A New Process Meta-model for Convenient Process Reconfiguration

With the analysis of WFMC (Workflow Management Coalition) process meta-model, it’s indicated that the limitations of that model cause the difficulty for convenient reconfiguration of business process. So, a new process meta-model, ESR (Event-State-Rule) meta-model, is presented in this paper as the substitution to WFMC’s. Some elements are added in the new model, such as the event, the state and the rule with which dynamic relevance between the process and the business can be normalized expressed in process definition. Also, the boundary between process logic and business logic becomes much more explicit with the benefit from that model, which means that process logic can be separated from business logic quite effectively. Now, it becomes possible that rigid process and flexible process are modeled in a unified process framework. When process logic varies, the reconfiguration of the process may be fulfilled only with the corresponding variation of process definition so that convenient process reconfiguration is implemented.