Generating Business Process Models from Object Behavior Models

Object-oriented modeling is an established approach to document information systems. In an object model, a system is captured in terms of object types and associations, state machines and collaboration diagrams, among others. Process modeling on the other hand, provides a different approach whereby behavior is captured in terms of activities, flow dependencies, resources, etc. These two approaches have their relative advantages. Also, object models and process models lend themselves to different styles of implementation. In this paper we define a transformation from a meta-model for object behavior modeling to a meta-model for process modeling. The transformation relies on the identification of causal relations in the object model. These relations are encoded in a heuristics net from which a process model is derived and then simplified. Using this transformation, it becomes possible to apply established object-oriented techniques during system analysis and design, and to transform the resulting object models into executable process models that can be deployed in a workflow engine. The proposal has been implemented in an object modeling tool.