Development of a Web-Based Petri Net Modeling Tool for Business Process Simulation

One of the most recently regarded research area in the Business Process Management (BPM) field is the construction of Digital Process Twins (DPTs) [Bee+23], "a comprehensive digital replica of the system behavior." [Cor+22]. A plethora of business process modeling languages, e.g. the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), the Unified Modeling Language Activity Diagram (UML AD) or Yet Another Workflow Language (YAWL) have been proposed and are widely used. Most of these business process modeling languages were inspired by Petri nets and add good ideas, but many are also considered semi-formal and are therefore hard to analyze [Aal02]. Petri nets describe a good starting point for business process models as they provide a graphical representation, have clear semantics and a wide range of analysis techniques exist [Aal02]. Petri nets are therefore widely used for academic purposes in research and for educational purposes. A few open-source Petri net editors, such as “Platform Independent Petri net Editor” (PIPE) or “TIme petri Net Analyzer” (TINA), are available but they lack a modern user interface and easy to use modeling and analyzing features. Therefore, the BPM research community, as well as BPM courses, could benefit from a state-of-the-art tool for Petri net modeling and simulation.

The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is first to identify requirements for a state-of-the-art web-based Petri net modeling tool with a special focus on academic purposes, and second to implement such a tool based on the elicited requirements.

Prerequisites: (1) Knowledge of software engineering principles and patterns (e.g. the MVC-pattern), (2) Preferably experience with front-end web- frameworks (e.g. AngularJS, React.js or Vue.js). (3) *vi* users preferred.

Contact: bachelor.i17 [at] in.tum.de

[Aal02] Wil M. P. van der Aalst. “Making Work Flow: On the Application of Petri Nets to Business Process Management”. In: Application and Theory of Petri Nets 2002. Ed. by Javier Esparza and Charles Lakos. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2002, pp. 1–22. isbn: 978-3-540-48068-6. doi: 10.1007/3-540-48068-4_1.
[Bee+23] Iris Beerepoot et al. “The biggest business process management problems to solve before we die”. In: Computers in Industry 146 (Apr. 2023), p. 103837.  issn: 0166-3615. doi: 10 . 1016 / j .  compind . 2022 . 103837. url: https : / / www . sciencedirect . com / science / article / pii / S0166361522002330 (visited on 01/05/2023).
[Cor+22] Flavio Corradini et al. “An Approach to Support Digital Process Twin”. In: 2022 IEEE Intl Conf on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, Intl Conf on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, Intl Conf on Cloud and Big Data Computing, Intl Conf on Cyber Science and Technology Congress (DASC/PiCom/CBDCom/CyberSciTech).  Sept. 2022, pp. 1–4. doi: 10 . 1109 / 1DASC/PiCom/CBDCom/Cy55231.2022.  9927841.