Using the Petri Net Markup Language for Exchanging Business Processes

The Petri Net Markup Language (PNML) is an XML-based interchange format for Petri nets. Its focus is on universality and flexibility, which is achieved by a technique for defining new Petri net types through Petri Net Type Definitions (PNTDs). Many business process modelling techniques are based on Petri nets. Since PNML provides a means for defining Petri net types, it might be a worthwhile project to define a PNTD for business process models, which supports the exchange of business process models among different BPM tools. In this paper, we discuss the potential and the limitations of PNML for exchanging business processes. Moreover, we discuss some lessons learned from the standardization of PNML, which could be helpful for the standardization of interchange formats for business process models in general.