Business process management specialist Popkin Software has
announced plans to support Business Process Modelling Language
(BPML) 1.0 in its System Architect enterprise modelling tool.
BPML, proposed by the Business Process Management Initiative
(BPMI), which features Popkin as an author and member, provides a
standard for the modelling of executable end-to-end business
processes. It supports XML schema-based definitions for
streamlining communications among systems and modelling tools used
in Web services.
However BPML overlaps with a newly introduced specification,
Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS),
proposed by industry heavyweights IBM, Microsoft, and BEA Systems
in August. IBM and BEA are both members of BPMI.
BPEL4WS "competes directly with BPML," said Martin Owen, head of
consulting at Popkin in the UK and the company's BPMI
representative. "Both serve the same purpose. There's a lot of
overlap between the two," Owen said.
BPML has a two-year to three-year lead in development over BPEL4WS,
but neither specification can be considered superior to the other
at the moment, he said. Popkin has been examining both standards
and talks about cooperation between the two camps have been
ongoing, Owen said. Popkin is examining both standards and intends
to comply with all modelling techniques in its tool, Owen
said.
Proponents of BPML have been supportive of BPEL4WS, saying the two
specifications are so similar technically that they are likely to
converge.
BPML, which is still in draft form, is intended to provide a
generic language based on XML that is machine-readable, so business
processes can be executed on systems such as business process
management servers, Owen said. BPML handles messages between
processes.
A version of System Architect featuring support for BPML 1.0 is
expected to ship by the end of the year. The tool integrates
business processes, objects, and data models into a single
blueprint of an organisation's information infrastructure,
according to Popkin. Businesses can use the tool to measure the
progress of IT investments.