An approach for allocation of shared resources in the rule-based business process simulation

Abstract

Simulation is an important business process (BP) analysis technique that allows modelling various process execution scenarios under different circumstances. One of the key factors that influence process execution is the availability of resources required to accomplish process activities. Without realistic simulation of resources usage by diverse activities, it is difficult or even impossible to obtain proper simulated BP performance measures. In this paper, we tackle the problem of simulating resources allocation and usage among simultaneous BP activities. We present an approach to model shareable resources and a set of constraints to handle resources allocation and control their usage in the rule-based BP simulation. This approach has been implemented in a prototype of BP simulation tool, and we provide an example showing benefits of applying this approach in a BP simulation.