1 Web Services Composition and Business Process Management Kuyul Noh

2 Agenda 1. Introduction 2. Web Services Compositions 3. Business Process Management 4. Case Studies 5. Conclusion

3 1. Introduction Web Services : Self Contained, Modular Business Applications, Industry Standard Technologies WSDL: to describe UDDI: to advertise and syndicate SOAP: to communicate These enable users to connect different components even across organizational boundaries in a platform and language-independent manner. Is it enough?

4 1. Introduction Web Services ( WSDL + UDDI + SOAP) No definition of the business semantics of Web services. No consideration of the communication between Web services No definition about fault handling No … orchestration, collaboration No … complex functionality, human-centric workflow … Needs something more to manage business process

5 1. Introduction Business Process A business process specifies the potential execution order of operations from a collection of Web services, the data shared between these Web services, which partners are involved and how they are involved in the business process, joint exception handling for collections of Web services, and other issues involving how multiple services and organizations participate. Requirements Long-running transactions, Consistency, Reliability, Transparency, … Needs Web service composition The ability of one business to provide value-added services through composition of basic Web services, possibly offered by different companies. From Business processes in a Web services world:A quick overview of BPEL4WS, IBM 2003

6 2. Web services composition Early Works

7 2. Web services composition eCo framework of CommerceNet Specify business processes and how they relate to Web services CommerceNet initially created the eCo framework Focus on the document exchanges required for B2B integration The specification had a vague notion of orchestration, showing how a process can be composed of web services Web Services Conversation Language (WSCL) Outlined a simple conversation language standard Focused on modeling the sequencing of interaction between web services This was somewhat analogous to web services choreography Early Works

8 2. Web services composition XLANG Specification for the Microsoft BizTalk Server Focused on the creation of business processes and the interactions between web service providers Provided support for sequential, parallel, and conditional process control flow Included a robust exception handling facility, with support for long- running transactions through compensation Used WSDL as a means to describe the service interface of a process. Early Works

9 2.Web services composition WSFL Describe both public and private process flows by IBM Defines a specific order of activities and data exchanges for a particular process. Defines both the execution sequence and the mapping of each step in the flow to specific operations, referred to as flow models and global models. The flow model represents the series of activities in the process, while the global model binds each activity to a specific web service instance A WSFL definition can also be exposed with a WSDL interface, allowing for recursive decomposition WSFL supports the handling of exceptions but has no direct support for transactions. Early Works

10 2. Web services composition BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) Specify business processes and how they relate to Web services Specify how a business process makes use of Web services Specify Web services that are provided by a business process Business processes in BPEL are executable and portable A BPEL business process interoperates with the Web services BPEL combines IBM's Web Services Flow Language and Microsoft's XLANG specifications, superceeding both these specifications.

11 2. Web services composition BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) web ser vices orchestration: a review of emerging technologies, tools, and standards by HP

12 2. Web services composition Process Definition for Java (PD4J) Provide binding to BPEL definitions and Java/J2EE runtimes, Also provides APIs that can potentially be used instead of BPEL to define all or part of process applications

13 2. Web services composition WSCI(Web Services Choreography Interface ) [Whiskey] A specification from Sun, SAP, BEA, and Intalio Defines an XML-based language for web services collaboration Defines the overall choreography describing the messages between web services that participate in a collaborative exchange. Supports message correlation, sequencing rules, exception handling, transactions, and dynamic collaboration. It only describes the observable or visible behavior between web services. Does not address the definition of executable business processes A single WSCI document only describes one partners participation in a message exchange.

14 2. Web services composition WSCI(Web Services Choreography Interface ) [Whiskey] include a set of WSCI documents, one for each partner in the interaction no single controlling process managing the interaction.

15 2. Web services composition BPML(Business Process Management Language) A meta-language for describing business processes Developed by Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org), an independent organization chartered by Intalio, Sterling Commerce, Sun, CSC, and others. Support business processes that could be executed by a BPMS system. incorporated the WSCI protocol WSCI could be used to describe the public interactions and choreographies and the private implementations could be developed with BPML Both BPML and WSCI share the same underlying process execution model and similar syntaxes Includes both transactional support and exception handling mechanisms.

16 2. Web services composition BPML(Business Process Management Language) BPEL primarily focuses on the creation of executable business processes. BPEL takes more of an inside-out perspective, describing an executable process from the perspective of one of the partners. WSCI is concerned with the public message exchanges between web services. WSCI takes more of a collaborative and choreographed approach, requiring each participant in the message exchange to define a WSCI interface. WSCI is now considered a part of BPML, with WSCI defining the interactions between the services and BPML defining the business processes behind each service. BPML has some complimentary components to BPEL4WS, both providing capabilities to define a business process.

