XPDL 2.0 and BPMN Tutorial

Business Process Management Summit

February 1 2006

Radisson Hotel, Miami, Florida

Introductions

Mike Marin

• Vice Chair Americas WfMC Technical Committee

• Software Architect, FileNet Corporation, USA

• mmarin <at> filenet.com

Keith Swenson

• Chair WfMC Technical Committee

• VP of Research and Development, Fujitsu Software Corporation, USA

• Kswenson <at> us.fujitsu.com

Justin Brunt

• Vice Chair Europe Technical Committee

• Senior Product Manager, TIBCO Software Inc., UK

• jbrunt <at> tibco.com

Agenda

XPDL and BPMN - Uses and Background

• Justin Brunt

XPDL 2.0 and BPMN Tutorial

• Mike Marin

Examples and Demonstrations

• Keith Swenson

XPDL and BPMN - Uses and Background

It’s All About Processes

WfMC defines a process as:

• “The representation of a business process in a form that supports

automated manipulation, such as modeling, or enactment by a

workflow [or business] management system. The process

definition consists of a network of activities and their relationships,

criteria to indicate the start and termination of the process, and

information about the individual activities, such as participants,

associated IT applications and data, etc.”

The Origins of XPDL

Concepts that underlie XPDL formulated by WfMC

Members

• Members from organizations developing Workflow and BPM

products

Concepts embodied in Meta-model and Glossary

• www.wfmc.org/standards/docs/TC-1011_term_glossary_v3.pdf

Guided the specification of interfaces

Reference Model defines the interfaces

• WfMC Reference Model - Defines 5 Interfaces

• www.wfmc.org/standards/docs/tc003v11.pdf

WfMC Reference Model

Interface 1 – Process Definition Tools

• Definition of a standard interface between process definition and modeling tools and the work flow engine(s).

Interface 2 – Workflow Enactment

• Definition of APIs for client applications to request services from the workflow engine to control the progression of processes, activities and work-items.

Interface 3 – Invoked Applications

• A standard interface definition of APIs to allow the workflow engine to invoke a variety of applications, through common agent software.

Interface 4 – Other Workflow Enactment Services

• Definition of workflow interoperability models and the corresponding standards to support interworking.

Interface 5 – Administration and Monitoring Tools

• The definition of monitoring and control functions.

The Workflow Reference Model

Process

Definition Tools

Administration

& Monitoring Tools

Interface 1

Interface 4

- Interoperability

Interface 5 Workflow Enactment Service Other Workflow

Enactment Service(s)

Worklist

Handler

Interface 3 Interface 2

Invoked

Applications

Tool Agent

Process Definition Import/Export

Client

Apps

Legacy,

Desktop, etc

Workflow

Engine(s) Workflow

Engine(s)

History Behind XPDL 2.0

Implementation of Interface 1 • Interchange of process definitions between different tools and vendors

viewed as essential

WPDL (Workflow Process Definition Language) • Text based (predated XML) definition

• Published November 1998

XDPL 1.0 • Popularity of XML and use for defining document formats for the Internet

• Experience in using WPDL

• Retained semantics of WPDL

• New Syntax using XML Schema

• Published October 2002

Neither WPDL or XPDL proposed graphical representation • Based on Directed Graph structure

• Activities = Nodes

• Transitions = Edges

Origins of BPMN

Developed by members of BPMI.org

• Business Process Management Initiative

• BPMI.org merged with OMG June 2005

• www.bpmn.org, www.omg.org

Encompasses techniques employed in flowcharts

Unify and extend graphics to express semantics required by

• Workflow Processes

• EAI Processes

Drawn on expertise from different modelling disciplines

• UML Activity Diagram, UNL EDOC Business Processes, IDEF, ebXML BPSS, Activity-Decision Flow (ADF) Diagram, RosettaNet, LOVeM, Event Process Chains (EPCs)

Origins of BPMN

Graphical Notation to express Business Processes

Aimed at both Technical and Business Users

• Facilitate communication between users of complex business

processes

• Readily understandable by all business users

• Business Analysts create initial drafts of processes

• Technical developers implementing processes

• Business people manage and monitor processes

Includes Mapping between Graphic Notation and

constructs of BPM Execution Languages e.g. WS-BPEL

Does not specify a mechanism for storage

BPMN 1.0 Published May 2004

An Example of BPMN from XPDL Spec

Credit

Check

Fill Order

BPMN Scope

Only supports modelling concepts that are applicable to Business Processes

Does not include

• Organizational structures and resources

• Functional breakdowns

• Data and information models

• Strategy

• Business Rules

Relationships between BPMN and other high-level business modelling will be defined at some later date

