Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)

Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) is a XML-based language used to define enterprise business processes within Web services.
Every company has its unique way of defining its business process flow.
The key objective of BPEL is to standardize the format of business process flow definition so companies can work together seamlessly using Web services.
BPEL extends the Web services interaction model and enables it to support business transactions.
BPEL is based on Web services in the sense that each of the business process involved is assumed to be implemented as a Web service.
Processes written in BPEL can orchestrate interactions between Web services using XML documents in a standardized manner.
These processes can be executed on any platform or product that complies with the BPEL specification.

BPEL supports two different types of business processes:

•Executable processes: Models the actual behavior of a participant in a business interaction.
They follow the orchestration paradigm and can be executed by an orchestration engine.

•Abstract processes: Uses process descriptions that specify the mutually visible message exchange behavior of each of the parties involved in the protocol, without revealing their internal behavior.
BPEL is used to model the behavior of both executable and abstract processes

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)

The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a standardized graphical notation for drawing business processes in a workflow.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is the standard for modeling business processes and web service processes.
BPMN is a core enabler of Business Process Management (BPM), a new initiative in enterprise architecture, which is concerned with managing change to improve business processes.

BPMN provides a number of advantages to modeling business processes over the Unified Modeling Language (UML). First, it offers a process flow modeling technique that is more conducive to the way business analysts model. Second, its solid mathematical foundation is expressly designed to map to business execution languages, whereas UML is not. BPMN can map to UML and provide a solid business modeling front end to systems design with UML.

BPMN, which maps directly to BPEL, was developed with a solid mathematical foundation - the Pi-Calculus branch of Process Calculi.
This is a formal method of computation for dynamic and mobile processes which ensures that business processes can be directly mapped to any business modeling executable languages for immediate execution.

PNMsoft provides rich and comprehensive support for Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). Live workflows can be exported as BPEL or BPMN files.
BPEL and BPMN files can be imported into SEQUENCE to create live workflows.
SEQUENCE provides an activation layer which enables users to generate applications based on BPMN and BPEL modeling.

For more about BPEL & BPMN, contact us or request our white paper