Compiling business processes: untangling unstructured loops in irreducible flow graphs

  • Authors:

  • Wei Zhao;Rainer Hauser;Kamal Bhattacharya;Barrett R. Bryant;Fei Cao

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294 1170, USA.;IBM Zurich Research, Saeumerstrasse 4, Rueschlikon 8803, Switzerland.;IBM T.J. Watson Research, P.O. Box 218, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA.;Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294 1170, USA.;Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294 1170, USA

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Web and Grid Services
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

This paper presents a systematic study of some major problems involved in the transformation of business process modelling languages to executable business process representations. A business process modelling language usually uses the simple concept of 'goto' to describe the operation sequence of a business. If a structured language is chosen as the executable representation, it is difficult to compile the unstructured goto flows into structured statements when the process model is irreducible. This paper discusses a method called Regular Expression Language (REL). REL is a method that can compile a business process model that is irreducible with unstructured loops to statements in structured languages with controlled code complexity. Examples are given for compiling models expressed as UML2 Activity Diagrams into the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS).