A semantics-based protocol for business process transactions

Abstract

A Business Process Management System (BPMS) requires transaction management to guarantee reliability of the business process transactions. Several transaction protocols have been suggested for the transaction management, but they are heterogeneous. This heterogeneity interrupts message exchanges among BPMSs which use different transaction protocols, so that the interoperability among the BPMSs cannot be guaranteed. To solve this problem, this paper suggests a semantics-based protocol for business process transactions. The suggested protocol is composed of the static semantics and the operational semantics. In the context of the static semantics, transaction states and messages are defined using the Web Ontology Language (OWL). In the context of the operational semantics, state transitions of business process transactions are defined using the Abstract State Machine (ASM). The suggested approach is expected to enhance interoperability among heterogeneous BPMSs, to increase the understandability for the transaction protocols, and to support automatic transaction execution and systematic transaction monitoring. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.