[ebxml-bp] ebXML Business Processes and Execution Summary For Today'sDiscussion

["Monica J. Martin" <Monica.Martin@Sun.COM>]

I've constructed a summary of the multiple discussions that have 
occurred surrounding execution and hope we can begin to provide some 
scoping in today's meeting (Monday, 10 Nov, 1 p.m. PST). Thank you to 
everyone that contributed to this thread and further inputs are welcome 
today or via the list.

Where does execution fit for BPSS - what are the boundaries?
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A Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS) instance is a computable 
representation of the interaction between two or more trading partners. 
The BPSS
has design and run-time aspects.[1]  The BPSS describes the visible 
collaboration between the parties, not the binding or partner specific 
run-time systems.

In the BPSS, the Business Service Interface (BSI) is the runtime 
software that can isolate the internal communications of a given legacy 
or other application
from the collaboration model, and once built represent the party in a 
collaboration model. The BSI should be deployable into the run-time 
system, where the instance
document can be used to configure it to execute and monitor the business 
process it describes. The BPSS technical specification can or will support:

    * Business state (for business process and message exchange
      choreography): Ensure state transitions are well formed and fully
      defined.
    * Businesss semantics [2]
    * Business entity types

[1] Provide sufficient support for binary and multi-party collaboration.
[2] Those within the scope of BPSS or can be referenced from a normative 
source.

Items to resolve:
1. Difference between object and process state and how to marry/resolve
2. Any visualization support
3. Context support and where that lies
4. How do business rules impact the transaction, state transitions, etc?
5. Is a separate configuration document to link the Business Transaction 
Activity with some legacy system that would generate/consume the 
business documents needed?
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Discussion Summary

    * Lemmetty: BPSS-configured layer acts as a curtain between
      organizations stage and backstage. BPSS describes what happens on
      the (visible to partners) stage. Whatever is bound to the curtains
      backstage, is not necessarily visible to others. Since BPSS is
      shared among partners and they might have different
      runtime-systems, any binding-information (which might be
      partner-specific) should be in separate definition instance.
    * Yunker: By allowing conceptual "business" state to guard the
      transitions, and then allowing both standard and partner specific
      definition of those states, we could truly extend the BPSS to be
      "business process" and not just "message exchange choreography".
    * Webber: Question if context and capability should be placed in the
      implementation layer (reference to BCM choice points).
    * Tell: An efficient way is to attach "effects" to transactions. It
      would be a huge step forward in term of creating a "business"
      protocol if business semantics were to be found in transactions
      etc. Just the name of and identified document types and
      transaction types are not enough.

Observations

    * 11/4: Touches on visibility of the collaboration or specific
      transactions for MPC.
    * 11/6: Two parties need the capability to see and and dynamically
      align/agree with underlying business logic (which will likely be
      not apparent in the BPSS). How does this affect the business rules
      that can impact/direct the collaboration steps and the states that
      can/do occur?
    * 11/6: Suggestion to add more support in BPSS for visual
      diagramming. Is this a white paper vs. a specification requirement?
    * 11/7: Need to include some understanding of Business Entity Types
      in BPSS (identified in previous specification development) by
      allowing the BPSS to reference named states of business objects
      (e.g. Shipment is Delivered), and then layering the definition of
      "Delivered" (rule expression) in the business agreement (being
      addressed by UBAC).

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