Consistent MDA for Workflow Development

Abstract

It is important that corporate level business processes are modeled and analyzed by formal tools that do not require substantial mathematical background and strong programming skills. One such tool is Petri nets, a formal technique for modeling and analyzing simple and complex business activities. It preserves consistency, and yet easy to use for people with less technical background. However, while modeling business activities using Petri nets we want to ensure the correctness of this model by enforcing different constraints. Furthermore, being abstract, the model cannot be applied for execution per se. Therefore, one or several stages of transformation of a source model into a more specific target model have to be applied. The target model obtained requires use of formal methods to ensure its correctness. In other words, we want to ensure the correctness of the transformation itself.This paper outlines an approach to using B-method as a correctness proving tool for an abstract model written in Petri nets. We first demonstrate how Petri nets and B can be formally combined. After that we use an example to show how the actual combining is performed by defining formal definitions of Petri nets and a B machine. We also demonstrate a definition of a consistent B machine, which is further followed by formal definition of combining Petri nets with B. In this paper, we are also discussing an example case modeled in Petri nets which is then defined in more detail using B constructs.