On the Semantics of EPCs: A Framework for Resolving the Vicious Circle

摘要

One of the most debatable features of Event driven Process Chains (EPCs) is their non-local semantics. Most non-local semantics for EPCs either have a formal flaw or no formal definition is given at all. It can be shown that a single transition relation cannot precisely capture the informal idea of the non-local semantics of EPCs. Therefore, we formalize the non-local semantics of EPCs as a pair of two corresponding transition relations by employing standard techniques from fixed point theory. Actually, there are several choices when formalizing this semantics for EPCs. These choices, however, do not compromise the application of the underlying fixed point theory. Therefore, the mathematics applied in this paper can be considered as a semantical framework for formally defining different kinds of non-local semantics for EPCs. This framework can be used for the discussion and, eventually, for settling the discussion on the semantics of EPCs.