Model Driven Approach: Generating BPEL from UML Activity Diagrams

Through the chapter we have seen that BPEL is a high-level language for specifying business processes. Because business processes are at such a high level, it is reasonable to think about defining process models using a modeling language and transforming these models to the BPEL code automatically. This is similar to the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) developed by the Object Management Group (OMG). The main objective of MDA is to raise the level of abstraction of development. Business processes are a perfect candidate for this approach.

The MDA approach is not to provide a simple graphical notation and a tool that enables developers to graphically build BPEL processes. The MDA approach is really about:

• Defining a platform-independent model (PIM) of the business process

• Defining exact rules that allow automatic mapping of the PIM to platform-specific models (PSM); these mappings can be done by a tool

In other words, this means...