Cooperation Patterns and Adaptation Patterns for Service-Based Inter-Organizational Workflows

Abstract

Modernization is an effective approach to making existing mainframe and distributed systems more responsive to business needs. SOA is an adequate paradigm that allows companies to tap into the business value in their current systems for rapid future changes to the business model. In their research works, the authors focus on the use of SOA to implement Inter-Organizational WorkFlows (IOWF). The goal is to take benefits from SOA advantages like interoperability, reusability, and flexibility to deal with process models flexibly enough. This chapter focuses on specific IOWF architectures: the “chained execution” and the “subcontracting.” First, the authors define Service-Based Cooperation Patterns (SBCP) suitable to these IOWF architectures; a SBCP is defined through three main dimensions: the distribution of services, the control of execution, and the structure of interaction. The second issue of the chapter consists of adaptation and evolution of IOWF process models obeying to the defined SBCP. Conformably to the three dimensions of SBCP, the authors define three classes of adaptation patterns: “service,” “control flow,” and “interaction.” Also, the authors particularly distinguish operations of evolution of process models based on two perspectives: the expansion of the global functionality of the process and the expansion of the cooperation. For implementation, the authors consider BPEL processes.