Patterns-based Evaluation of Open Source BPM Systems: The Cases of jBPM, OpenWFE, and Enhydra Shark

Wohed, Petia and Russell, Nick and ter Hofstede, Arthur H.M. and Andersson, Birger and van der Aalst, Wil M.P. (2008) Patterns-based Evaluation of Open Source BPM Systems: The Cases of jBPM, OpenWFE, and Enhydra Shark. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

In keeping with the proliferation of free software development initiatives and the increased interest in the business process management domain, many open source workflow and business process management systems have appeared during the last few years and are now under active development. This upsurge gives rise to two important questions: what are the capabilities of these systems? and how do they compare to each other and to their closed source counterparts? i.e. in other words what is the state-of-the-art in the area?. To gain an insight into the area, we have conducted an in-depth analysis of three of the major open source workflow management systems - jBPM, OpenWFE and Enhydra Shark, the results of which are reported here. This analysis is based on the workflow patterns framework and provides a continuation of the series of evaluations performed using the same framework on closed source systems, business process modeling languages and web-service composition standards. The results from evaluations of the three open source systems are compared with each other and also with the results from evaluations of three representative closed source systems - Staffware, WebSphere MQ and Oracle BPEL PM, documented in earlier works. The overall conclusion is that open source systems are targetted more toward developers rather than business analysts. They generally provide less support for the patterns than closed source systems, particularly with respect to the resource perspective which describes the various ways in which work is distributed amongst business users and managed through to completion.

ID Code:	14320
Item Type:	Other
Additional Information:	This article is a revised version of P. Wohed, B. Andersson, A.H.M. ter Hofstede, N.C. Russell, W.M.P. van der Aalst. Patterns-based Evaluation of Open Source BPM Systems: The Cases of jBPM, OpenWFE, and Enhydra Shark. BPM Center Report BPM-07-12, BPMcenter.org, 2007.
Keywords:	jBPM, OpenWFE, Enhydra Shark, Workflow Management Systems (WFMS), Business Process Management (BPM), open source software, workflow patterns
Subjects:	Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES (080000) > INFORMATION SYSTEMS (080600) > Information Systems not elsewhere classified (080699)
Divisions:	QUT Faculties and Divisions > Faculty of Science and Technology
Copyright Owner:	Copyright 2008 (The authors)
Deposited On:	07 Aug 2008
Last Modified:	23 Jan 2009 05:05

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