BPMN shows flow of data and association of data to Artifacts

• But it’s not a data flow diagram

Uses of BPMN

Targeted at wide audience

Allows creation of end-to-end business processes

Three basic types of sub-model within an end-to-end

BPMN model

• Private (internal) business processes

• Internal to a specific organization

• Abstract (public) processes

• Represents interaction between a private business process and another process

or participant

• Only activities used to communicate outside the private business process are

included

• Collaboration (global) processes

• Represents interactions between 2 or more business entities

• Sequence of activities representing message exchange between entities

Origins of XPDL 2.0

Includes enhancements based on feedback received on XPDL 1.0

Includes support for BPMN constructs

Provides a mechanism to store process definitions drawn in BPMN

• BPMN does not provide this

Indirectly provides support for BPEL

• BPMN provides support for BPEL

• XPDL provides support for BPMN

XPDL 2.0 is compatible with XPDL 1.0

• Some minor exceptions – see later

Published October 2005

Uses of XPDL 2.0

Internal Process Definition Format for Workflow and

BPM products

Import/Export Format to exchange Process Definitions

between components in a Workflow/BPM Product Suite

Exchange Format for Process Definition interchange

between different BPM/Workflow Products

• Demonstrated by WfMC member organizations at public events

Exchange Format for Process Definition interchange

between Process Modeling and Simulation tools and

BPM/WorkflowProducts

• IDS Scheer’s ARIS Toolset

• Zynium’s Visio based converters

Purposes of XPDL

XPDL is extensible

• Handle information used by a variety of different tools

Different dialects of XPDL

• Use extended attributes to define vendor specific features

Different XML dialects

• BPEL -> XPDL

• Vendor specific exports to other tools

Can use XSLT transforms to convert one dialect to another

Organizations Supporting XPDL

ADVANTYS WorkflowGen www.workflowgen.com

Amazonas Workflow www.objeng.ch

BOC ADONIS 3.7 www.boc-eu.com

InProces from Brein BV www.brein.nl

CapeVisions (Global 360) www.capevisions.com/

CARNOT Process Engine www.carnot.ag/index-en.htm

ComActivity www.comactivity.net

Organizations Supporting XPDL Cont’d

Enhydra Shark shark.enhydra.org

Enhydra JaWE jawe.enhydra.org

e.POWER WorkManager Builder by Integic www.integic.com

Finantix Studio (FXS) www.soluta.net

Fuego www.fuego.com/support/faqs.html#110

Fujitsu Interstage BPM (i-Flow)

www.fujitsu.com/global/services/software/interstage/products/bpm/

Fujitsu Interstage Business Process Manager Studio

www.fujitsu.com/global/services/software/interstage/wnew/pr120605.h

tml

Process Modeler by ITP-Commerce www.itp-

commerce.com/index.php?pageid=B_001_12_1

Organizations Supporting XPDL Cont’d

IT Pearls www.itpearls.com

Lynx Flow Designer by Eclaire www.cynthia-tech.com/web/pro_sol/pro_sol_flowdesign.html

Metoda S.p.A, OpenMet BPMF www.metoda.it

Nautica nautica.sourceforge.jp/docs/reference/designertool/resource/japanese/index.html

OfficeObjects®WorkFlow www.rodan.pl

Ontology (BPMO) by Jenz & Partner GmbH www.bpiresearch.com/Resources/RE_OSSOnt/re_ossont.htm

Open Business Engine sourceforge.net/projects/obe, obe.sourceforge.net/

Oracle9i Warehouse Builder 9.2 otn.oracle.com/products/warehouse/htdocs/datasheet92.htm

Organizations Supporting XPDL Cont’d

Simprocess www.simprocess.com

Tell-Eureka www.telleureka.com/technology/

TIBCO® Staffware Process Suite 10.3

www.tibco.com/software/process_management/staffware_

processsuite.jsp

Vignette Process Workflow Modeler

www.vignette.com/Downloads/DS_ProcessWorkflowModel

.pdf

WfMOpen wfmopen.sf.net

ZAPLET 3, PROCESS BUILDER

www.zaplet.com/Pages/articles/ProcessBuilder.pdf

XPDL 2.0 Conformance

Conformance for process definition import / export is essentially based upon conformance to the XPDL grammar

There is a mandatory minimum set of objects which must be supported within XPDL

There is a wide variation of capabilities in modelling tools

An individual tool might conform to XPDL 2.0 but not be able to swap complete definitions with all other conforming products

A product that claims conformance must generate valid, syntactically correct XPDL, and must be able to read valid XPDL files

A valid, syntactically correct XPDL file, must conform and validate against the XPDL schema.

BPMN Conformance

Visual Appearance of the BPMN Graphical Elements

• Shape and Icons – tools must conform to shapes and markers

• There is flexibility size, color, line size and text positions

• Can make extensions with new markers or indicators • Must not conflict with existing elements

• Must not change basic shape of graphical elements and markers

Semantics of the BPMN Elements

• Defines how elements interact with each other

Exchange of BPMN Diagrams between Conformant Tools

• Specification doesn’t define mechanism for exchange

• That’s where XPDL 2.0 comes to the rescue!

Conformant implementation is not required to process any non-normative extension elements or attributes

Finding XPDL and Related Information

WfMC Website

• http://www.wfmc.org

• http://www.wfmc.org/standards/XPDL.htm

OMG Website

• http://www,omg.org

• http://www.bpmn.org