An XML Interchange Format for ETL Models

Abstract

ETL tools are responsible for extracting, transforming and loading data from data sources into a data warehouse. Each ETL tool has its own model for specifying ETL processes. This makes it difficult to interchange ETL designs. Entire ETL workflows must be redesigned in order to migrate them from one tool to another. It has therefore become increasingly important to have a single conceptual model for ETL processes which is interchangeable between tools. Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) has been widely accepted as a standard for specifying business processes. For this reason, it has been proposed as an efficient conceptual model of ETL processes. In this paper, we present BEXF, an Extensible Markup Language (XML) interchange format for BPMN4ETL, an extended BPMN model for ETL. It is a format powerful enough the express and interchange BPMN4ETL model information across tools that are compliant with BPMN 2.0. This XML interchange format does not only describe the control flow of ETL processes but also the data flow.