Model-Based Development and Testing of Process-Aware Information Systems

The development of process-aware information systems (PAISs) heavily relies on the notion of software configuration rather than classical software development approaches based on coding. To date, there is no accepted development strategy for the configuration of PAIS technology and construction of specific applications added to these systems tends to proceed on an ad-hoc basis rather than following a prescribed approach. Similar, there has been minimal consideration for testing and validating the capabilities of the PAISs. This paper proposes a domain-oriented system testing approach where a conceptual model (expressed in terms of a colored Petri net) is used for specification, simulation, and testing of the developed PAIS. This approach has been applied to a schedule-based workflow system developed for the AMC hospital in Amsterdam. One of the important characteristics of our approach is the tight coupling between the conceptual model and the actual implemented system. While testing and validating, parts of the system may be simulated using CPN Tools while connected to the actual system components.