Scaling choreography modelling for B2B value-chain analysis

Abstract

The modelling of B2B scenarios focuses on conversations between key partners to establish a common business context for their collaboration. With the prevalence of Web services, attention has turned to service choreographies as a means of message exchange ordering between collaborating participants, from a global (or shared) understanding. As such, the message ordering in a choreography model can then be used to determine the message ordering behaviour of each participant's process. In this paper, we extend the suitability of choreography modelling for the early phase of analysis, where the participants and the nature of interactions develops under the flux of requirements acquisition. In particular, we develop a structural view of interactions and stepwise refinement, leading to behavioural considerations, reminiscent of classical techniques. In addition, we introduce contextualisation of intent behind message exchanges in the form of speech acts. This, we show, can be used to automatically detect conflicts in conversations, in the business sense, namely negotiation or provision breakdowns - prior to technical implementations of choreographies. Model abstraction and refinement is based on Semantic Object Model (SOM), and a mapping to the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) is shown.