Vendors active in creating Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) 2.0, which became an OASIS standard this past spring, are now working on two specifications that extend it to include human activities.

Active Endpoints Inc., Adobe Systems Inc., BEA Systems Inc., IBM, Oracle Corp. and SAP AG are developing BPEL4People and WS-HumanTask (WS-HT) to integrate the work business people do into Web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) applications. The group published a first draft of BPEL4People at the beginning of the summer and plans an update in the fall. The ultimate goal is to put the specifications into the OASIS standardization process, said Mike Pellegrini, principal architect at Active Endpoints, the BPEL products vendor.

A criticism of BPEL was that it didn't include human tasks, and the vendors recognized the need to create a people extension, he said.