI, whose public interfaces

and bindings are defined and described using XML. Its definition can be

discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the

Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML based messages

conveyed by Internet protocols.” Computing based on Web services constitutes

a new middleware technology for the third generation workflow systems that

permits an easier description of the interactions among Internet-oriented soft￾ware applications. In this sense, workflow automation plays a strategic role in

coordination and management of the flow of activities implemented as Web

services.

Although workflow research and development have attracted more and

more attention, it is widely recognized that there are still technical problems,

ranging from inflexible and rigid process specification and execution mecha￾nisms, insufficient possibilities to handle exceptions, to the need of a uniform

interface support for various types of workflows, that is, ad hoc, administrative,

collaborative, or production workflows. In addition, the dynamic restructuring of

business processes, process status monitoring, automatic enforcement of consis￾tency and concurrency control, recovery from failure, and interoperability

between different workflow servers should be improved. As pointed out

by Sheth et al. (1996), many existing workflow management systems use Petri￾nets based tools for process specification. The available design tools typically

support definition of control flows and data flows between activities by connect￾ing the activity icons with specialized arrows, specifying the activity precedence

order and their data dependencies. In addition to graphical specification lan￾guages, many workflow systems provide rule-based specification languages

(Dayal, Hsu & Ladin, 1990; Georgakopoulos et al., 1995). Although these

existing workflow specification languages are powerful in expressiveness, one

of the common problems (even those based on graphical node and arc program￾ming models) is that they are not well-structured. Concretely, when used for

modeling complex workflow processes without discipline, these languages may

result in schemas with intertwined precedence relationships. This makes debug￾ging, modifying, and reasoning of complex workflow processes difficult (Liu &

Meersman, 1996).

In this chapter, we concentrate our discussion on the problem of flexibility

and extensibility of process specification and execution mechanisms as well as

the dynamic restructuring of business processes. We introduce the ActivityFlow

specification language for structured specification and flexible coordination of

workflow activities and a set of workflow activity restructuring operators to

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4 Liu, Pu and Ruiz

Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written

permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.

tackle the workflow restructuring problem. Our restructuring approach enables

the optimization of business processes without necessarily reengineering an

enterprise. The most interesting features of the ActivityFlow specification

language include:

• A collection of specification mechanisms, which allows the workflow

designer to use a uniform workflow specification interface to describe

different types of workflows involved in their organizational processes and

helps to increase the flexibility of workflow processes in accommodating

changes;

• A set of activity modeling facilities, which enables the workflow designer

to describe the flow of work declaratively and incrementally, allowing

reasoning about correctness and security of complex workflow activities

independently from their underlying implementation mechanisms; and

• An open architecture, which supports user interactions as well as collabo￾ration of workflow systems of different organizations.

The rest of this chapter proceeds as follows. In the Basic Concepts of

ActivityFlow section, we describe the basic concepts of ActivityFlow and

highlight some of the important features. In the ActivityFlow Process Definition

Language section, we present our ActivityFlow specification language and

illustrate the main features of the language using the telephone service provision￾ing workflow application as the running example. In the Dynamic Workflow

Restructuring of ActivityFlow Models section, we present a set of workflow

activity restructuring operators to the dynamic change of ActivityFlow models

and simulation experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of such opera￾tors. The Implementation Considerations section discusses the implementation

architecture of ActivityFlow and the related implementation issues. We con￾clude the chapter with a discussion on related works and a summary in the

Related Work and Conclusion section.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF ACTIVITY FLOW

Business Process vs. Workflow Process

Business processes are a collection of activities that support critical

organizational and business functions. The activities within a business process

have a common business or organizational objective and are often tied together

by a set of precedence dependency relationships. One of the important problems

in managing business processes (by organization or human) is how to effectively

capture the dependencies among activities and utilize the dependencies for

scheduling, distributing, and coordinating work activities among human and

information system resources efficiently.

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