Business process management tools and techniques are used in a large number of commercial institutions for automating flows of products and services within corporate and without. It is not uncommon that business processes are involved with versatile collaboration, complicated computation and geographical distribution of data. Hence, it is necessary to combine different technologies for implementing Business Process Management systems. We argue that the traditional BPM is not sufficient for dynamic and adaptive business environment; and a new paradigm on BPM needs to exist -- the one we proposed in this paper is called Business Process Meta Management (BPMM). On the other hand, computational Grids are emerging as an infrastructure for next generation computing, enabling distributed resource management, and large-scale computational problems in science, engineering and commerce. In this paper, we introduce a framework for BPMM based upon our proposed BP Grid services that is built on top of Grid services so as to provide uniform, robust, scalable and flexible access to highly diversified business processes and business systems. The proposed architectural framework adopts the Grid services and defines a set of additional components to implement the services of distributed BPMM services on Grid-connected software and hardware platforms.
By: Jun-Jang Jeng, Henry Chang, Jen-Yao Chung
Published in: RC22590 in 2002
LIMITED DISTRIBUTION NOTICE:
This Research Report is available. This report has been submitted for publication outside of IBM and will probably be copyrighted if accepted for publication. It has been issued as a Research Report for early dissemination of its contents. In view of the transfer of copyright to the outside publisher, its distribution outside of IBM prior to publication should be limited to peer communications and specific requests. After outside publication, requests should be filled only by reprints or legally obtained copies of the article (e.g., payment of royalties). I have read and understand this notice and am a member of the scientific community outside or inside of IBM seeking a single copy only.
Questions about this service can be mailed to reports@us.ibm.com .