Paper Info
Title
An Empirical Analysis of Business Process Execution Language Usage
Abstract
The current state of executable business process languages allows for and demands optimization of design practices and specifications. In this paper, we present the first empirical study that analyses Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL or BPEL) usage and characteristics of real world executable business processes. We have analysed 1,145 BPEL processes by measuring activity usage and process complexity. In addition, we investigated the occurrence of activity usage patterns. The results revealed that the usage frequency of BPEL activities varies and that some activities have a strong co-occurrence. BPEL activities often appear in activity patterns that are repeated in multiple processes. Furthermore, the current process complexity metrics have proved to be inadequate for measuring BPEL process complexity. The empirical results provide fundamental knowledge on how BPEL specification and process design practices can be improved. We propose BPEL design guidelines and BPEL language improvements for the design of more understandable and less complex processes. The results are of interest to business process language designers, business process tool developers, business process designers and developers, and software engineering researchers, and contribute to the general understanding of BPEL and service-oriented architecture.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1109/TSE.2014.2322618
Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions  
Keywords
Field
DocType
Web Services Business Process Execution Language,service-oriented architecture,BPEL activities,BPEL design guidelines,BPEL language improvements,WS-BPEL,Web services business process execution language,activity usage,design practices,design specifications,empirical analysis,executable business processes,process complexity,service-oriented architecture,WS-BPEL Analysis,complexity measure,empirical study,process complexity,process comprehension,process patterns,service composition
Artifact-centric business process model,Programming language,Business process,Software engineering,Computer science,Theoretical computer science,Business Process Execution Language,Process design,Business process modeling,Process patterns,Business Process Model and Notation,Executable
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
40
8
0098-5589
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
7
0.57
25
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Matej Hertis170.57
Matjaz B. Juric2181.55