Activity Work contributed to a collaboration by a participant in a Role of the collaboration. A role may be filled by an actor or another collaboration and a role may contribute to multiple activities in the same collaboration (Value Delivery Modeling Language, VDML).

Activity network A network of activities and stores that are linked by deliverable flows in a collaboration (VDML).

Actor An individual (indivisible) participant, which might be human (a person) or nonhuman (eg, a software agent or machine) (VDML).

Adaptive case management (adaptive process) A form of process automation where the state of the problem domain (the case) and the expertise of participants is the basis for planning and evolving a process to deliver a result. It fosters and supports collaboration among the participants as opposed to simple performance of prescribed, complementary tasks. CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation) is the OMG (Object Management Group) standard that supports modeling components, case file, and guidance to support the collaboration.

Agile enterprise An agile enterprise is capable of recognizing and adapting quickly to changing business threats and opportunities. Agile is a relative term, and the threshold for agility evolves over time.

Analytics Technology for analysis of large volumes of data to identify patterns or events using distributed, concurrent computing resources.

Asynchronous exchange The exchange of messages or other deliverables between parties where a sender does not wait for a response. The receiver is expected to accept and process the input at a later time. This is typical of exchanges between business entities or operations that operate independently and are not expected to be immediately available to process input.

Attribute An attribute is information attached to any element in the form of a name-value pair (VDML).

Authentication A process by which the identity of a subject (eg, person or system) is validated.

Authorization A process by which a subject (eg, person or system) is given authority to perform an action or access a resource, or the process by which access authority is determined.

Backtracking A mechanism in logic programming, or in the application of diagnostic rules, where the search for a solution has reached an unsuccessful result down one path and is able to back up and proceed down another branch of the search.

Backward chaining A search strategy where a condition is evaluated by reference to supporting facts or conditions so that success is achieved by finding a set of supporting facts or conditions that are true. The strategy is to assume the truth of a statement and attempt to substantiate it by finding supporting facts. This mode is typically applied to diagnostic or proof problems (eg, theorem proving).

BCM (business collaboration management) A discipline that is an extension of BPM to include all forms of collaboration, their relationships, modeling, and automation.

BMM (business motivation model) A specification of OMG that provides a framework for strategic planning.

BPM (business process management) A management discipline for defining, continuously improving, and optimizing business processes.

BPMM (business process maturity model) An OMG specification of criteria for assessing the maturity of an enterprise with respect to business process management. The five maturity levels are derived from CMMI (capability maturity model integration) from Carnegie Mellon University. BPMM corresponds to the five levels but with a business process management focus.

BPMN (business process model and notation) An OMG specification of graphical elements and metamodel for modeling business processes. BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation).

Business dynamics A technique for modeling dynamic, real-world systems using the abstract concepts of “stocks” and “flows.” The model reflects behavior of the system over time based on accumulation or depletion of units in stocks as a result of flows in and out of the system and its stocks mediated by control functions and parameters.

Business item A business item is anything that can be acquired or created, that conveys information, obligation, or other forms of value and that can be conveyed from a provider to a recipient. For example, it includes parts, products, units of fluids, orders, emails, notices, contracts, currency, assignments, devices, property, and other resources (VDML).

Business metadata Data about data that describe aspects of interest to business people such as the source, precision, timeliness, and reliability of the data. Distinguished from technical metadata that describes the definitions, structure, and relationships of data elements as in a database or exchange of records.

Business model canvas A graphical framework representing key aspects of a business developed by Alexander Osterwalder.

Business model cube A graphical framework of key aspects of a business developed by Peter Lindgren.

Business network In VDML, a collaboration of business entities involving asynchronous exchanges of deliverables for a shared business endeavor.

BPMS (business process management system) An information system that automates the execution of business processes.

Business process An orderly execution of activities to achieve a desired business result in response to a request or event. A process defines what work is to be done, who does the work, when the work is done in relation to events, and the activities of others.

Business rule A declarative expression of business intent. There are a variety of types of business rules. See also enterprise rule, production rule, diagnostic rule, event rule, qualification rule, and data integrity rule.

Capability The ability to perform a particular type of work typically involving people, processes, resources, facilities, skills, knowledge, and motivation that can be applied to produce a desired result.

Capability map A diagram that depicts a taxonomy of enterprise capabilities for management review. A capability heat map highlights the capability(s) that require particular attention.

