Skip to main content
Log in

Evaluating the appropriateness of the BPMN 2.0 standard for modeling service choreographies: using an extended quality framework

  • Regular Paper
  • Published:
Software & Systems Modeling Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The concept of choreography has emerged over the past years as a foundational concept for capturing and managing collaborative business processes. The latest version of the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN 2.0) adopts choreography as a first-class citizen. However, it remains an open question whether BPMN 2.0 is actually appropriate for capturing this concept. In this paper, we extend an existing language evaluation framework in order to evaluate the support for choreographies in BPMN 2.0. The framework provides a means of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of BPMN 2.0 for choreographies. We also give potential solutions that may be taken into account in future extensions or improvements to BPMN 2.0.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
Fig. 18

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. http://www.rosettanet.org/.

  2. http://goo.gl/AsvO7.

  3. http://www.omg.org/issues/bpmn2-rtf.open.html#Issue16554.

  4. http://www.jboss.org/savara.

  5. http://www.choreos.eu/bin/Main/.

  6. http://www.signavio.com/.

  7. http://www.eclipse.org/bpmn2-modeler/.

  8. http://research.linagora.com/display/easiercos.

  9. http://www.nomagic.com/products/cameo-business-modeler.html.

  10. http://www.eclipse.org/bpmn2-modeler/.

References

  1. Ambler, S.: The Elements of UML 2.0 Style. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. Barker, A., Walton, C., Robertson, D.: Choreographing web services. IEEE Trans. Serv. Comput. 2(2), 152–166 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Barros, A., Decker, G., Dumas, M.: Multi-staged and multi-viewpoint service choreography modelling. In: Proceedings Workshop on Software Engineering Methods for Service Oriented Architecture (SEMSOA), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 244 (2007)

  4. Barros, A., Decker, G., Dumas, M., Weber, F.: Correlation patterns in service-oriented architectures. In: Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, pp. 245–259 (2007)

  5. Barros, A., Dumas, M., Hofstede, A.: Service interaction patterns. In: Aalst W., Benatallah, B., Casati, F., Curbera, F. (eds.) Business Process Management, 3rd International Conference, BPM 2005,. Lecture Notes in COmputer Science, vol. 3649, pp. 302–318. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). doi:10.1007/1153839420

  6. Barros, A., Dumas, M., Oaks, P.: A critical overview of the web services choreography description language. BPTrends Newsl. 3 1–24 (2005). http://www.pbtrends.com

  7. Barros, A., Hettel, T., Flender, C.: Process choreography modeling. In: Brocke, J., Rosemann, M. (eds.) Handbook on Business Process Management 1, International Handbooks on Information Systems. pp. 257–277. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-00416-212

  8. Biron, P., Malhotra, A., Consortium, W.W.W., et al.: Xml Schema Part 2: Datatypes. World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xmlschema-2-20041028 (2004)

  9. Cook, T., Reichardt, C.: UML, vol. 1. Sage publications, London (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cortes-Cornax, M.: Service choreographies through a graphical notation based on abstraction layers and viewpoints. In: 2011 Fifth International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), IEEE, pp. 1–12 (2011)

  11. Cortes-Cornax, M., Dupuy-Chessa, S., Rieu, D.: Bridging the gap between business processes and service composition through service choreographies. In: Engineering Methods in the Service-Oriented Context, pp. 190–203 (2011)

  12. Cortes-Cornax, M., Dupuy-Chessa, S., Rieu, D.: Choreographies in BPMN 2.0: new challenges and open questions. In: Schönberger, A., Kopp, O., Lohmann, N. (eds.) Proceedings of the 4th Central-European Workshop on Services and their Composition, vol. 847, pp. 50–57. CEUR (2012). http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-847/paper7.pdf

  13. Cortes-Cornax, M., Dupuy-Chessa, S., Rieu, D., Dumas, M.: Evaluating choreographies in bpmn 2.0 using an extended quality framework. In: Dijkman, R., Hofstetter, J., Koehler, J. (eds.) Business Process Model and Notation - Third International Workshop, BPMN 2011, Lucerne, Switzerland. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol. 95, pp. 103–117. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-25160-38

  14. D’Ambrogio, A., Bocciarelli, P.: A model-driven approach to describe and predict the performance of composite services. In: Cortellessa, V., Uchitel, S., Yankelevich, D. (eds.) WOOSP 2007 Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Software and Performance, pp. 78 -89. ACM (2007)

  15. Decker, G., Kopp, O., Barros, A.: An introduction to service choreographies. Inf. Technol. 50(2), 122–127 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Decker, G., Kopp, O., Leymann, F., Pfitzner, K., Weske, M.: Modeling service choreographies using bpmn and bpel4chor. In: Advanced Information Systems Engineering, pp. 79–93. Springer, Berlin (2008)

