Method and system for process brokering and content integration for collaborative business process management

Abstract

Process Brokering Services (PBS) are implemented though the concept of Adaptive Documents to facilitate electronic commerce (e-commerce). PBS provides a single point of process control over the various fragmented execution flows and brings together the elements for process integration (views, content, flows) in a unified, scalable architecture on an industry standard platform. The two principal functions of the PBS are brokering of multiple business processes encapsulated in various back-end systems including workflow engines and business applications, and aggregating content from multiple enterprise information systems in the business context and managing the shared access to this based on the roles of the participants. The dynamic services provided by PBS are accessible to clients through the PBS Interface.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by letters patent is as follows:  
     
         1 . A method for e-business solution assembly for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce comprising the steps of: 
 supplying business process definitions;    composing Adaptive Documents (ADOCs) for business collaboration by specifying valid application states for aggregated content and business, an ADOC linking content aggregated from various data sources to business processes and people and enabling collaborative business process management through orchestration of a variety of applications and user interactions in a context of a business process; and    assembling an integrated user experience through sequencing of ADOC views.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of formulating business objects that are referenced from the ADOCs.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: 
 defining a set of messages; and    generating application adapters to communicate with back-end systems using the set of messages to represent business data.    
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of composing ADOCs comprises the steps of: 
 specifying valid application states for aggregated content; and    specifying business rules for orchestrating state transitions.    
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein interactions with said ADOCs is through programmatic means.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein interactions with said ADOCs is through view-based human interactions.  
     
     
         7 . A system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce comprising: 
 a single process brokering interface providing an interface for clients;    a plurality of Adaptive Documents (ADOCs) linking content aggregated from various data sources to business processes and people, the process brokering interface redirecting a business event from a client to an appropriate ADOC;    an ADOC controller for each such ADOC acting on an event from a client based on its state and content of the business event and business rules attached to the ADOC by executing commands corresponding to work specified in the ADOC in response to the business event and, if the execution of a command is successful, changing a state of the ADOC; and    a plurality of workflow and business service related receivers responsive to commands from the ADOC controller for executing a method on a target object, a receiver being specified for each command, the receivers providing an interface to service providers and mapping the service providers to commands from the ADOC controller.    
     
     
         8 . The system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce recited in  claim 7 , further comprising at least one activity controller dynamically bound to an ADOC and based on an association of the ADOC with activities in business processes defined in a workflow engine serving as a receiver.  
     
     
         9 . The system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce recited in  claim 8 , wherein the ADOC controller and the activity controller are state machines.  
     
     
         10 . The system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce recited in  claim 7 , further comprising a process scheduler enabling time phased automatic invocation of service requests.  
     
     
         11 . The system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce recited in  claim 7 , wherein the process brokering interface comprises a process brokering service which allows clients to invoke dynamic business services that are made available on a business state of the ADOC.  
     
     
         12 . The system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative c-commerce recited in  claim 7 , wherein the process brokering interface comprises an ADOC query service which allows clients to query a business state of the ADOC, ascertain available business services for a given business state, access a business content aggregated by the ADOC, and query for navigational purposes.  
     
     
         13 . The system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce recited in  claim 7 , wherein the process brokering interface comprises an ADOC lifecycle management service which allows clients to create, delete, archives and restore ADOCs.  
     
     
         14 . The system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce recited in  claim 7 , wherein the process brokering interface comprises a scheduling service which allows clients to automate service invocation.  
     
     
         15 . The system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce recited in  claim 7 , wherein one or more of the receivers are Web service.  
     
     
         16 . A method for designing a system for process brokering and content aggregation in collaborative e-commerce comprising the steps of: 
 laying out an information model, an organization model, and a business process model;    using the information model and the business process model to identify Adaptive Documents (ADOCs) in the system, an ADOC linking content aggregated from various data sources to business processes and people and enabling collaborative business process management through orchestration of a variety of applications and user interactions in a context of a business process;    using business events and their prerequisites to design ADOC state machines;    using processing rules associated with the business events to identify commands that need to be executed as part of state transitions;    when processing rules dictate collaboration with user or software agents in the system, using macro flows to define them, the macro flows being directed graphs that establish relationships between activities that correspond to nodes in these graphs; and using activity controllers to define micro flow used to complete the activities, a state machine modeling the behavior of the activity controllers and commands effecting the behavior of the activity controllers.