Business Process Modeling

The ebXML Business Process and Information Meta Model is an approach that allows trading partners to define the details to drive a specific business process using standard modeling methodologies. As we already discussed in Chapter 3, a business process defines how trading partners interact, taking on roles, relationships, and responsibilities to facilitate interaction with other trading partners, and creating procedures for how the partners collaborate on business transactions.

The interaction between roles exists as processes that invoke business transactions. Each business transaction is expressed as an exchange of information (business documents) that may be composed from reusable business information objects at the high level. At the low level, business processes can be composed of reusable core processes. Business information objects can be composed of core components.

The Meta Model views (support requirements, analysis, and design) provide a set of semantics (vocabulary) for each viewpoint and form. The output from this is a series of artifacts required to facilitate the Business Process and information integration. In other words, this is the semantics portion of this exchange, which defines semantic differences and thus how transformation should occur.

Over and above the view of the Meta Model, the specification schema also supports the direct specification of the set of elements needed to configure a run-time system that will execute a set of ebXML business transactions. Thus, we can create a semantic subset of the ebXML Business Process and Information Meta Model by drawing out modeling elements from several of the other views (see Figure 12.4). You can represent the specification schema using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and DTD.

Figure 12.4. ebXML Meta Model, semantic subset.

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Business collaboration is a group of choreographed business transactions as defined by the specification schema. In the world of ebXML, each business transaction is implemented using one of many available standard patterns, which define the exchange of messages or other information exchanged between trading partners. Use of a standard pattern is required to carry out the transaction. The specification schema leverages a set of standard patterns, as well as a set of modeling elements that are common to those patterns. The complete specification of business process systems and information in the Meta Model is specified against the specification schema. This information feeds into the formation of the CPPs and CPAs (see Figure 12.5)

Figure 12.5. The ebXML Meta Model.

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EbXML leverages Unified Modeling Language, thus providing a standard modeling methodology and notation to create new business processes. The use of a single approach in and between trading partners is self-explanatory.

Business Process Information Model and CPP and CPA

CPP defines a trading partner's functionality and technical capabilities through an instance of itself and is able to support one or more business processes and one or more roles in each process. We form agreements between two trading partners by defining the conditions under which the two partners will carry out business. The interface between the business process (as well as semantics) and the CPA is the portion of the business process document.

This procedure may be instantiated as XML, which is used to represent the transitional and collaboration layers of the business process and information meta model. The XML is shared between the business process and trading partner information models.



Next Generation Application Integration(c) From Simple Information to Web Services
Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services
ISBN: 0201844567
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 220

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