  17. Decker, G., Kopp, O., Leymann, F., Weske, M.: Interacting services: from specification to execution. Data & Knowl. Eng. 68(10), 946–972 (2009)

  18. Decker, G., Puhlmann, F.: Extending BPMN for modeling complex choreographies. In: Proceedings of the 2007 OTM Confederated international conference on On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: CoopIS, DOA, ODBASE, GADA, and IS-Volume Part I, pp. 24–40. Springer, Berlin (2007)

  19. Decker, G., Weske, M.: Interaction-centric modeling of process choreographies. Inf. Syst. 36, 292–312 (2011). doi:10.1016/j.is.2010.06.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Dijkman, R., Dumas, M.: Service-oriented design: a multi-viewpoint approach. Int. J. Coop. Inf. Syst. 13, 337–368 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. DIS, I.: 9241–210: 2009. Ergonomics of human system interaction-part 210: human-centred design for interactive systems. International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Switzerland (2010)

  22. Dobson, G., Lock, R., Sommerville, I.: QoSont: a QoS ontology for service-centric systems. In: 31st EUROMICRO Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, 2005, pp. 80–87. IEEE (2005)

  23. Dubray, J., Amand, S., Martin, M.: ebxml Business process specification schema technical specification v2. 0.4. Committee specification, UN/CEFACT (2006)

  24. Dupuy-Chessa, S.: Quality in ubiquitous information system design. In: Third International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science, 2009, RCIS 2009. pp. 343–352. IEEE (2009)

  25. Evitts, P.: A UML Pattern Language. New Riders Publishing, Thousand Oaks (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Genero, M., Piattini, M., Calero, C.: A survey of metrics for uml class diagrams. J. Object Technol. 4(9), 59–92 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Genon, N., Heymans, P., Amyot, D.: Analysing the Cognitive Effectiveness of the BPMN 2.0 Visual Notation. Software Language, Engineering, pp. 377–396 (2011)

  28. Hafner, M., Breu, R.: Realizing Model Driven Security for Inter-organizational Workflows with WS-CDL and UML 2.0. Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, pp. 39–53 (2005)

  29. Harel, D., Thiagarajan, P.: Message Sequence Charts, UML for Real. Springer, Berlin (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  30. ISO/IEC: 9126–1:2001: Software Engineering—Product Quality. International Organization for Standardization (2001)

  31. Koliadis, G., Ghose, A.: Relating business process models to goal-oriented requirements models in KAOS. In: Advances in Knowledge Acquisition and Management, pp. 25–39 (2006)

  32. Kopp, O., Leymann, F., Wagner, S.: Modeling Choreographies: BPMN 2.0 Versus BPEL-based approaches. In: Nüttgens, M., Oliver, T., Weber, B. (eds.) Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures: Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures, EMISA 2011, pp. 225–230. GI LNI (2011)

  33. Krogstie, J.: Evaluating UML using a generic quality framework. In: UML and the Unified Process (2003)

  34. Krogstie, J., de Flon Arnesen, S.: Assessing enterprise modeling languages using a generic quality framework. In: Krogstie, J., Halpin, T.A., Siau, K. (eds.) Information modeling methods and methodologies (1537–9299), pp. 63–79. Idea Group Publishing (2005)

  35. Krogstie, J., Sindre, G., Jørgensen, H.: Process models representing knowledge for action: a revised quality framework. Eur. J. Inf. Syst. 15(1), 91–102 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Le Pallec, X., Dupuy-Chessa, S., Dupuy, S.: Support for quality metrics in metamodelling. In: GMLD (Graphical Modeling Language Definition) Workshop@ ECFMA 2013 (2013)

  37. Lindland, O.I., Sindre, G., Solvberg, A.: Understanding quality in conceptual modeling. IEEE Softw. 11(2), 42–49 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Mancioppi, M., Perepletchikov, M., Ryan, C., van den Heuvel, W.J., Papazoglou, M.P.: Towards a quality model for choreography. In: Service-Oriented Computing. ICSOC/ServiceWave 2009 Workshops, pp. 435–444. Springer, Berlin (2010)

  39. Mandran, N., Dupuy-Chessa, S., Rieu, D., et al.: Démarche centrée utilisateur pour une ingénierie des langages de modélisation de qualité. Ingénierie des systèmes d’information 18(3) (2013)

  40. Moody, D.: The physics of notations: toward a scientific basis for constructing visual notations in software engineering. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 35, 756–779 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Nelson, H., Poels, G., Genero, M., Piattini, M.: A conceptual modeling quality framework. Softw. Qual. J. 20(1), 201–228 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Nysetvold, A.G., Krogstie, J.: Assessing business process modeling languages using a generic quality framework. In: Proceedings of the CAiSE’05 Workshops, pp. 545–556. Idea, Group (2005)

