S-CUBE LP: Service Network Analysis & Prediction Tool (SNAPT)

www.s-cube-network.eu

S-Cube Learning Package

Service Networks Visualization:

Service Network Analysis & Prediction Tool (SNAPT)

University of Crete (UoC)

Mariana Karmazi, Christos Nikolaou, Pantelis Petridis, George Stratakis

© S-Cube - 2

Learning Package Categorization

S-Cube

Business Process Management

(Performance) Analysis and Design of Service Networks

Service Network Analysis and Prediction Tool (SNAPT)

Learning Package: Service Network Analysis and Prediction Tool

Learning Package Overview

Problem Description


– SNAPT Overview and Fundamental Concepts

– SNAPT Metamodel and Visualization Techniques

– From Service Network Models to initial draft Business Process Models

and simulation models

Summary

© S-Cube - 3 Learning Package: Service Network Analysis and Prediction Tool

Background: Service Systems (or Service Networks)

Service system: dynamic co-creation configuration of resources (people,

organizations, shared information) and technology, connected together

through value propositions (Spohrer, Maglio)

– Proposed in order to model, analyze and optimize interactions among various

network partners.

– High level of abstraction, hiding details regarding concrete interactions in

terms of business processes

- Model services that are offered and consumed by business entities

- Service providers (providing a set of service offers)

Formatted mainly because of: globalization, advances in ICT, pressure for

innovation, increased competition, constant change of customers’

demands, which lead to increased focus on core competencies (or

strengths) and outsourcing.

Based on a new marketing discipline: Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic

Service networks are considered as projections of service systems and

they are embedded in Service Ecosystems


http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/terms/a/agile-service-network/

http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/terms/b/business-process

http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/terms/s/service-provider/

Background: Service Ecosystem

A Service Ecosystem is a socio-technical environment consisting of:

– All the services available in a particular sector of the economy (e.g. home

electronics, online media, etc.)

– All the supporting (enabling) good and services (e.g. Banking, building

mainetance, power and telecom utilities, brokers, distributors, etc.)

– All the regulating and supervising authorities

Learning Package: Service Network Analysis and Prediction Tool © S-Cube - 5

Jim Spohrer (IBM): Multiple Approaches to Study Service Systems


Perspectives on Service Systems Modeling and Analysis

Business Perspective (economic and marketing

viewpoint): Conceptual modeling and analysis techniques

studying service networks in a high abstraction layer depicting

the entities participating in the network while analyzing

network vitality and calculating value created for each

participant and for the network as a whole.

– Value chain, Value Networks

IT Perspective: Deals with the alignment and coordination of

the participating entities’ business processes and information

systems in order to achieve the agreed-upon business

outcome

– Business Process Management (BPM) and its lifecycle

– Service-oriented architecture (SOA)


http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/terms/v/value-chain

http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/terms/v/value-network/

http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/browse-by-domain/business-process-management/

Problem Description

Thus, there is a need for a holistic approach combining the concepts

underpinning BPM and SOA in order to support service systems prevailing

in the networked economy

– Propose a unified modeling methodology combining concepts from the

business perspective and the IT perspective

– Target both

- Business analysts

- IT experts

SNAPT Vision:

– Visualize service networks (SNs), define business metrics and goals to SNs in

terms of Key Performance Objectives (KPOs), monitoring of KPIs

corresponding to KPOs sets, take corrective actions (e.g., violations)

– A prototype tool for constructing service network models and transforming into

initial business process models based on BPMN, bridging the gap between

tools and concepts.


http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/terms/k/key-performance-indicator


Problem Description






Summary


Overview of SNAPT

SNAPT is a prototype tool for:

– Modeling service networks as a set of services and business entities based on a

proposed meta-model

– Adding Key Performance Objectives (KPOs) to services within SNs

– Analyzing performance of service networks

– Extracting draft business process models out of service networks models

- BPMN 1.2 support, Eclipse BPMN editor

- IBM Websphere Studio process diagrams

– Support for simulation tools (e.g., Vensim, iThink)

- Currently, service networks models are

mapped to simulation models

supported in Vensim


SNAPT Architecture in brief

SNAPT has been developed following the Model-Driven Architecture

(MDA)

Eclipse platform has been utilized for the development process taking

advantage of the plug-ins extension mechanisms in order to allow future

extensions or modifications to the tool.


SNAPT Models and Plug-ins


SNAPT Fundamental Concepts

Foundation principle: any business can be modeled as a

service.

– Products as a service = it is the delivery of the product that comprises

the service offered to the end customer

– Consistent with Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic

The existence of a service network implies that there is a

single service or a bundle of services that a key business

entity delivers to an end customer.