Capability method A collaboration specification that defines the activities, deliverable flows, business items, capability requirements, and roles that deliver a capability and associated value contributions. For each application of the capability method, within a scenario or in multiple scenarios, there may be distinct measurements of performance and value contributions, and role assignments suitable to the application context. A capability method does not own resources but receives them from other sources in the course of performing its activities (VDML).

Capability method consumer In VDML, an organization, a collaboration or an activity within a collaboration that engages a capability method

Capability method owner In VDML, an organization unit that defines and maintains a capability method specification.

Capability method provider In VDML, an organization unit that offers the application of a capability as a capability method.

Capability offer A VDML model element that represents the availability of a capability service from a particular organization unit. It usually identifies an associated capability method.

Capability unit An organization unit at a conceptual modeling level that provides a service or group of services for application of a specified capability.

Case management A process in which activities are defined as the process unfolds based on the state of the case and the expertise of the participants. Also described as an adaptive process. A case management model defines tasks, stages, and process fragments as well as a case file structure to be applied as required in the particular case.

CA (certification authority) A trusted service that issues signed digital certificates that include the identity of the certificate owner and the owner’s public key. The certificate provides the basis for authentication, encryption, and nonrepudiation. A CA maintains a certificate revocation list (CRL) for those certificates that have been compromised (eg, the corresponding private key has been exposed).

CBA (capability-based architecture) A business design architecture that focuses on business capabilities as sharable components that may be integrated into multiple value streams to deliver business products or services.

CEP (complex event processing) Processing of event notices that identifies relationships and duplications between separate events and infers the occurrence of other events.

Channel A linkage or mechanism between business entities to execute a deliverable flow, such as email, face-to-face conversation, SOAP, REST, physical transportation, postal service, telephone, fax, and FTP (VDML).

Choreography A specification (that may be expressed in BPMN) of the interactions between two or more participants to achieve mutual benefit. Choreography is not executed by a controlling entity but describes the agreed-upon, collaborative behavior of the participants.

Class For a logical data model, a computational representation of the attributes of similar entities and their relationships to other entities. A specialized class may be defined to inherit and extend the specification of an existing class.

Collaboration A collection of participants working together for a shared purpose or interest.

Cooperative process A process that occurs between two or more relatively independent business entities where compliance with the prescribed process depends on the actions of the participants and is not driven by a shared process management system.

CMDB (configuration management database) A facility for management of hardware, software, and application components and their relationships in a data-processing center.

Community A loose collaboration of participants with similar characteristics or interests (VDML).

Competency A capability that is key to the competitive advantage of an enterprise and thus will not be outsourced.

COTS (commercial off-the-shelf software) Refers to a commercially available software product in contrast to a custom application developed by or for an enterprise.

CWM (common warehouse metamodel) An OMG specification for representation and transformation of data in different formats. Originally intended for specification of data transformations from various sources to feed a data warehouse. It has also been applied to enterprise information integration (EII). It is expected to be superseded by IMM (Information Management Metamodel), a pending specification from OMG.

Dashboard Typically, a management dashboard provides a user with an interactive interface for configuration of a display of status information and measurements, typically in graphical form, that is a representation of the current state of the business.

Data directory A directory that identifies the master-data source of enterprise data.

Data integrity rule A rule that constrains the structure or element content of data to prevent invalid entries or changes.

Delegation context A VDML model element that represents delegation by an activity to request execution of a collaboration (capability method). A delegation context also defines the delegations of activity inputs and/or outputs to/from collaboration inputs and/or outputs and may define assignments of roles within the collaboration (VDML).

Deliverable A business item (as it is conveyed from a source activity, store, or collaboration to a destination activity, store, or collaboration (VDML).

Deliverable flow The transfer of a deliverable from a provider (or producer) to a recipient (or consumer) (VDML).

Diagnostic rule A rule used in the diagnosis of a problem, typically a logic programming rule or a rule executed by a backward-chaining inference engine.

Disruptive event An event that indicates the occurrence of a change that has a disruptive effect on an enterprise or an industry and may require an adaptation in the way the enterprise operates or in the products and services it delivers.

DMA (data management architecture) A pattern of the relationships of data storage facilities, their management, content and coordination for consistent and reliable representation of business records, and the state of the enterprise.

EAI (enterprise application integration) Technology for the integration of applications and services based on store-and-forward delivery of messages typically through a hub-and-spoke message broker.

ECA (event condition action) rule A rule that is activated by the occurrence of an event (ie is, a change of state) and will perform a defined action if its conditional expression evaluates to true.

