Monitoring Constraints in Business Processes Using Object-Centric Constraint Graphs Gyunam Park and Wil. M. P. van der Aalst

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Monitoring Constraints in Business Processes

Using Object-Centric Constraint Graphs

Gyunam Park and Wil. M. P. van der Aalst

Process and Data Science Group (PADS), RWTH Aachen University

{gnpark,wvdaalst}@pads.rwth-aachen.de

Abstract. Constraint monitoring aims to monitor the violation of con-

straints in business processes, e.g., an invoice should be cleared within

48 hours after the corresponding goods receipt, by analyzing event data.

Existing techniques for constraint monitoring assume that a single case

notion exists in a business process, e.g., a patient in a healthcare process,

and each event is associated with the case notion. However, in reality,

business processes are object-centric, i.e., multiple case notions (objects)

exist, and an event may be associated with multiple objects. For in-

stance, an Order-To-Cash (O2C) process involves order,item,delivery,

etc., and they interact when executing an event, e.g., packing multiple

items together for a delivery. The existing techniques produce misleading

insights when applied to such object-centric business processes. In this

work, we propose an approach to monitoring constraints in object-centric

business processes. To this end, we introduce Object-Centric Constraint

Graphs (OCCGs) to represent constraints that consider the interaction

of objects. Next, we evaluate the constraints represented by OCCGs by

analyzing Object-Centric Event Logs (OCELs) that store the interaction

of diﬀerent objects in events. We have implemented a web application to

support the proposed approach and conducted two case studies using a

real-life SAP ERP system.

Keywords: Constraint Monitoring ·Object-Centricity ·Compliance Check-

ing ·Conformance Checking

1 Introduction

It is indispensable for organizations to continuously monitor their operational

problems and take proactive actions to mitigate risks and improve performances [1].

Constraint monitoring aims at detecting violations of constraints (i.e., opera-

tional problems) in business processes of an organization by analyzing event

data recorded by information systems [7]. Once violations are detected, the or-

ganization can redesign its process to cover the respective violation.

A plethora of techniques has been suggested to implement constraint moni-

toring. For instance, in [11], a technique is proposed to detect events violating

constraints, e.g., detecting an X-ray event with a long waiting time, using be-

havioral proﬁles and Complex Event Processing (CEP). In [8], authors propose

arXiv:2210.12080v1 [cs.AI] 21 Oct 2022

2 G. Park and W.M.P. van der Aalst

a technique to detect process instances violating constraints, e.g., detecting a

patient with multiple executions of X-rays, using Linear Temporal Logic (LTL).

The existing techniques assume that an event in event data is associated with

a single object of a unique type (so-called case), e.g., a patient in a healthcare pro-

cess. Thus, constraints are deﬁned over the single case notion, e.g., each patient

(i.e., case) should be registered before triage. However, in real-life business pro-

cesses, an event may be associated with multiple objects of diﬀerent types, i.e.,

real-life business processes are object-centric [2]. For instance, the omnipresent

Purchase-To-Pay (P2P) process involves diﬀerent object types, e.g., purchase

order,material,invoice,goods receipt, etc., and an event may be associated with

multiple objects of diﬀerent types, e.g., clearing invoice is associated with a

purchase order, an invoice, and a goods receipt to enable so-called three-way

matching.

Fig. 1. Comparing (a) traditional and (b) object-centric constraint monitoring

Applying the existing techniques to such object-centric settings results in

misleading insights. Figure 1(a) shows events of a “case” in an Order-To-Cash

(O2C) process using order as the case notion. First, an order is placed, and the

availability of two items of the order is checked, respectively. Next, one of the

items is picked, and the invoice of the order is sent to the customer. Afterward,

the other item is picked, and the payment of the invoice is collected. Finally, the

items are packed and delivered to the customer. The three constraints shown in

Monitoring Object-Centric Constraints in Business Processes 3

Figure 1(a) are violated by the case. For instance, Constraint 1 is violated since

pick item is followed by send invoice in the case and Constraint 3 is violated

since pick item is preceded by send invoice.

However, in reality, the order and each item have diﬀerent lifecycles as shown

in Figure 1(b). First, we place an order with two items. While the invoice is sent

and the payment is collected for the order, we check the availability of each item

and pick each of them. We ﬁnally deliver the order with two items after packing

two items together. In this object-centric setting, constraints should be deﬁned

in relation to objects to provide accurate insights. For instance, Constraint 1*

extends Constraint 1 with the corresponding object type (i.e., item). Contrary

to Constraint 1,Constraint 1* is not violated since pick item is directly followed

by pack item for any items. Moreover, we can analyze more object-centric con-

straints by considering the interaction of diﬀerent objects. First, we can analyze

if an execution of an activity involves (un)necessary objects (cf. Constraint 4

and Constraint 5 ). Also, we can analyze the cardinality of objects for executing

an activity (cf. Constraint 6 and Constraint 7 ).

In this work, we propose a technique for constraint monitoring in object-

centric settings. To this end, we ﬁrst introduce object-centric behavioral metrics

that can be computed from Object-Centric Event Logs (OCELs), e.g., a metric

to measure the degree to which pick item precedes pack items in the lifecycle of

items. Next, we develop Object-Centric Constraint Graphs (OCCGs) to formally

represent constraints using such metrics. Finally, monitoring engine evaluates

the violation of the constraints represented by OCCGs by analyzing OCELs.

We have implemented a web application to support the approach. A demo

video and a manual are available at https://github.com/gyunamister/ProPPa.

git. Moreover, we have conducted case studies with a production process and a

Purchase-To-Pay (P2P) process supported by an SAP ERP system.

The remainder is organized as follows. We discuss the related work in sec-

tion 2 and present the preliminaries, including OCELs in section 3. In section 4,

we introduce object-centric behavioral metrics. Afterward, we present OCCGs

to formally represent constraints and the monitoring engine to evaluate the vio-

lation of the constraints in section 5. Next, section 6 introduces the implementa-

tion of the proposed approach and case studies using real-life event data. Finally,

section 7 concludes the paper.

2 Related Work

Many approaches have been proposed to monitor the violation of constraints

by analyzing event data. Weidlich et al. [11] propose a technique to abstract

process models to behavioral proﬁles and produce event queries from the proﬁle.

Violated executions of events are monitored using Complex Event Processing

(CEP) engines with the event queries. Awad et al. [5] deﬁne a set of generic

patterns regarding the occurrence of tasks, their ordering, and resource assign-

ments and generate anti-patterns from the generic patterns to monitor event

executions. Maggi et al. [8] represent control-ﬂow properties of a running pro-

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MonitoringConstraintsinBusinessProcessesUsingObject-CentricConstraintGraphsGyunamParkandWil.M.P.vanderAalstProcessandDataScienceGroup(PADS),RWTHAachenUniversityfgnpark,wvdaalstg@pads.rwth-aachen.deAbstract.Constraintmonitoringaimstomonitortheviolationofcon-straintsinbusinessprocesses,e.g.,aninvoices...

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Monitoring Constraints in Business Processes Using Object-Centric Constraint Graphs Gyunam Park and Wil. M. P. van der Aalst

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