– In the car industry domain, the process of manufacturing a car can be

modeled as a service network encompassing all the entities working

together to deliver a car

- The service network provides a single service: the car


http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/terms/s/service/

SNAPT Fundamental Concepts

A Service Network is defined as a set of business entities and

services and it can be visualized as a graph of nodes

– Nodes correspond to business entities

– Arcs correspond to services offered and consumed by the business

entities inside the network

- An arc implies an economic exchange

- Origin point of the arc reveals the business entity that offers the

service

- The end point of the arc reveals the business entity that consumes

the service



Problem Description






Summary


SNAPT Service Network Metamodel


Metamodel Concepts

Business Entity: any independent economic entity that provides and/or

consumes services in a service network

– Business entities may offer various distinct and even unlike services at the

same time, cooperating with a lots of independent business entities.

– When modeling a service network, only those services that contribute to the

final service offering is modeled for each business entity

Business entities generate value from their participation in the network

Each business entity is assigned to a role in a particular network

Four types have been distinguished based on the functional properties:

– End-customers

– Enablers

– Service Sub-Network

– Participants


A Business Entity/Service Provider


Metamodel Concepts

End Customer: only consumes service provided by the

network

– They do not contribute to the service composition

– They actually offer a service to the network by providing feedback, e.g.

feedback concerning their experiences

Enabler: offer a service that enables the delivery of other

services

– Always interact with both service provider and service consumer

– For example: FedEx, intermediate payment services like Paypal or

Google CheckOut.


Metamodel Concepts

Service Sub-Networks: they have an internal structure of their

own and nestle an entire service network that provides and/or

consumes services.

– Restriction: each service offered or consumed by a service sub-

network must also be offered or consumed by a single business entity

inside the sub-network

Participants: an ad-hoc business entity which usually used to

refer to the service providers.


Metamodel Concepts

Services: refer to both goods and services, tangible and

intangible in nature. Denote what is exchanged in the network

– Connects business entities in 1-to-1 relationships, ‘offer’ and

‘consume’

– ‘Offering’ is represented with a solid-line arrow originated from the

business entity node which acts as service provider

– ‘Consumption’ is depicted as a dashed-line arc in the opposite

direction originating from the business entity node that consumes the

service – service consumers

“Enablement Service”: connects an enabler with another

business entity or directly with the service it enables


Metamodel Concepts

Key Performance Objectives (KPOs): used to model business and

performance objectives

– Associate a business metric with a service in the network and describe the

expected performance of the underlying business processes from both the

source and target business entities

– Reflect the expected target value as declared by a business analyst

– For any given service, a service provider has his own business goals reflected

to the KPOs that he will try to satisfy. At the same time, the consumer has

some requirements that the service must meet and these should also be

reflected to the KPO Model. As a result, in our meta-model service offerings

are related to KPOs, and so do service consumptions

– Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): are business metrics used on the

Business Process Management layer for as a part of the monitoring process

for measuring the performance of business processes

- KPIs contains the measured value of a business metric in contrast to the

expected value declared by a KPO


http://www.s-cube-network.eu/km/terms/k/key-performance-indicator

Snapshots: Visualize Service Networks


Participant offers a Single service to the End Customer

Enablement Service: an Enabler enables the delivery of the Service 1

Snapshots: Service Sub-Networks


“Service” offered by

ServiceSubNetwork in the Service

Network (left), is mapped to an output

port in the ServiceSubNetwork (right).

Service “Supplies” consumed by

ServiceSubNetwork in the SN (left), is

mapped to an input port in the

ServiceSubNetwork (right).

Service Network ServiceSubNetwork

Sub-network input

Sub-network output

Snapshot: Assign KPOs


SNAPT provides a KPI Library based on

the APQC Process Classification

Frameworks

Fully compatible with IBM

Websphere Business Modeler

SNAPT updates its internal KPI library

from the KPIs Repository

REST-based interface

SNAPT user can select from the library

the desired KPO to assign to a service

Case study: Car Repair Service Network

The purpose of this network is to efficiently deliver to the car owners the

service of “Parts and Repair”

In order for the Dealers to deliver the “Parts and Repair” service to the

Car Owners, they must first order the parts with the help of the Parts

Manager and then consume one of the “Parts” service delivered by Car

OEM or the Third Party Suppliers, together with the “Repair” service

provided by the technicians and taking into account the “Advice for

Repairs” service delivered by the CAR OEM. The CAR OEM delivers the

“Parts” and the “Advice for Repairs” service after consuming the

corresponding services from the Supply Chain Supplier and the Help Desk

Experts, respectively.


