企業營運良窳與其流程的正確性息息相關;然而流程在設計階段不易被驗證,錯誤經常在實際運作時才發現,企業卻已蒙受損失。因使,一個可以在流程設計階段便提供錯誤檢驗的塑模工具可大幅提升流程設計的應用。統一塑模語言(Unified Modeling Language)由於其結構完整且圖形明瞭易懂,普遍使用於企業流程塑模或軟體工程設計,可惜其本身並無錯誤驗證機制。本研究開發一個統一塑模語言與派翠網路(Petri Net)的自動轉換系統,透過可延伸標記語言標準將統一塑模語言之活動圖轉換為派翠網路圖。藉由派翠網路之流程屬性驗證工具,可在流程塑模階段立即發覺潛在錯誤,以提升流程設計之效率與正確性。本研究以數個流程設計實例說明所開發之自動轉換系統的可行性。
The performance of a company relies on the correctness of its business process. However, errors are difficult to be detected in the process design stage, until the process is implemented at which loss of the company has occurred. Thus, process modeling tools that can detect errors at the design stage are desirable. Unified Modeling Language(UML) is commonly used in industries for business process modeling and software engineering owing to the simple, clear, and fully structuralized diagrams it provides. This study develops an automated conversion system that can convert the activity diagrams formulated by Unified Modeling Language to their corresponding Ptri-net presentations, via the standard of Extensible Markup Language. Users can employ the analytic tools of Petri-net to identify protential errors of the process under design, and hence improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the design process. This study presents many practical cases of process design to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed automated conversion system.