Experiencing Process Flexibility Patterns with Alaska Simulator

Alaska Simulator is an interactive software tool developed at the University of Innsbruck which allows people to explore different approaches to process flexibility by using a familiar metaphor, i.e., travel planning and execution. In addition, Alaska Simulator is used for studying research questions in the context of business process management and other related fields. For this, Alaska Simulator provides integrated support of different approaches to process flexibility in terms of decision deferral patterns, which all allow interleaving process modeling with execution and provide mechanisms for effectively dealing with uncertainty. The biggest challenge for users of such flexible systems is to find the right balance between pre-planning activities and keeping options open. To address this challenge Alaska Simulator allows safe exploration and systematic investigation of how much pre-modeling is needed under different circumstances.