  43. OASIS: Web services business process execution language v2.0 (ws-bpel 2.0). http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=wsbpel (2007)

  44. OMG: Object Management Group. http://www.omg.org/ (1989)

  45. OMG: Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN 2.0). http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/ (2011)

  46. Peltz, C.: Web services orchestration and choreography. Computer pp. 46–52 (2003)

  47. Recker, J., Indulska, M., Rosemann, M., Green, P.: Do process modelling techniques get better? A comparative ontological analysis of BPMN. In: Proceedings of the 16th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Sydney, Australia. Citeseer (2005)

  48. Recker, J.C., Indulska, M., Rosemann, M., Green, P.: How good is BPMN really? Insights from theory and practice. In: Ljungberg, J., Andersson, M. (eds.) 14th European Conference on Information Systems. Goeteborg, Sweden (2006). http://eprints.qut.edu.au/4636/

  49. Rossi, M., Brinkkemper, S.: Complexity metrics for systems development methods and techniques. Inf. Syst. 21(2), 209–227 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Runeson, P., Höst, M.: Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering. Empir. Softw. Eng. 14(2), 131–164 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Schönberger, A.: Visualizing B2Bi choreographies. In: Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Service-Oriented Computing and Applications (SOCA’11), Irvine, California, USA. IEEE (2011)

  52. Schönberger, A., Wilms, C., Wirtz, G.: A requirements analysis of integration business to business integration. Technical Report, Otto-Friedrich-Universitt Bamberg, Bamberger Beitrge zur Wirtschaftsinformatik und Angewandten Informatik (2009)

  53. Siau, K., Cao, Q.: Unified modeling language: a complexity analysis. J. Database Manag. (JDM) 12(1), 26–34 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Silver, B.: BPMN Method and Style: A Levels-Based Methodology for BPM Process Modeling and Improvement Using BPMN 2.0. Cody-Cassidy Press, US (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  55. van der Aalst, W., Ter Hofstede, A., Kiepuszewski, B., Barros, A.: Workflow patterns. Distrib. Parallel Databases 14(1), 5–51 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. W3C: Web services choreography description language version 1.0 (ws-cdl)—w3c candidate recommendation. http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-ws-cdl-10-20041217/ (2005)

  57. Wahl, T., Sindre, G.: An analytical evaluation of BPMN using a semiotic quality framework. In: Advanced Topics in Database Research, vol. 5 (2006)

  58. Weidlich, M., Barros, A., Mendling, J., Weske, M.: Vertical alignment of process models - how can we get there? In: Halpin, T., Krogstie, J., Nurcan, S., Proper, E., Schmidt, R., Soffer, P., Ukor, R. (eds.) Enterprise, Business-Process and Information Systems Modeling. 10th International Workshop, BPMDS 2009, and 14th International Conference, EMMSAD 2009, and 14th International Conference, EMMSAD 2009, CAiSE 2009. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol. 29, pp. 71–84. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

  59. Wetzstein, B., Karastoyanova, D., Kopp, O., Leymann, F., Zwink, D.: Cross-organizational process monitoring based on service choreographies. In: Proceedings of the 2010 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 2485–2490. ACM (2010)

  60. Wohed, P., Aalst,W., Dumas, M., Hofstede, A., Russell, N.: On the suitability of BPMN for business process modelling. In: Dustdar, S. Fiadeiro, J.L., Sheth, A.P. (eds.) Business Process Management, 4th International Conference, BPM 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4102, pp 161–176, Springer, Heidelberg (2006). doi:10.1007/11841760_12

  61. Zaha, J., Barros, A., Dumas, M., ter Hofstede, A.: Lets dance: a language for service behavior modeling. On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2006: CoopIS, DOA, GADA, and ODBASE, pp. 145–162 (2006)

Download references

Acknowledgments

We should like to thank Andreas Schönberger for valuable discussions on choreography integration requirements. We are also grateful to Marlon Dumas and Alistar Barros for useful feedback in the analysis of BPMN 2.0. This work was supported by the ANR MOANO project. All URLs were checked on November 15, 2013.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mario Cortes-Cornax.

Additional information

Communicated by Prof. Robert France.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cortes-Cornax, M., Dupuy-Chessa, S., Rieu, D. et al. Evaluating the appropriateness of the BPMN 2.0 standard for modeling service choreographies: using an extended quality framework. Softw Syst Model 15, 219–255 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-014-0398-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-014-0398-0

Keywords

Navigation