A framework for process-based collaborative systems design

In today's business world, collaborative systems can be realized by implementing Business-to-Business (B2B) collaborations that entail a process-oriented integration among heterogeneous and autonomous organizations. In this paper, we define a model-driven framework to design such collaborative systems. The framework comprises three layers: an organizational layer, that focuses on business collaboration requirements, a conceptual layer, to define the business process, and a technology layer, aimed at business process execution. Hence, the framework combines business process management (BPM) concepts and Web services technology. To build B2B collaborations both organizations have to provide public parts of their process models as basis for discussion for collaborative process modelling. The internal private processes are generated from collaborative process, based on model-driven approach (MDA). At the execution level, B2B interactions are modeled based on Web services. Finally, we validate our proposition with the implementation of an e-ordering system.