EDI (electronic data interchange) A collection of standards for the exchange of business records between enterprise applications as well as between enterprises. Established in early exchanges, primarily in transfer of files.

ELDM (enterprise logical data model) A conceptual data model of the data of the enterprise independent of the particular technologies used for storage and communication of the data.

ESB (enterprise services bus) Technology for the integration of services over the Internet or the Intranet.

Event listener An element in a CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation) model that becomes active when a specified change occurs in the case management file (the state of the case).

Event notice A message or record that communicates the occurrence of an event. In a publish-and-subscribe environment, an event notice is published by a system that observes or causes an event. The event notice is communicated by an event broker to subscribers who have submitted requests to receive events that meet certain qualifications as specified in their subscriptions.

Event rule A condition that is of interest as an event when it becomes true. The condition associated with a database trigger that generates an event notice when the condition becomes true.

Forward chaining A rules execution mode where the condition expressions of rules are evaluated against a model of the problem domain, a rule is selected from among those that have true conditions, and the action of that rule is executed, typically causing the model of the problem domain to change. The change potentially changes the set of rules with true conditions, and another rule is selected from the set and executed. The execution chains forward as it drives the evaluation of selected rules and cumulative changes to the domain model. This mode is typically applied to configuration and planning problems.

Gateway A diamond-shaped graphical symbol in BPMN that indicates a convergence or divergence of process flow. There are several icons that may appear in the gateway graphic that further define the action to be taken.

Governance The set of responsibilities and practices exercised by the board of directors and executive management with the goal of providing strategic direction, ensuring that objectives are achieved, ascertaining that risks are managed appropriately and verifying that the organization’s resources are used responsibility (Information Systems Audit and Control Foundation, 2001).

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) A character-based language designed for specification of displays for Internet browsers, and for input and communication of data submitted through web page displays.

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) An internet protocol designed for the exchange of HTML in support of the World Wide Web.

HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) An extension of HTTP designed for secure (encrypted) exchange of HTML data on the world wide web.

Hybrid cloud A computing configuration where the cloud service consumer combines public and private cloud services such as retaining the management of data and user interfaces in a private cloud while off-loading the operation of applications to the public cloud.

IETF (Internet engineering task force) An international standards organization focused on the technical standards and protocols of the Internet.

Industry framework A best practices model that represents the business processes and potentially an information model and other aspects that are characteristic of enterprises in a particular industry. eTOM is an industry framework.

Inheritance In information or object modeling, a relationship between classes by which one class may incorporate (inherit) the characteristics of another and extend the specification to address a more specialized category of entities represented by the inheriting class.

Intangible deliverable Deliverable that represents something that is unpaid or noncontractual that makes things work smoothly or efficiently (as opposed to Tangible) (VDML and ValueNet works).

Interface specification For a service unit, it is the specification of message types or requests that will be recognized, the restrictions on the interactions, and the nature of the result returned.

Internet of Things (IoT) An emerging set of technologies and protocols by which all sorts of devices, sensors, and computers are connected to the Internet for various purposes resulting in very large volumes of Internet activity and significant implications to the capabilities and services of enterprises and their products.

Knowledge worker A worker who functions with minimal supervision, performs tasks, and participates in collaborations based on his or her knowledge and experience. This is in contrast to a worker who performs repetitive, defined activities with minimal discretion.

Lane In BPMN, a segment of a pool. The pool represents a business entity performing activities in a process. The lane defines a responsibility within the entity that is responsible for performing the activities drawn within the lane.

Level of service agreement A specification of the expected performance to be provided based on recipient requirements and provider capabilities.

Library A collection of elements representing relatively stable concepts that are defined for reference in models (VDML).

Line of business The product or group of similar products produced by an enterprise generally associated with business activities engaged in developing, marketing, producing, and supporting the product.

Logical data model (LDM) A data model expressed at a level of abstraction suitable for discussions that are independent of particular technologies or media used to store, communicate, or process the data. See also enterprise logical data model (ELDM).

Loose coupling A form of integration where the interdependence of participants is minimized to promote autonomy. Typically, this is accomplished by store-and-forward message exchanges with no shared resources and with minimal interactions that might require synchronization of their activities.

Master data management Management of the data storage facilities that represent the single version of the truth about the state of the enterprise. Master data is not limited to stable, reference data. Different data bases and organizations may be responsible for segments of the enterprise master data.

Measure A method that is applied to characterize an attribute of something by assigning a comparable quantification or qualification (popularized version of definition in SMM/VDML).

Measurement The value that results from applying a measure (popularized version of definition in SMM/VDML).

