1.
XPDL 2.0 and BPMN Tutorial
Business Process Management Summit
February 1 2006
Radisson Hotel, Miami, Florida

2.
Introductions
 Mike Marin
• Vice Chair Americas WfMC Technical Committee
• Software Architect, FileNet Corporation, USA
• mmarin <at> filenet.com
 Keith Swenson
• Chair WfMC Technical Committee
• VP of Research and Development, Fujitsu Software Corporation, USA
• Kswenson <at> us.fujitsu.com
 Justin Brunt
• Vice Chair Europe Technical Committee
• Senior Product Manager, TIBCO Software Inc., UK
• jbrunt <at> tibco.com

3.
Agenda
 XPDL and BPMN - Uses and Background
• Justin Brunt
 XPDL 2.0 and BPMN Tutorial
• Mike Marin
 Examples and Demonstrations
• Keith Swenson

4.
XPDL and BPMN - Uses and Background

5.
It’s All About Processes
 WfMC defines a process as:
• “The representation of a business process in a form that supports
automated manipulation, such as modeling, or enactment by a
workflow [or business] management system. The process
definition consists of a network of activities and their relationships,
criteria to indicate the start and termination of the process, and
information about the individual activities, such as participants,
associated IT applications and data, etc.”

6.
The Origins of XPDL
 Concepts that underlie XPDL formulated by WfMC
Members
• Members from organizations developing Workflow and BPM
products
 Concepts embodied in Meta-model and Glossary
• www.wfmc.org/standards/docs/TC-1011_term_glossary_v3.pdf
 Guided the specification of interfaces
 Reference Model defines the interfaces
• WfMC Reference Model - Defines 5 Interfaces
• www.wfmc.org/standards/docs/tc003v11.pdf

7.
WfMC Reference Model
 Interface 1 – Process Definition Tools
• Definition of a standard interface between process definition and
modeling tools and the work flow engine(s).
 Interface 2 – Workflow Enactment
• Definition of APIs for client applications to request services from the
workflow engine to control the progression of processes, activities and
work-items.
 Interface 3 – Invoked Applications
• A standard interface definition of APIs to allow the workflow engine to
invoke a variety of applications, through common agent software.
 Interface 4 – Other Workflow Enactment Services
• Definition of workflow interoperability models and the corresponding
standards to support interworking.
 Interface 5 – Administration and Monitoring Tools
• The definition of monitoring and control functions.

8.
The Workflow Reference Model
Process
Definition Tools
Interface 1 Process Definition Import/Export
Interface 5 Other Workflow
Workflow Enactment Service
Enactment Service(s)
Administration
& Monitoring
Tools Workflow
Workflow
Engine(s)
Engine(s)
Interface 2 Interface 3 Interface 4
- Interoperability
Client Worklist Tool Agent
Apps Handler
Invoked Legacy,
Applications Desktop, etc

9.
History Behind XPDL 2.0
 Implementation of Interface 1
• Interchange of process definitions between different tools and vendors
viewed as essential
 WPDL (Workflow Process Definition Language)
• Text based (predated XML) definition
• Published November 1998
 XDPL 1.0
• Popularity of XML and use for defining document formats for the Internet
• Experience in using WPDL
• Retained semantics of WPDL
• New Syntax using XML Schema
• Published October 2002
 Neither WPDL or XPDL proposed graphical representation
• Based on Directed Graph structure
• Activities = Nodes
• Transitions = Edges

10.
Origins of BPMN
 Developed by members of BPMI.org
• Business Process Management Initiative
• BPMI.org merged with OMG June 2005
• www.bpmn.org, www.omg.org
 Encompasses techniques employed in flowcharts
 Unify and extend graphics to express semantics required
by
• Workflow Processes
• EAI Processes
 Drawn on expertise from different modelling disciplines
• UML Activity Diagram, UNL EDOC Business Processes, IDEF,
ebXML BPSS, Activity-Decision Flow (ADF) Diagram,
RosettaNet, LOVeM, Event Process Chains (EPCs)

11.
Origins of BPMN
 Graphical Notation to express Business Processes
 Aimed at both Technical and Business Users
• Facilitate communication between users of complex business
processes
• Readily understandable by all business users
• Business Analysts create initial drafts of processes
• Technical developers implementing processes
• Business people manage and monitor processes
 Includes Mapping between Graphic Notation and
constructs of BPM Execution Languages e.g. WS-BPEL
 Does not specify a mechanism for storage
 BPMN 1.0 Published May 2004

12.
An Example of BPMN from XPDL Spec
Credit
Check
Fill Order

13.
BPMN Scope
 Only supports modelling concepts that are applicable to
Business Processes
 Does not include
• Organizational structures and resources
• Functional breakdowns
• Data and information models
• Strategy
• Business Rules
 Relationships between BPMN and other high-level
business modelling will be defined at some later date
 BPMN shows flow of data and association of data to
Artifacts
• But it’s not a data flow diagram

14.
Uses of BPMN
 Targeted at wide audience
 Allows creation of end-to-end business processes
 Three basic types of sub-model within an end-to-end
BPMN model
• Private (internal) business processes
• Internal to a specific organization
• Abstract (public) processes
• Represents interaction between a private business process and another process
or participant
• Only activities used to communicate outside the private business process are
included
• Collaboration (global) processes
• Represents interactions between 2 or more business entities
• Sequence of activities representing message exchange between entities

