Business Process Automation principles and implementation methods are presented in this comprehensive overview. A wide range of topics are illustrated through the YAWL open-source support environment, providing a sound basis for workflow concepts.

Concepts.- The Language: Rationale and Fundamentals.- Advanced Synchronization.- Flexibility and Change.- Dynamic Workflow.- Exception Handling.- Declarative Workflow.- The Core System.- The Architecture.- The Design Environment.- The Runtime Environment.- Services.- The Resource Service.- The Worklet Service.- The Declare Service.- Positioning.- The Business Process Modeling Notation.- EPCs.- The Business Process Execution Language.- Open Source Workflow Systems.- Advanced Topics.- Process Mining and Simulation.- Process Configuration.- Process Integration.- Verification.- Case Studies.- YAWL4Healthcare.- YAWL4Film.- Epilogue.- Epilogue.- Appendices.- Appendix A The Order Fulfillment Process Model.

Topics covered include: The fundamentals of business process modeling, including workflow patterns; An in-depth treatment of process flexibility, including approaches to dealing with on-the-fly changes, unexpected exceptions, and constraint-based processes; Technological aspects of a modern BPM environment, including its architecture,  process design environment, process engine, resource handler and other support services; A comparative insight into current approaches to business process modeling and execution such as BPMN, EPCs, BPEL, jBPM, OpenWFE, and Enhydra Shark; Process mining, verification, integration and configuration; and Case studies in health care and screen business.   This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the field of Business Process Management (BPM) with a focus on Business Process Automation. It achieves this by covering a wide range of topics, both introductory and advanced, illustrated through and grounded in the YAWL (Yet Another Workflow Language) language and corresponding open-source support environment. In doing so it provides the reader with a deep, timeless, and vendor-independent understanding of the essential ingredients of business process automation. The BPM field is in a continual state of flux and is subject to both the ongoing proposal of new standards and the introduction of new tools and technology. Its fundamentals however are relatively stable and this book aims to equip the reader with both a thorough understanding of them and the ability to apply them to better understand, assess and utilize new developments in the BPM field. As a consequence of its topic-based format and the inclusion of a broad range of exercises, the book is eminently suitable for use in tertiary education, both at the undergraduate and the postgraduate level, for studentsof computer science and information systems. BPM researchers and practitioners will also find it a valuable resource. The book serves as a unique reference to a varied and comprehensive collection of topics that are relevant to the business process life-cycle.

The book is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of YAWL and its support environment Emerging areas such as declarative workflow specification and process configuration are exposed to a wider audience for the first time in textbook form The book provides a sound basis for workflow concepts on the one hand and a detailed discussion of their technical realisation on the other hand Readers will gain an understanding of advanced concepts in the field of Business Process Management that will accelerate and deepen their understanding of new systems and languages Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras