We describe a middleware solution for automatic run-time process versioning in Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and then analyse its impact in terms of scalability and performance. Business processes change in response to business needs, but the deployment of new versions to a BPEL engine must ensure that running instances are not disrupted and can conclude following their original workflows. Our solution is implemented as a standalone component that manages versioning transparently to the process editor, the orchestration engine, the web services used by the process, and the end-user. We have tested it for almost 1 year in the production environment of a telecommunications company, without significant overhead in terms of process invocation time.

The authors acknowledge the valuable comments and suggestions by the editor and anonymous reviewers. Partly financed by national funding via the Foundation for Science and Technologyand by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through COMPETE'20

Business process versioning · Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) · BPEL versioning · Serviceoriented architecture (SOA) · Web services · Middleware

• Computer and Information Sciences - Natural Sciences
• Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering - Engineering and Technology