A paradigm for decentralized process modeling and its realization in the Oz environment

A Paradigm for Decentralized Process Modeling and its Realization in the Oz Environment Israel Z. Ben-Shaul This dissertation investigates decentralization of software processes and Process Centered Environments (PCEs), and addresses a wide range of issues concerned with supporting interoperability and collaboration among autonomous and heterogeneous processes, both in their definition and in their execution in possibly physically dispersed PCEs. Decentralization is addressed at three distinct levels of abstraction. The first proposes a generic conceptual model that is both language- and PCE-independent. The second level explores the realization of the model in a specific PCE, Oz, and its rule-based process modeling language. The third level addresses architectural issues in interconnecting autonomous PCEs as a basis for process interoperability. Two key concerns guide this research. The first is maximizing local autonomy, so as not to force a priori any global constraints on the...