Deriving explicit data links in WS-BPEL processes

WS-BPEL is a standard language to model business processes. Control flow is modeled explicitly using links. Data is passed via shared variables and there is no notion of explicit data links. However, explicit data links are an important means to reason about business process models. We present an algorithm to derive explicit data links in WS-BPEL processes. By considering dead path elimination as defined in WS-BPEL, we reduce the number of derived data links when compared to existing approaches that ignore dead path elimination. ©2008 IEEE.