Metadata Data that describe data. A database schema is metadata. A blank paper form with identified fields expresses metadata. Business metadata generally defines the source, reliability, and/or accuracy of the data.

Metamodel A specification of a modeling language. A MOF metamodel specifies the concepts and relationships for modeling a particular problem domain.

Model-driven architecture (MDA) An OMG strategy for design of solutions using models supported by the ability to transform models and exchange them between different modeling environments.

MOF (meta object facility) An OMG specification for the elements that represent the concepts of a modeling language for expression of models, storage of models, and exchange of models. MOF is used for specification of modeling languages.

Multiple vocabulary facility A pending OMG specification to provide a common facility for an MOF-based modeling language implementation to express inputs and outputs in terminology from alternative natural languages.

Nonrepudiation A principle regarding assertions or agreements that prevents a party from denying their assertion or agreement. For a record or electronic document, the content can be reliably attributed to its submitter and cannot be repudiated. Potentially achieved through the use of an electronic signature.

Notification broker A facility for distribution of (event) notices to subscribers based on their expressions of interest and qualifying (ie, filter) rules.

OAGi (Open Application Group, Incorporated) An international standards organization focused on specifications for data exchanged between enterprise applications.

OASIS (organization for advancement of structured information systems) An international standards organization with primary contributions related to the application of XML.

OMG (Object Management Group) An international standards organization focused on information systems interoperability and modeling standards.

Organization An administrative or functional structure normally interpreted as a network of Organization Units at a higher level in an organizational hierarchy (VDML).

Organization Unit (or OrgUnit) A management/administrative collaboration, with responsibility for defined resources, including a collaborations that occur in the typical organization hierarchy, such as business units and departments (and also the company itself), as well as less formal organizational collaboration such as a committee, project, or task force that is responsible for a defined set of resources (VDML).

Outsourcing The practice of contracting for an external organization to own and operate a segment of the enterprise business. Outsourcing of information systems, accounting, and human resource management services are examples.

Participant Anyone or anything that can fill a role in a collaboration. Participants can be actors (human or automatons) or collaborations or roles of actors or collaborations. They may be named in the model, or dynamically determined in run-time (VDML).

PIM (platform independent model) In the OMG model-driven architecture (MDA) strategy, a model of a solution that is independent of particular implementation technology and thus is focused on modeling the solution rather than the implementation.

PKI (public key infrastructure) The services and facilities associated with the use of public key encryption along with digital certificates for identification and authentication.

Planning percentage In VDML a specification of the expected percentage of units of production that will be output from an associated port.

Policy A statement of intent to influence or determine decisions, actions, or other matters. For business, a policy is a statement of business practice intent which may be expressed more precisely as business rules. For XACML security access control, a policy is a set of access control rules. For WS-Policy, a policy is a service specification that expresses capabilities and requirements that are the basis for forming a collaborative relationship.

Pool In VDML, a store that contains reusable resource, that is, resource that is returned to the pool after having been used so that it is again available for use. In BPMN, a stand-alone box that expresses the boundaries of a business entity around a business process model. Business processes are confined by the pool boundaries except that messages may be exchanged with other pools (ie, business entities).

Port A connection for input or output of an activity, store, or collaboration that defines the unit of production share of the input/output and the value contributions (output) of the associated activity/store/collaboration (VDML).

Portal A point of access to enterprise capabilities and services, usually designed to address the interests of a particular community such as employees, stockholders, customers, or suppliers. Often associated with a collection of web pages but potentially extending to other services such as a call center.

Practice An accepted way to handle specific types of work (VDML).

Private cloud A computing and communication configuration that provides the technology and fundamental benefits of a public cloud, but it is owned and operated by the consumer organization. Consequently the scope of the benefits is limited and the consumer organization retains responsibility and control for the management and operation of the services.

Process A sequence or flow of Activities in an organization with the objective of carrying out work (BPMN). VDML does not represent process, per se, but represents a process abstraction with a network of activities and flows that represent dependencies and statistical characteristics of a process.

Process instance A single execution of a process specification. A process instance is often distinguished by the identifier of the request that initiated the execution, for example, a customer order number.

Production rule A rule managed by a rules engine that performs forward chaining. The execution of the rules produces a result such as a product configuration or a travel plan. See also forward chaining.

PSM (platform-specific model) In the OMG MDA strategy, a model of a solution that is tailored for implementation in a particular technology. A PSM may be the result of a transformation of a PIM and be the basis for generating application code for execution.

