Business Process Modeling Language
BPML 1.0 Last Call Working Draft


Authors:
Assaf Arkin, Intalio

Copyright © 2002, BPMI.org. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract
The Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) specification provides an abstract model for
expressing business processes and supporting entities. BPML defines a formal model for expressing
abstract and executable processes that address all aspects of enterprise business processes,
including activities of varying complexity, transactions and their compensation, data management,
concurrency, exception handling and operational semantics. BPML also provides a grammar in the
form of an XML Schema for enabling the persistence and interchange of definitions across
heterogeneous systems and modeling tools.

Status of this Document
This document is the last call working draft of the BPML 1.0 specification submitted for comments by
the public on June 24, 2002. It has been produced by members of the BPML working group.
Comments on this document and discussions of this document should be sent to
bpml-publicreview@bpmi.org.
This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced, or made obsolete by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to refer to this document as other than “work in progress”.

BPML Working Draft June 24, 2002
Copyright © 2002, BPMI.org. All Rights Reserved. 2 / 67
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4
1.1. Conventions 4
1.1.1. Notational Conventions 4
1.1.2. Notations for schema components 4
1.1.3. Use of namespaces 5
1.2. Dependency on Other Specifications 5
1.3. Terminology 6
1.4. Use of Documentation 7
1.5. XML Values 8
2. Packages ..................................................................................................................................... 9
2.1. Package Syntax 9
2.2. Conformance 11
3. Activities and Processes ............................................................................................................ 12
3.1. Activities 12
3.1.1. Activity Type 12
3.1.2. Activity Context 13
3.1.3. Activity Set 13
3.1.4. Atomic and Complex 13
3.1.5. Activity Types 14
3.1.6. Activity Instance 14
3.2. Processes 15
3.2.1. Instantiation 15
3.2.2. Top-Level and Nested 16
3.2.3. Process Definition 17
3.2.4. Input/Output Parameter 18
3.2.5. Process Instance 19
4. Contexts and Properties............................................................................................................. 22
4.1. Contexts 22
4.1.1. Local Definitions 22
4.1.2. Context 23
4.2. Properties 24
4.2.1. Property Definition 25
4.2.2. Assignments 26
4.2.3. Selectors 27
4.3. Expressions 29
4.4. Functions 30
4.5. Instance Properties 30
4.6. Instance Functions 31
5. Exceptions and Transactions..................................................................................................... 34
5.1. Exception Handling 34
5.1.1. Behavior 34
5.1.2. Faults 35