Cloud Process Execution Engine: Architecture and Interfaces

Abstract: Process Execution Engines are a vital part of Business Process Management (BPM) and Manufacturing Orchestration Management (MOM), as they allow the business or manufacturing logic (expressed in a graphical notation such as BPMN) to be executed. This execution drives and supervises all interactions between humans, machines, software, and the environment. If done right, this will lead to a highly flexible, low-code, and easy to maintain solution, that allows for ad-hoc changes and functional evolution, as well as delivering a wealth of data for data-science applications. The Cloud Process Execution Engine CPEE.org implements a radically distributed scale-out architecture, together with a minimal set of interfaces, to allow for the simplest possible integration with existing services, machines, and existing data-analysis tools. Its open-source components can serve as a blueprint for future development of commercial solutions, and serves as a proven testbed for academic research, teaching, and industrial application since 2008. In this paper we present the architecture, interfaces that make CPEE.org possible, as well as discuss different lifecycle models utilized during execution to provide overarching support for a wide range of data-analysis tasks.