Public cloud A service offered as a computing utility in a configuration where multiple service consumers share computing facilities of a cloud network. The consolidation of services improves economy of scale, facilitates immediate scalability of resource consumption, and minimizes consumer burden of management of computing services technology and operations.

Publish and subscribe An integration approach where sources of notices register with a broker and publish notices to the broker as conditions occur. An entity interested in notices subscribes with the broker, defining selection criteria for the notices of interest and the qualified notices are forwarded by the broker as they occur.

Qualification rule A rule that expresses the condition under which a participant is qualified for an action or a role.

RBAC (role-based access control) An approach to access control specification where access authorization is specified for roles, and roles are assigned to people. This enables separation of responsibility between control of resources and authorization of people.

Regulations and policies directory A proposed database and associated service that captures and supports analysis and tracking of regulations, their transformation to policies, and the applications of the policies in the operation of the business.

Reliable messaging A message exchange protocol where message senders are assured that each message will be delivered once and only once.

Resource Anything that is “used” or “consumed” in the production of a deliverable (VDML).

Rete algorithm An algorithm developed by Charles Forgy of Carnegie Mellon University for processing production (forward chaining) rules where the rule conditions are linked to the model of the problem domain (working storage) through a network so that changes in the domain model propagate to the affected rules.

Role An expected behavior pattern or capability profile associated with a participant in a collaboration. The link of a collaboration participant to the activities that participant is expected to perform (VDML).

Risk management catalog A proposed database as associated service to capture information about risks including the potential impact, mitigation, and interrelationships for analysis and consideration in planning and decision-making.

Risk profile A potential representation of the risks associated with an enterprise and the potential severity of impact of an unfortunate occurrence. Realization of a risk profile depends on the development of appropriate disciplines and models to accurately and comprehensively assess enterprise risks.

Rules engine A software application/product that evaluates and executes rules according to a defined algorithm.

SAML (Security Attribute Markup Language) An OASIS specification for the exchange of participant credentials and authorizations for access control.

SBVR (semantics of business vocabulary and rules) An OMG specification for a language that combines a structured representation of rules, with a capture of semantics and the ability to express the concepts and rules in alternative vocabularies.

Scenario A scenario defines a consistent business use case and set of measurements of a value delivery model by specifying a, possibly recursive, analysis context for nested collaborations in scope of that use case. The analysis contexts allow a collaboration to be used as a subcollaboration by more than one activity, each of which sets its particular delegation context and measurements (VDML).

Semantic A specification of meaning. In language, the meanings of words or expressions. In modeling, semantics are the meanings of the modeling elements.

Sense and respond directory A proposed database and associated service to capture events, circumstances, innovations that represent potential enterprise threats or opportunities for subsequent analysis and appropriate action. The status of responses can be tracked, and initiatives can be consolidated where similar and compatible circumstances or initiatives are identified.

Separation of duties A principle of accountability and control whereby actions by a person who could have a conflict of interest are approved or validated by a person with independent duties and interests.

Sequence flow In BPMN, an arrow that specifies the order of execution or evaluation of flow elements such as gateways and activities.

Service A mechanism to apply one or more capabilities, where the access is provided using a prescribed interface and is exercised consistent with constraints and policies as specified by the service description and service level agreement.

Service consumer A business entity that uses a service—a service user.

Service interface A specification of the inputs and outputs of a service.

Service registry A database or directory, accessible at runtime, that provides information on the current versions and locations of services. The registry supports selection of alternative services and provides support for management of IT functions of service units at runtime.

Service unit An organization unit that has operational responsibility for providing services associated with the application of a particular business capability. The operational corollary of a capability unit.

Service unit group An organization unit that is responsible for the management of two or more service units that have similar resources, technologies, and/or practices that will enable economies of scale.

SID (shared information data) An ELDM for the telecommunications industry developed by the TeleManagement Forum (TMF).

Single sign-on An information technology industry infrastructure capability that enables a user to log on to a network environment once and subsequently access a number of different systems based on the single authentication. There are various strategies. Digital certificates and public-key encryption are recommended for single sign-on.

SOA (service-oriented architecture) An information systems architecture in which components are implemented as sharable services for economies of scale and rapid reconfiguration of information systems solutions.

Store Represents a container of a business item pending action by one or more recipients. A shared store provides a buffered interface between collaborations where a source delivers a business item to the store and the recipient (typically the store owner) retrieves the business item when ready. A store may have many business item providers and/or many business item recipients (VDML).