17 2. Web services composition Comparison of BPEL, XLANG, WSFL, BPML and WSCI From Analysis of Web Services Composition Languages: The Case of BPEL4WS Petia Wohed1? Wil M.P. van der Aalst2 Marlon Dumas3 Arthur H.M. ter Hofstede3

18 2.Web services composition Comparison of BPEL, BPML and WSCI BPEL primarily focuses on the creation of executable business processes, WSCI is concerned with the public message exchanges between web services. BPML has some complimentary components to BPEL4WS, both providing capabilities to define a business process. WSCI is now considered a part of BPML defining the business processes behind each service.

19 2.Web services composition Comparison of BPEL, BPML and WSCI BPEL primarily focuses on the creation of executable business processes, WSCI is concerned with the public message exchanges between web services. BPML has some complimentary components to BPEL4WS, both providing capabilities to define a business process. WSCI is now considered a part of BPML defining the business processes behind each service.

20 3. Business Proess Management Event-driven integration characterized by orchestrated, application- oriented workflow across multiple internal applications and/or between trading partners. At the high end, BPM solutions include human-centric workflow, business analytics, use of business process templates and other features. These solutions are normally layered on top of enterprise application integration (EAI) technology. Defining Business Process Management, Giga Research 2003 Definition of Business Process Management

21 3. Business Process Management Trend of Business Process Management

22 3. Business Proess Management BPEL (Business Process Execution Language): most significant BPM standard. BPEL will be widely supported in the future as the specification evolves. BPML (Business Process Modeling Language): BPML has been effectively eclipsed by BPEL. BPMN (Business Process Management Notation): a notation standard (e.g., set of icons and graphics) for modeling business processes, to use common modeling graphics across business process modeling tools and the modeling capabilities within BPM products. Wf-XML: Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) built upon OASIS ASAP, Provides interoperability between BPM engines, making it possible to execute long-running business processes that span multiple engines. XPDL: A business process definition language that describes an entire process and was originally designed as an interchange standard between modeling tools and BPM systems. XPDL is used by many vendors to integrate BPM components for process modeling, execution, and control within their product. Reletive standards of Business Process Management

23 3. Business Process Management

24 3. Business Process Management IBM WebSphere Business Integration Modeler

25 3. Business Process Management TIBCO BusinessWorks

26 4. Case Studies ( case) A B2Bi collaboration system with dealers Business Requirements Real time information interaction from small dealer company without human involvement Purchase Information synchronization for the Inventory optimization Resale Information Sharing Flexible system infrastructure by the change of business Require high security about data interaction Optimization of Intra EAI Infrastructure Adopted technologies Web Services: SOAP, WSDL (UDDI was not implemented) Business Process Management: BPML WSFL ETC: SSL

27 4. Case Studies ( case) System Architecture: The combination of Web Services and BPM

28 4. Case Study ( case) Benefit of combination of BPM and Web Services Utilization of existing systems Live sharing of data and functionality Reduction of Redundancy Complexity Maintenance costs Project risks Increase of agility

29 4. Case Study (CNP Case) Company Overview Frances leading life, health and pension insurance company Premium income of billion in million policy holders Savings, pensions and personal risk Individual and group products Distribution strategy based on partnerships with La Poste, Saving banks, financial institutions. Application landscape Different backend systems: IBM Z/OS and 390, Bull GCOS 8/7, Linux Home grown middleware + Tuxedo Various packaged systems Multiple COBOL applications J2EE development, Portal based applications More details:

30 4. Case Study (CNP Case) Objective Selection of strategic development platform as the base for future applications Long-term renovation roadmap 7 x 24 Flexible indirect sales channels SOA Strategy based on Prima Platform Insurance Reference Model Business Rules BPM (based on BPEL) Service Orchestration Framework (based on BPEL) SOA Integration Framework More details:

31 4. Case Study (CNP Case) System Architecture More details:

32 4. Case Study (CNP Case) Software Layer Enterprise Layer Process Layer Intermediary Layer Basic Layer Prima Platform Portal Framework Business Process Management Service Orchestration Business Service Integration Customers backend systems Individual frontend channels Reference Model

33 5. Conclusion Many Web services specification are still in progress. BPEL is important standard of business process orchestration. Web service composition provides significant benefits to the business Web Services technology let the BPM evolve more mature. Web Services and BPM are complement one another.

34 References WSCI, Web Service Choreography Interface. WSCL, Web Services Conversation Language. BPEL4WS, Business Process Execution Language for Web Services. Web Service Coordination(WS-Coordination), Web Services FlowLanguage(WSFL1.0), Prima Solutions Arkin, A., (2002) Business ProcessModelingLanguage Chris Paletz Web Services Orchestration. A review of emerging technologies, tools and standards, Hewllett Packard White Paper, January 2003 Business Process Management Standards Alphabet Soup, Forrester 2004 Defining Business Process Management, Giga Research 2003

35 Question?