Bridging the gap between business process models and service-oriented architectures with reference to the grid environment

In recent years organisations have been seeking technological solutions for enacting their business process models using ad hoc and heuristic approaches. However, limited results have been obtained due to the expansion of business processes across geographical boundaries and the absence of structured methods, frameworks and/or Information Technology (IT) infrastructures to enact these processes. In an attempt to enact business process models using distributed technologies, we introduce a novel architectural framework to bridge the gap between Business Process Models and Grid-aware Service Oriented Architectures (GSOA). BPMSOA framework is aligned with the Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approach and is instantiated for role-based business process models, (in particular Role Activity Diagramming (RAD)) using mobile process languages such as pi-ADL. The evaluation of the BPMSOA framework using the Submission process from the digital libraries domain has revealed that role-based business process models can be successfully enacted in GSOA environments with certain limitations.