Subscribe The action of submitting a request to receive notices. A publisher publishes notices that are delivered to subscribers.

Synchronous exchange A mode of exchange of information or deliverables where a sender depends upon a timely response to a delivery. The processes of the participants are “synchronized” by virtue of the requirement to wait for a response.

Tangible Deliverable that represents something that is contracted, mandated, or expected by the recipient and which may generate revenue (as opposed to Intangible) (VDML).

Task An activity within a business process that is performed by a human. There is no further specification of the operation of a task.

TMF (TeleManagement Forum) An international standards organization that focuses on standards for the telecommunications industry.

UN/CEFACT (United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) A standards organization within the United Nations that deals with specifications for electronic commerce.

UML (Unified Modeling Language) The OMG specification for an object-oriented, application analysis and design language. The general nature of UML has resulted in its use for a number of system design applications outside object-oriented programming where the modeling elements are given different semantics as required by the particular modeling domain (described as a UML profile).

Value A measurable factor of benefit, of interest to a recipient, in association with a business item. A value may be desirable or undesirable (negative measurement) such as a cost or defect rate, or desirable (positive measurement) such as a feature or performance characteristic (VDML).

Value chain Set of stages that an organization carries out to create value for its customers. Concept originated by Michael Porter in 1985.

Value contribution A measurable effect of an activity that contributes to the level of satisfaction of one or more values in a value proposition (VDML).

Value delivery management A discipline for analysis, design, management, and transformation of the enterprise design at a conceptual/business leader level of abstraction employing the VDML. The model incorporates BCM and CBM with optimization based on value streams that deliver value to customers or other stakeholders. It supports multiple scenarios for business analysis and design based on evaluation of performance and stakeholder satisfaction. Values are created by activities and interactions of people and organizations using business capabilities (VDML).

Value delivery maturity model A framework of objectives for assessment of progress toward implementation of an agile enterprise based on the levels of business and technical design described in this book. The basic concept of the five levels is based on the CMMI developed at Carnegie Mellon University for assessment of information systems development and maintenance maturity.

Value network A technique originated by Verna Allee in which actual or intended business operations are modeled as a set of roles and interactions in which participants engage in both tangible and intangible exchanges to achieve economic or social good.

Value proposition Expression of the values contributed by the associated value stream and offered to a recipient in terms of the recipient’s level of satisfaction.

Value stream The network of activities that includes resources, value contributions, and capabilities converges to the delivery of a product or service and a value proposition for the representative customer who may be the ultimate customer or an internal end user of the result (VDML).

VDML Value Delivery Modeling Language specification of OMG.

Virtual enterprise An relationship among two or more independent business entities to cooperate and contribute for their mutual benefit in the conduct of a business as a shared endeavor.

Virtual private cloud A computing and communications configuration where multiple consumers of a cloud computing service share computing and communications facilities, but each is logically isolated in their own virtual computing environment. This provides similar but less robust benefits to use of a public cloud service.

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) An international standards organization that focuses on languages and protocols for communications over the Internet.

WfMC (Workflow management coalition) An international standards organization focused on the development of standards related to workflow management, which includes business process management technology.

Workflow Business processes that move work through sequences of activities in predefined paths. Workflow often implies business processes that are focused on human activities where the performance of activities is driven by the movement of a business transaction or work order to various persons or work stations. Most BPMS implement this process model with additional features.

WS-Federation (Web Services Federation) A specification of OASIS for the federation of identification and authentication among independently managed security domains.

WS-Policy (Web Services Policy) An XML-based language of W3C for specification of the requirements and capabilities of a web services participant as a basis for establishing compatibility for an exchange.

WS-Security (Web Services Security) A specification from OASIS that defines message structure and elements for secure message exchanges.

XACML (XML Access Control Markup Language) An OASIS specification for expression of access control/authorization policies regarding access to a specified resource (eg, data or operation).

XMI (XML Metadata Interchange) An OMG standard for the expression of a MOF-based model in XML for exchange between implementations of the same modeling language.

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) A language defined by W3C. XML is a character-based data format that uses name tags to identify data elements that are variable in length and form a nested hierarchy. XML is, for the most part, technology independent so that senders and receivers may use different technologies, and the structure provides flexibility enabling recipients to ignore elements in which they have no interest. A number of related technologies have been built on XML including parsing techniques, electronic signatures, specification of XML documents using XML, and so on.

XML Schema An XML-based language from W3C that is used to specify the structure of XML documents.

XML Signature A W3C specification for electronic signatures in XML documents.