XML Process Definition Language (XPDL)

a standard of the XPDL

XPDL is the Serialization Format for BPMN

BPMN is a visual process notation standard from the BPMI, now OMG, endorsed by WfMC, and broadly adopted across the industry. But the BPMN standard defines only the look of how the process definition is displayed on the screen. How you store and interchange those process definitions is outside the scope of the standard, and this is where XPDL comes in. XPDL provides a file format that supports every aspect of the BPMN process definition notation including graphical descriptions of the diagram, as well as executable properties used at run time. With XPDL, a product can write out a process definition with full fidelity, and another product can read it in and reproduce the same diagram that was sent.

Current XPDL Specification

XPDL Enables a Process Definition Ecosystem

XPDL is used today by more than 80 different products today to exchange process definitions. As a greater percentage part of the organization starts to use process tools for everyday work, it will become less and less reasonable to take a single-vendor strategy to process definition work. Users need to go beyond the vendor lock-in, and take a "best of breed" approach that allows the use of their favorite process technology to accomplish specific process oriented tasks, such as simulation and optimization, and future tasks that we can only dream of today.