Modelling and analysing reliable service-oriented processes. (16th February 2009)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zarras, Apostolos V.; Vassiliadis, Panos; Issarny, Valerie
• Is Part Of: International journal of business process integration and management. Volume 3:Number 3(2008)
• Page Start: 147
• Page End: 163
• Publication Date: 2009-02-16
• Subjects: composite web services -- BPEL -- reliability analysis -- modelling -- business processes -- UML -- block diagrams -- Markov models; Business -- Computer networks -- Periodicals; Industrial management -- Periodicals; 658.054605
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-8763

Abstract

This paper introduces principled methods for the reliability analysis of business processes that rely on web services. The input to the problem is the BPEL specification of a business process and the output is the prediction of the process's reliability. The first step to this end involves a method for the translation of the BPEL specification to its corresponding UML model. The second step of the reliability analysis involves a principled way for the annotation of the UML model with the necessary extensions for the specification of reliability properties that characterise the behaviour of the elements that constitute the process. The third step of the analysis comprises the systematic mapping of the extended UML model to block diagrams and Markov models which are subsequently used to compute the reliability of the process.