A Service-Oriented Visual Business Process Modeling Language

A new service-oriented visual business process modeling language VPML-S was proposed. The meta-model for VPML-S was designed by using UML class diagram, and its formal model was established on this basis. The service-oriented function provided by service element, the reuse mechanism between business processes provided by nested sub process element, the collaboration mechanism between business processes provided by pipeline element and the interoperability mechanism between VPML-S processes and processes established by other languages were analyzed and evaluated. Finally, an online shopping example was presented to demonstrate the efficiency of VPML-S for business process reuse, collaboration and interoperability in service-oriented environment.