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AS OF 7/4/2008 8:32PM EST
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July 1, 2006 —
At its technical meeting in Boston in late June, Object Management Group was expected to review the proposed specification for version 2.0 of the Business Process Modeling Notation standard, with capabilities that some say could make the widely adopted Business Process Execution Language redundant.
With the vote for adoption expected in September, BPMN 2.0 will allow BPMN diagrams created in one tool to run in others that comply with the standard. And enabling interoperability at the diagram level—instead of at the code level—raises questions as to how Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) will fit in.
“Once you can share BPMN across tools, that significantly reduces the need for BPEL,” said Deepak Singh, CTO of Adeptia, a Chicago-based company that sells business process management software.
BPMN is a graphical notation spec that defines a common way to depict business processes, using standard shapes—circles, rectangles with rounded corners and diamonds—and various types of connecting lines to indicate how the shapes are related. BPMN 1.0, adopted last year, specifies compliance at the shape level, explained Jeanne Baker, chair of the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI), the OMG steering committee responsible for BPMN. But there is no way to share diagrams across products from different tool makers, she said.
BPMN originated in 2004 as a way for people who aren’t programmers to graphically depict the steps involved in business processes. While BPMN is not a replacement for BPEL—BPMN expresses a process, while BPEL executes a process—noted Baker, BPMN addresses a key shortcoming of BPEL. The execution language has no way to describe the human steps typically involved in business processes.
BPMN is essentially an abstraction layer for the business user. But it also serves as the interface for developers, said Adeptia’s Singh. “Business people create process flows, while [developers] expand them,” adding detail to enable the behind-the-scenes integration to take place, he said.
Goodbye, BPEL?
BPMN doesn’t come with built-in BPEL mappings, noted Phil Gilbert, CTO for Lombardi, an Austin, Texas-based maker of business process management software. “But tools that support BPMN, including those of Adeptia and Lombardi, among others, generate BPEL code. That’s largely because BPEL is a widely accepted standard,” said Gilbert. But there is no reason why BPMN couldn’t generate code in other languages. “If a BPMN-based picture accurately reflects the business process, the means of execution is irrelevant,” he said. “Code can be anything. It can be Java. It can be C.”
Gilbert believes BPMN 2.0 spells the end for BPEL designers because instead of interoperating at the code level, tools will exchange information at the model level. “Everyone is moving to this notation. BPMN is the de facto standard,” he said.
Analyst Bruce Silver, who heads an Aptos, Calif.-based consultancy of the same name, agreed. “In 18 to 24 months, no one will use BPEL designers.”
An estimated 40 tool makers support BPMN, according to OMG chairman and CEO Richard Soley. IBM counts itself among that number, but the company doesn’t believe BPMN 2.0 will make BPEL unnecessary.
“There’s a huge future for BPEL,” said IBM’s director of business process management, Inhi Cho. “You can’t do BPMN alone.” The details of how to enable the interchange of the modeling notation haven’t been worked out yet, she said, referring to Business Process Definition Metamodel (BPDM), a specification currently under development at the OMG. BPDM will define a repository for BPMN diagrams.
Cho also believes that BPEL will be extended to support interaction between people. Adeptia’s Singh didn’t disagree. “BPEL has to evolve to become a complete language,” he said.
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