Three-Level Process Specification for Dynamic Service Outsourcing: From Petri Nets to ebXML and WFPDL

Service outsourcing is the business paradigm, in which an organization has part of its business process performed by a service provider. In dynamic markets, service providers are selected on the fly during process enactment. The cooperation between the parties is specified in a dynamically made electronic contract. This contract includes a process specification that is tailored towards service matchmaking and cross-organizational process enactment and hence has to conform to market and specification standards. Process enactment, however, relies on intra-organizational process specifications that have to comply with the infrastructure available in an organization. In this paper, we present a three-level process specification framework for dynamic contract-based service outsourcing. This framework relates the two process specification levels through a third, conceptual level. Petri nets are used for conceptual process specification, whereas the external and internal levels are based on the ebXML standard respectively workflow management technology. We show how the framework can be placed in the context of infrastructures for cross-organizational process support.