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A typedef is a keyword in both C and C++ used to introduce new names for existing types. A simple typedef declaration lets you define your own names that can be used in place of type specifiers such as int, float, and double. Surprisingly, some people have started applying typedefs to well-understood...

I'm not really doing anything BPEL related these days but a post by Jesper Joergensen caught my eye. Since I'm not focused on BPEL I haven't kept up with some of the developments in the BPM-related blogosphere. Apparently Bruce wrote a post illustrating some of the fundamental differences between BPMN...

The BPEL4People and WS-HumanTask specs are headed to OASIS, resulting in a new BPEL4People Technical Committee (TC) - expect to see an announcement and call for participation soon.  The TC will focus on defining human interactions (“human tasks”) as part of a WS-BPEL process, enabling...

Dave Linthicum is blogging about orchestration and gets it mostly right. The blog entry does a decent job of describing orchestration at a high level - if you're unfamiliar with orchestration the blog entry is worth a read. The following, however, made me recoil a bit (emphasis is mine): Orchestrations...

Interesting perspective on SOA and BPM here from Joe , but positioning BPEL as BPM is just wrong. BPM encompasses much more than simple service orchestration. It’s good to see the human element addressed here - there is some interesting work going on in this area . I assumed that the article was discussing...

What a depressing article . I had a few concerns with this article - here are a few: The conclusion that IT should drive BPM couldn’t be more wrong - the "B" stands for "Business", not IT. BPM is not just about technology/app integration. The article seems to confuse BPM (business process management...

The book I previewed here a few weeks back is now available in both PDF and XPS formats. Enjoy!

That white paper and spec with the funny name is going to be an OASIS spec . I'm not surprised - I only hope they can fix some of the issues (such as people resolution) and come up with a name.that doesn't sound like a punchline. :)

The WS-BPEL TC has its last conference call next week. It's taken over three years of effort but the spec and schemas are finally done . A non-normative Primer and FAQ are also available. (The final version of the Primer will be published after our last call next week.) Thanks to the entire Technical...

Apparently over 3,000 people have downloaded the BPEL Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) . Now it's your turn to tell us what you love or hate about the implementation. To do this you'll need to sign up for a Windows Live ID first. Once you have your Live ID...

The WS-BPEL Primer is a non-normative doc that will be finished by 5/14 (at the latest). A draft of the work in progress is publicly accessible here (doc format): http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/23470/wsbpel-primer-draft_April_11.doc . Feedback is always welcome! I expect to post...

I am happy to state that BPEL is finally approved as an official OASIS standard. Its been a long time coming (just short of four years) but its finally done. The official press release is here (and below). (BTW, Jack is not part of the official press release and I'm not sure if he's planning to use...

The article is fairly favorable and provides a fairly quick overview of the BPEL 2.0 spec. Here's some of what's new in BPEL 2.0: New activity types if-then-else replaces BPEL4WS 1.1 “switch” repeatUntil Validate forEach with completion conditions extensionActivity Variable...

The first Community Technology Preview of BPEL for Windows Workflow Foundation is now available: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6d0daf00-f689-4e61-88e6-cbe6f668e6a3&displaylang=en The CTP supports BPEL 1.1. A later release is planned that will support WS-BPEL 2.0. I had...

These are sponsored by OASIS, not Microsoft: WS-BPEL is central for defining SOA business processes. Members of the OASIS WS-BPEL Technical Committee will present this free webinar that will help business analysts and managers to better understand the technology and business value offered by this cornerstone...

If you haven't already heard about it , Microsoft will soon be releasing a BPEL 1.1 activity library for Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). The activities will enable you to build workflows that can be losslessly exported to BPEL 1.1. Also included is a BPEL import/export tool. This tool enables you to...

Yesterday the OASIS WS-BPEL Technical Committee approved the WS-BPEL 2.0 specification a Committee Specification. The official Committee Spec is still being prepped for posting - here is the latest cut of the Committee Draft after the second Public Review (PDF). I'll post a link to the actual Committee...

Nathaniel Palmer has a nice (if simplistic) overview article explaining the potential relationships between these specifications. While he glosses over some of the difficulties in mapping BPMN to BPEL, if you're unfamiliar with how these specs might be used I encourage you to read the article (only available...

The second public review for BPEL started Sunday (January 7, 2007), and ends January 22, 2007. The spec was previously submitted for a 60-day public review on September 9, 2006 ; this 15-day review is limited in scope to changes made from the previous review. All changes from the first review have been...

I spoke at the CMG 2006 conference in Reno last week (I gave a presentation on SOA and appeared on a SOA panel). While at the conference I was confronted by a BPM-type who had lots of questions about BPEL. After some discussion I finally got the guy to realize that BPEL is an orchestration language,...

E.F. Schumacher, a well-known British economist, once wrote: "I cannot predict the wind but I can have my sail ready". With that thought in mind here are ten predictions and hopes to help get your sails ready for 2007: 1. The WS-BPEL 2.0 specification will finally be approved as an OASIS standard. Adoption...

Its a sunny day here in Costa Mesa and the WS-BPEL TC is wrapping up what should be our last F2F meeting prior to standardization. Its been a long journey here from our initial meeting back in May 2003 . The TC completed addressing the comments received during Public Review and posted an update to...

Interesting take on this topic from Keith Harrison-Broninski over at BP Trends (PDF download). This is the fourth part of an ongoing series on the future of BPM. You can find the earlier entries in the series here . Keith asserts that BPMN will make BPEL unnecessary. I've always thought about BPMN...

WS-BPEL is very much a subset of what can be represented using WF. Think of WF as a "graph of activities" that can be transformed to virtually any workflow standard. I'll try to post a similar comparison between WS-BPEL 2.0 and XPDL 2.0 later this week. BPEL Activity WF Activity...

Here's a quick reminder that the last call for comments on the WS-BPEL 2.0 spec is rapidaly approaching (November 9th). The WS-BPEL 2.0 spec it is available in PDF , DOC and XHTML formats. A RDDL document is also available that includes links to all relevant resources (including the WS-BPEL 2.0 schemas...