Resilient Business Process Modeling and Execution Using BPMN and Microservices

Abstract

Process Modeling Languages (PMLs) help to define, structure and organize operational workflows. The Business Process Model and Notation 2.0 (BPMN), one of the most prominent PMLs, allows the definition and execution of process models including distributed participants and systems. An increasing number of BPMN use cases take place in unreliable communication environments, where connectivity may be intermittent or broken. Resilient processes need to avoid failures that may result in process interruptions or complete breakdowns. Considering the particular requirements of unreliable communication environments, this paper addresses shortcomings when modeling and executing business processes. With resilient BPMN (rBPMN), the BPMN meta model is extended to allow resilient process designs by domain experts. Exemplary realizations of the introduced resilience strategies use state of the art technologies such as microservices and container virtualization. A proof-of-concept implementation illustrates the resilient design and execution of process models, serving as a guide for other use cases exposed to unreliable communication. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.