Case study: Car Repair Service Network Model



Problem Description




– From Service Network Models to initial draft Business Process

Models and simulation models

Summary


From Service Network Models to initial draft Business Process Models

SNAPT supports a methodology for mapping Service Network

Models to Business Process Models

Two sets of transformation rules are proposed and supported

by SNAPT

– The 1st set maps SN models to collaborative business process models

according to BPMN v.1.2 standard and the export format is compatible

with the Eclipse BPMN Editor, an open source business process

diagram editor

– The 2nd set maps SN models to process models based on the format

supported by IBM WebSphere Business Modeler Advanced.

- A commercial business process modeling and analysis tool


Sequencing of Services (1/3)

The delivery of the service offered by a service network

implies that the resources and back-end systems of the

business entities are integrated and coordinated accordingly

in order to achieve connection of entire business value chains

that will deliver the desired outcome.

However, service networks models are highly abstract in

nature and they do not include any operational details, like

sequencing of processes, message exchanges, etc.

So, it’s mandatory to properly annotate services in the

service network models to define the order of services in a

service network model

– Identify composite services


Sequencing of Services (2/3)

Sequencing information of each service s is created relatively to the

set of services that are offered to the source business Entity of service s

Gateways are used to express sequencing, which can be nested in

any order

– Sequential Block: this gateway implies that any of its children elements is

delivered in series, one after the other

– AND Block: this gateway specifies that its elements should be delivered in

parallel

– XOR Block:denotes that exclusively one of the elements in the block must be

delivered.

To sum up, any sequencing service (a service with sequencing

information attached) is decomposed to several services that will be

delivered in the order defined by gateways


Sequencing of Services (3/3): Simple Sequential Block Example

Example of Sequential Block: In order for Service1 to be delivered to

Participant2, both Service2 and Service3 must first be delivered to Participant1 in

order.


Annotation indicating

Sequencing Services

Sequence Order

From SNAPT to Eclipse BMPN Editor


Mapping from SN constructs

to BPMN elements

Mapping a single service

delivery to a generic

BPMN workflow

From SNAPT to Eclipse BMPN Editor

The transformation process is more complex if the service

network is annotated with sequencing information

– The service’s sequencing information is mapped to both generic and

complex workflows, depending on the service or SequencingService

objects composed of.

– These workflows are processed in a specific manner, depending on

the sequencing constructs used in the sequencing information.

– Objects contained in

- … a SequentialBlock, are mapped to workflows that are processed

in series in the order indicated by the Sequence, XORSequence or

ANDSequence objects.

- … an ANDBlock are mapped to workflows that are connected via a

BPMN parallel gateway,

- … a XORBlock are mapped to workflows that are connected via a

BPMN exclusive data-based gateway


From SNAPT to Eclipse BMPN Editor Example

Based on the Simple Sequential Block Example


From SNAPT to IBM WebSphere Business Modeler


Mapping from SN

constructs to IBM

Modeler elements

Mapping a single service delivery to a generic workflow

From SNAPT to IBM WebSphere Business Modeler


Case study: Car Repair Service Network to Eclipse BPMN diagram


Case study: Car Repair Service Network to IBM WebSphere Modeler


2

1

(a)

(b)

(c)

(a)

(b)

(c)

From SNAPT to VENSIM tool

A system dynamics model in Vensim tool also consists of

variables and arrows that represent the relations and

specifically the dependencies among the variables.

Business entities are mapped to either a constant or an

auxiliary variable

Services are mapped to variables, as well. For each Service

Network Model Service, three variables are declared

corresponding to the two business entities and the service;

two arrows connect the service variable to the source and

target business entity


From SNAPT to VENSIM models



Problem Description






Summary


Summary

Towards bridging the world of business analysts and IT

experts including the concept of service systems

SNAPT serves as a hub providing appropriate outputs to both

simulation tools that analyze the vitality of these networks as

well as to BPM suites, for supporting the underlying business

processes which connect the systems of the involved

participants.

– To this extent SNAPT models are transformed and extracted into a

draft form of collaborative business processes based on the BPMN

format and the IBM’s WebSphere Business Modeler business process

model format.


Further Reading


P. Petridis, C.Nikolaou:Towards a universal Service Network-centric framework to

design, implement and monitor Services in complex Service Ecosystems: The

Service Network Analysis & Prediction Tool (SNAPT). Department of Computer

Science, University of Crete, Heraklion, Master Thesis (Msc) 2010.

G. Stratakis, C. Nikolaou: Analyzing Service Networks from different

perspectives usingthe Service Network Analysis & Prediction Tool (SNAPT)

Department of Computer Science, University of Crete, Heraklion, Master Thesis

2011.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1719370

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1719370

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has

received funding from the European

Community’s Seventh Framework

Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant

agreement 215483 (S-Cube).


S-CUBE LP: Service Network Analysis & Prediction Tool (SNAPT)

Technology

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