Re: [ebxml-bp] [ebBP] 11/6/2003: Defintions for Discussion - Comments Please

["David RR Webber" <david@drrw.info>]

Monica,

I'd also like to add some business-centric terms here:

1) Process Action : familar business statement of purpose for a set of steps
that result in a descreet part of an overall collaboration being
accomplished.  e.g. Confirm Parts Availability; Place Order Details; Confirm
Shipment Details.

2) Process Step : component part of a Process Action expressed as a single
step that constitutes a binary interaction with deterministic inputs, roles,
outcomes and outputs.

3) Role : business purpose or service of a participant.

The aim here is to have a vocabulary that business users can understand, and
to have equivalence to the technical IT terms.  e.g. instead of asking
someone to complete the choreography and orchestrations for the business
collaboration - we can say simply - the industry workflow for this task, or
the WalMart workflow for this task.

I'm just offering up some strawman items here - to foster thoughts in this
area and then hopefully we can agree to formal usage terms as we are
formalizing the equivalent IT terms.

Thanks, DW.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Monica J. Martin" <Monica.Martin@Sun.COM>
To: <ebxml-bp@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2003 11:20 PM
Subject: [ebxml-bp] [ebBP] 11/6/2003: Defintions for Discussion - Comments
Please


> I was asked in Monday's meeting to provide definitions for BUSINESS
> PROCESS, BUSINESS COLLABORATION and BUSINESS TRANSACTION. We also had a
> request by Jean-Jacques for definitions for CHOREOGRAPHY and
> ORCHESTRATION (outside of the purview of BPSS).  I'd like to encourage
> your comments (and additions/corrections) so we have a common baseline
> of definitions as we look at them in the context of BPSS:
>
> Business Process is a set of activities that are accomplished in
> operating business practices to achieve a business goal. A Business
> Process might be either an intra-organizational process or a
> collaborative business process conducted by two or more parties.   A
> collaborative process can occur across domains of control.
>
> Business Process Activity is a unit of work conducted by one (or more
> parties in case of a collaborative business process) for the purpose of
> achieving a business objective and can be conducted with time as a
> constraint or business rule. Business Process Activities are intended to
> capture existing or planned business practices.  Business process
> activities are included in a business process.
>
> Business Collaboration is a special type of business process or activity
> that is conducted by two or more parties to achieve a commonly defined
> goal or outcome. Accordingly, a business collaboration is a synonym for
> collaborative business process.  At a high level a business
> collaboration consists of a set of roles collaborating through a set of
> choreographed transactions by exchanging business documents.: A business
> collaboration typically occurs across domains of control. When a
> business collaboration occurs between business partners, each plays one
> or more roles in the collaboration.
>
> A Business Transaction represents an atomic unit of work in a trading
> arrangement between two business partners. A business transaction
> includes a set of business information and business signal exchanges
> amongst two business partners that must occur in an agreed format,
> sequence and time period. In this interaction, the two parties playing
> opposite roles in the transaction.
>
> A Business Transaction Activity occurs when the Business Transaction and
> roles are defined for a specific purpose.
>
> The Business Collaboration Choreography describes the ordering and
> transitions between business transactions or sub collaborations within a
> binary collaboration (sequencing rules and dependencies).
>
> An Orchestration can be a choreography definition seen from a single
> party point of view (for example, by a conductor) or where the
> defiinition is executed by the service requester and provider as planned
> (where centralized control applies).
>
>