Propagation of states from BPEL process instances to Chevron models

Abstract

This report describes key aspects of a code library that we developed for the purpose of state propagation for business process monitoring on different levels of abstraction. The library supports the propagation of execution states of process instances based on the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) to process models specified in the "Chevron" language. The Chevron language is an abstract, non-executable process language that we especially designed for abstract process instance monitoring purposes. The look and feel of this graphical language is similar to value chains. The basic concept of the Chevron language is based on Chevron-shaped charts which can be modeled in Microsoft PowerPoint to describe a process on a high level of abstraction. We aim at enabling the use of high-level process in order to monitor the instance status of a much more detailed, lower-level model. We describe the overall procedure of performing state projections along a concrete scenario. We describe a format for state propagation rules which define how the status of activities of a BPEL process instance should be projected to the elements of a Chevron model. We present a format to serialize process models in the Chevron language. We present a graphical template based on Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) which we employ to render a stateful Chevron model graphically. The Chevron language is just one language to be used for abstract representation of process instances. However, the approach for state propagation is generic and can be applied for other languages, too.