A process-driven variability analysis in process-aware information systems family

Processes help an organization's workforce achieve business objectives by helping them work not harder, but more efficiently and with improved consistency. Process-aware information systems (PAIS), whose implementation relies on the process specification, should be customizable in accordance with the process variations. Processes can be causes of variability, a characteristic that distinguishes one PAIS from others. The order or combination of processes can vary in dealing with the requirements and technical differences. Software product line engineering can help develop customizable or configurable PAISs, called PAIS family because it supports designing and developing a family of systems, not a single system. For designing PAIS family, analyzing variations in processes is more advantageous than analyzing the functional features of PAIS. Processes have different abstraction levels and sometimes they are not sequential. Moreover, a number of processes are too large and complex to analyze process variations as a whole. This paper proposes a hierarchical process framework-based process variability analysis technique for PAIS family. This paper explains the proposed technique through the FTA origin determination and management system example.