Is BPEL the real deal? XML-based BPEL aims to be a standard for choreographing business processes and Web services.(Business Process Execution Language)(XML (Extensible markup language))

BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) is an XML-based, special purpose language that many hope will provide a standard way for specifying and building sharable business processes.

We could, of course, accomplish this integration using a general-purpose programming language such as Java or C# to build an application that talks SOAP and executes the business process. The problem with that approach is that the business process moves beyond the reach of the very business people who need to guide its maintenance and operation.

BPEL sidesteps that issue. It can be used in two ways: to specify the behavior of a process at an abstract level or to define …