2022/06/01

Serverless Workflow vs BPMN - comparison


Workflows are becoming (again) more popular and pretty much all cloud providers have something to offer in that area. This article is not to cover all possible workflows but two in particular I have worked with

  • Serverless Workflow
  • BPMN - Business Process Model and Notation

Serverless Workflow

Serverless workflow is a standards-based DSL (workflow definition language) and open-source developer tools and runtimes. What is worth to mention it is a vendor neutral workflow language that aims at providing portable workflow definition language and tools including runtimes.

BPMN

BPMN is both graphical notation (it actually originated from it) and interchange format (xml based) to describe workflows or to put it more in context of BPMN a business process. It serves as documentation of the business logic but also is often used to execute these processes as part of automation platforms.

So at first sight you can already notice first difference - one is positioned from technology perspective - serverless while the other is more business oriented. The other important difference is the target audience. Serverless Workflow definition uses DSL that can be either JSON or YAML which makes it a better fit for technical users. BPMN has started from being a documentation tool to be able to graphically model business logic and it then it was equipped with execution aspects.

So then which one is for what and for whom? Find out by reading full article.