management of steps in a business process

[mwsachs@us.ibm.com]

This is a response to the posting, by Jacques Mercey 10 Jul 2000 15:08:39
+0100 in which it states

> Concerning Business Process Definition, they define Steps. But nobody is
> declared to be responsible to the triggering and management of theses
> Steps. In short, there is no contract between parties to manage the
steps.
> Who is responsible to launch the next transaction?

tpaML contains sequencing rules in its business protocol layer which
defines the order in which each party can issue specific requests to the
other party. Hence a tpaML TPA contains the contract between parties to
manage the steps.

The business protocol layer of tpaML is in the same architectural layer as
the ebXML business process definition.  Conceptually at least, the business
protocol layer ought to be able to be derived from the BP model for a given
business process.

By means of a proof-of-concept B2B server prototype at IBM Research, we
have explored a number of issues involved in identifiers and long-running
conversations.  This prototype was discussed in a paper in the 1998
European Conference on Digital Libraries and Electronic Commerce (Delos
98).  I can provide reprints on request.

Regards,
Marty

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Notes address:  Martin W Sachs/Watson/IBM
Internet address:  mwsachs @ us.ibm.com
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