15.
Origins of XPDL 2.0
 Includes enhancements based on feedback received on
XPDL 1.0
 Includes support for BPMN constructs
 Provides a mechanism to store process definitions drawn
in BPMN
• BPMN does not provide this
 Indirectly provides support for BPEL
• BPMN provides support for BPEL
• XPDL provides support for BPMN
 XPDL 2.0 is compatible with XPDL 1.0
• Some minor exceptions – see later
 Published October 2005

16.
Uses of XPDL 2.0
 Internal Process Definition Format for Workflow and
BPM products
 Import/Export Format to exchange Process Definitions
between components in a Workflow/BPM Product Suite
 Exchange Format for Process Definition interchange
between different BPM/Workflow Products
• Demonstrated by WfMC member organizations at public events
 Exchange Format for Process Definition interchange
between Process Modeling and Simulation tools and
BPM/WorkflowProducts
• IDS Scheer’s ARIS Toolset
• Zynium’s Visio based converters

17.
Purposes of XPDL
 XPDL is extensible
• Handle information used by a variety of different tools
 Different dialects of XPDL
• Use extended attributes to define vendor specific features
 Different XML dialects
• BPEL -> XPDL
• Vendor specific exports to other tools
 Can use XSLT transforms to convert one dialect to another

18.
Organizations Supporting XPDL
 ADVANTYS WorkflowGen www.workflowgen.com
 Amazonas Workflow www.objeng.ch
 BOC ADONIS 3.7 www.boc-eu.com
 InProces from Brein BV www.brein.nl
 CapeVisions (Global 360) www.capevisions.com/
 CARNOT Process Engine www.carnot.ag/index-en.htm
 ComActivity www.comactivity.net

19.
Organizations Supporting XPDL Cont’d
 Enhydra Shark shark.enhydra.org
 Enhydra JaWE jawe.enhydra.org
 e.POWER WorkManager Builder by Integic www.integic.com
 Finantix Studio (FXS) www.soluta.net
 Fuego www.fuego.com/support/faqs.html#110
 Fujitsu Interstage BPM (i-Flow)
www.fujitsu.com/global/services/software/interstage/products/bpm/
 Fujitsu Interstage Business Process Manager Studio
www.fujitsu.com/global/services/software/interstage/wnew/pr120605.h
tml
 Process Modeler by ITP-Commerce www.itp-
commerce.com/index.php?pageid=B_001_12_1

20.
Organizations Supporting XPDL Cont’d
 IT Pearls www.itpearls.com
 Lynx Flow Designer by Eclaire www.cynthia-
tech.com/web/pro_sol/pro_sol_flowdesign.html
 Metoda S.p.A, OpenMet BPMF www.metoda.it
 Nautica
nautica.sourceforge.jp/docs/reference/designertool/resource/japanese/
index.html
 OfficeObjects®WorkFlow www.rodan.pl
 Ontology (BPMO) by Jenz & Partner GmbH
www.bpiresearch.com/Resources/RE_OSSOnt/re_ossont.htm
 Open Business Engine sourceforge.net/projects/obe,
obe.sourceforge.net/
 Oracle9i Warehouse Builder 9.2
otn.oracle.com/products/warehouse/htdocs/datasheet92.htm

21.
Organizations Supporting XPDL Cont’d
 Simprocess www.simprocess.com
 Tell-Eureka www.telleureka.com/technology/
 TIBCO® Staffware Process Suite 10.3
www.tibco.com/software/process_management/staffware_
processsuite.jsp
 Vignette Process Workflow Modeler
www.vignette.com/Downloads/DS_ProcessWorkflowModel
.pdf
 WfMOpen wfmopen.sf.net
 ZAPLET 3, PROCESS BUILDER
www.zaplet.com/Pages/articles/ProcessBuilder.pdf

22.
XPDL 2.0 Conformance
 Conformance for process definition import / export is
essentially based upon conformance to the XPDL grammar
 There is a mandatory minimum set of objects which must
be supported within XPDL
 There is a wide variation of capabilities in modelling tools
 An individual tool might conform to XPDL 2.0 but not be
able to swap complete definitions with all other
conforming products
 A product that claims conformance must generate valid,
syntactically correct XPDL, and must be able to read valid
XPDL files
 A valid, syntactically correct XPDL file, must conform and
validate against the XPDL schema.

23.
BPMN Conformance
 Visual Appearance of the BPMN Graphical Elements
• Shape and Icons – tools must conform to shapes and markers
• There is flexibility size, color, line size and text positions
• Can make extensions with new markers or indicators
• Must not conflict with existing elements
• Must not change basic shape of graphical elements and markers
 Semantics of the BPMN Elements
• Defines how elements interact with each other
 Exchange of BPMN Diagrams between Conformant Tools
• Specification doesn’t define mechanism for exchange
• That’s where XPDL 2.0 comes to the rescue!
 Conformant implementation is not required to process any
non-normative extension elements or attributes

24.
Finding XPDL and Related Information
 WfMC Website
• http://www.wfmc.org
• http://www.wfmc.org/standards/XPDL.htm
 OMG Website
• http://www,omg.org
• http://www.bpmn.org