Business Process Modeling and Simulation With UML Part I: Defining a UML Transaction Model That Maps to RUP Business Models

Business modeling is an important activity in software development: For software to be useful, it must directly support the business. Once a sound business model is developed, it is possible to explore different business improvement options such as eliminating redundant tasks, and automating repetitive and mundane tasks or those prone to errors. Although the Rational Unified Process (RUP) provides a systematic approach to visually representing a business model, it does not provide a way to derive simulation models that support quantitative comparisons between various improvement options. This paper defines a Unified Modeling Language (UML) profile for a transaction model that fills this gap, and shows how it can be mapped from business models in the RUP.