Complexity analysis of BPEL Web processes

Several organizations have already realized the potential of using WS-BEPL, the Process Execution Language for Web Services, to model the behavior of Web services in business processes. WS-BPEL provides a model for describing simple or complex interactions between business partners. In some cases, WS-BPEL process designs can be highly complex, due, for example, to the vast number of Web services carried out in global markets. High complexity in a process has several undesirable drawbacks; it may result in poor understandability, more errors, defects, and exceptions, leading to processes requiring more time to be developed, tested, and maintained. Therefore, excessive complexity should be avoided. Processes that are highly complex tend be less flexible, since it is more complicated to make changes to the process. The major goal of this article is to present two metrics to analyze the control-flow complexity (CFC) of WS-BPEL Web processes. The metrics are to be used at design-time to evaluate the complexity of a process design before implementation actually takes place. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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