Modeling interorganizational workflows with XML nets

Efficient inter-organizational business processes in the field of e-commerce require the integration of electronic document and data interchange and inter-organizational processes. We propose to support inter-organizational business processes by so-called XML nets, which are a new kind of high-level Petri net. XML nets are a formal, graphical modeling language that allows one to model both the flow of XML documents and the business process. XML nets are based on GXSL, a graphical XML schema definition language, and its related graphical XML document manipulation language (XManiLa). They can be directly executed by a workflow engine. Advantage can be taken of the formal foundation of XML nets, e.g. when analyzing a (global) inter-organizational workflow model: XML nets support the process of identifying relevant process fragments, assigning them to the appropriate organizational units, and thus they help in deriving an improved, process-oriented organizational structure.