Business Process Support

This is another area that goes beyond the scope of this book, but you need to be aware of this issue. The book has dealt with data and technical approaches for processing data at a fairly detailed level. Business process support has to do with the overall context in which the data is exchanged. This is most often a factor when dealing with business processes that cross organizational boundaries but may be a factor with internal systems that manage work flow.

In the cross-organizational sector, several groups such as RosettaNet, the Uniform Code Council in cooperation with the European Article Numbering Association (UCC/EAN), and UN/CEFACT have or are beginning to develop models that describe common business processes such as procurement, fulfillment, and payment. These models describe a series of actions that might together constitute a process. They define not only the data that might be exchanged in each step but also the conditions that must be satisfied to move from one step to the next. For example, a purchase order might be exchanged in one step of a procurement process. The process might then specify the conditions under which the order is accepted or rejected. The next step might specify that a purchase order acknowledgment be returned with specific information regarding acceptance or rejection. The model might specify different succeeding steps depending on the order status. These models can be very comprehensive, with some even considering what constitutes a legally binding contract.

It is difficult at this time to know whether or not these efforts will have an impact on requirements for business applications, and if so how great the impact will be. In some scenarios the impact would be considerable. In the case of ebXML (Electronic Business XML, www.ebxml.org), full support for the framework requires that applications be configurable using business process information read from a special type of XML document. Applications may also need to maintain certain information about the state of business processes that they don't currently track.

My own opinion is that many of these initiatives are premature. They are too ambitious not only in terms of the ability of application vendors to absorb the requisite technology but also in terms of the ability of organizations to adopt the processes. If these initiatives gain significant following, my best assessment is that it will still be several years before they do have significant impact on most business applications. It would, however, be prudent to at least monitor them.