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The substitution of the process activity with the corresponding external process model
is performed in the following ways: fi rst, the process activity's incoming trigger changes its
destination from the process activity to the starting activity of the external process model.
Second, the process activity's outgoing trigger changes its origin from the process activity
to the ending activity of the external process model. Finally, the process activity is removed
from the internal process model. For example, t 1 and t 2 in Figure 6(a) are A 1,4 's incoming
and outgoing triggers, respectively. To constitute the integrated process model from the two
process models in Figure 6(a), we change t 1 's destination from A 1,4 to A 2,1 and t 2 's origin from
A 1,4 to A 2,7 , and fi nally, remove A 1,4 from PM 1 . Figure 6(b) shows the resultant integrated
process model.
Using the PMType attributes of the WorkTransition objects, the object data example
in Figure 5(b) showed how the external process model could be represented with the object
data model in Figure 3(a). Similarly, the integrated process model can be represented with
the object data model by assigning “INTEGRATED” to the PMType attributes of the Work-
Transition objects related to the integrated process model. Then, an interaction between
different process models (e.g., the work transition between A 1,4 and A 2,1 ) is represented in
the same way as a work transition within a process model (e.g., one between A 2,1 and A 2,2 ).
However, since two different organizations participate in the interaction, the interaction
has special features such as a distributed transaction and a separated role and responsibility
model. The ebXML Business Process Specifi cation Schema (BPSS) (UN/CEFACT, 2001)
that provides a detailed UML class diagram to design an interaction between collaborating
business entities supports a distributed transaction and a separated role and responsibility
model by considering an interaction as a business transaction between activities. Thus, the
object data model in Figure 3(a) can be extended by inheriting a specialized interaction
class from the WorkTransition class and connecting the interaction class and the UML class
diagram of the ebXML BPSS; consequently, the extended data model would describe the
interactions more precisely in terms of a distributed transaction and a separated role and
responsibility model. However, to simplify the federated process framework and focus
on the research questions, this chapter will use the object data model in Figure 3(a) in the
remaining parts without extending it.
Meanwhile, the XML document based on an integrated process model can be derived
by merging XML documents based on internal or external process models comprising the
integrated process model. To merge XML documents based on different process models, each
of their ActivitySet elements and
ProcessDataSet elements is merged separately. Particularly,
ProcessDataSet
an Activity element corresponding to a process activity should be deleted since the process
activity does not exist in the integrated process model. Figure 7 shows an example of merg-
ing the left XML document representing the online store's order handling process status
and the right XML document representing the transportation company's product delivery
process status. The resultant XML document in the middle of Figure 7 represents the global
process status that means, “the online store has notifi ed a customer that the product is being
shipped, and the transportation company is fulfi lling the delivery by moving the product to
a nearby branch.” Note that the Activity element corresponding to the process activity, A 1,4 ,
disappears in the XML document based on the integrated process model.
The second and third steps present the detailed methods that restrict and seamlessly
integrate local process models according to participants' sharing policies, and thus these
methods provide an answer to the second question of the autonomy problem. Furthermore,
when a participant's process model or sharing policy is changed, these methods support
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