Towards a Methodology for Designing Compensation Processes in Long-Running Business Transactions

Abstract — In short-lived transactions, database systems ensure atomicity by either committing all of the elements of the transaction, or canceling all of them in case of an error. With long-running processes, the notion of transaction takes on a different meaning, and it is no longer possible to rely on database managed transactions: we need so called compensation processes. Much like alternative paths in a use-case, compensation processes constitute the bulk of business process definition, and are error-prone. The purpose of this work is to lay the foundation for a methodology for designing compensation processes based on 1) a classification of business transactions in terms of an accounting ontology, and 2) a catalogue of compensation heuristics associated with these transactions. In this paper, we present the principles underlying our approach. I