Re: [ebxml-bp] comments on ebBP FAQ

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

>st. amand: Sacha
>....schlegel: What is the actual value of using business signals? It seems it needs a lot of infrastructure to a) monitor them and b) to handle exceptions.
>
>You mention it is used for state alignment, what state are you talking about?
>   
>st. amand: State alignment is when parties in the Business Transaction see the same business activity. This provides confidence to the parties that they can collaborate/do business. Not only does state alignment provide confidence but it has been codified in many legal systems as a requirement for a legal agreement. Since we want ebBP to have the ability to conduct legal transactions we are providing facilites to enable it. The Business Signal is computable so it known at any point in the process the activity being engaged in by the participants. This is important in order to think of the ebBP spec as having commercial viability.
>
mm1: Sally, please remember the lengthy and detailed discussions we had 
on hasLegalIntent attribute and the specific verbiage in the technical 
specification.

change to: State alignment is when parties in the Business Transaction 
mutually understand same business activity. This provides confidence to 
the parties that they can collaborate/do business. Not only does state 
alignment provide assurance but it may be codified in other ways to 
evidence the expectations of the parties. Since we want ebBP to have the 
ability to conduct intentional transactions we are providing facilites 
to support providing that capability. The Business Signal is computable 
so it known at any point in the process the activity being engaged in by 
the parties. This is important in order to think of the ebBP spec as 
having business viability whether in government, commercial industry or 
other domains.

>>schlegel: can an ebBP instance be executed by an execution engine?...
>>    
>>
>st. amand:  The software that manages the rules and configuration parameters of an ebBP instance is a BSI. Part of the managing is monitoring to insure that the expectations of the parties are adhered to and if not that the appropriate action is taken. A BSI manages a party’s participation in the collaboration.
>
mm1: This is close. A BSI logically may manage more as it can support 
the glue across collaborating parties and supporting systems (reference 
previous questions by Sacha re: synchronization with backend systems, 
services, etc). Events and information could be available to the BSI to 
support this model.

>schlegel:  MUST the actual message flow between trading partner follow exactly the choreography defined in the ebPB? should the ebBP be enforced?
>  
>
>st. amand:  The parties in the collaboration define the choreography in the ebBP including contingencies for when expected actions do not occur.
>
mm1: As optimal for the parties, the collaboration does specify expected 
action regardless if the result is success or failure, including 
contingency for catastrophic event.

>>schlegel: can an ebBP also be used for other things? The ebBP is a great help to document the collaborative business process and then communicate these collaborative business processes to your trading partners. So it defenitely can be used as a documentation tool. Another usage of ebBP's is to drive a portion of the ebXML CPA management process, if you are using the ebXML CPA component at all.
>>    
>>
>st. amand:  An ebBP can be used for collaboration between parties, collaborations between business partners is the most frequent utilization, and is consistent with the original intent of the ebXML framework. But other purposes can be served by the ebBP specification. For example, ebBP can be used to document collaborative business processes.
>
mm1: Change to:

An ebBP can be used between collaborating parties, while business partners is the most frequent utilization, and is consistent with the original intent of the ebXML framework. The ebBP specification can also serve other use cases. For example, ebBP can be used to represent business processes where collaborating parties or business partners express their shared understanding and expectations.