Automated Negotiation of CPPA

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Automated Negotiation of CPPA

• Martin W. Sachs
• Automated-negotiation subteam
• June 3, 2002

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Creating an e-Business Relationship

• Prospective partners find each other
• ebXML registry
• Agree on IT and business details
• Negotiate where needed
• Configure their systems compatibly
• Do business by message exchanges

Autonegotiation An enabler for spontaneous
e-Business
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Purpose of Automated Negotiation

• Automate many of the tasks of negotiation
• Spontaneous e-Business
• Create and manage long-term partner relationships
• Human still involved for cases that cant be
  automated.
• Negotiation of what?
• Start with negotiation of variables in CPA
• Move upward to application domain
• Business/legal terms and conditions
• Business parameters (price, quantities, etc.)

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Project Goals

• Negotiate CPA
• Extend upward to business and legal terms and
  conditions
• Much more complex than CPA, e.g. interacting
  parameters
• Extend to other domains
• Web Services
• Electronic service-level agreements
• Basic protocols should be domain-independent

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Negotiation Configurations

• One on one between prospective trading partners
• Negotiation intermediary
• Each prospective trading partner has a
  negotiation CPA with the intermediary
• Intermediary is a broker

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ebXML CPA

• Agreed parameters for exchanging messages
• Transport (protocol, addresses, security)
• Document exchange (protocol, security
• Message packaging
• Choreography
• Requests, responses, ordering
• BPSS Instance document

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Party Profile

• Description of single party
• Technology parameters
• ebXML CPP
• Business parameters
• Negotiation Information

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CPA Template

• Almost-complete CPA
• Some items to be completed or negotiated
• Take-it-or-leave-it CPA supplied by one party
• Some information, such as endpoint address to be
  supplied by other party
• Draft CPA composed from two CPPs
• Simplifies negotiation process
• Negotiation deals with only items that cannot be
  mechanically reconciled

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Negotiation Descriptor Document

• NDD Negotiation Descriptor Document
• Pointers to negotiable items in
• CPP
• CPA Template
• Ranges of values, choices from enumeration, etc.
• May be included in partner profile
• May be sent to prospective trading partner
• Details may depend on which partner it is.
• Exchanged at start of negotiation

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Agreement Life Cycle

• Prospective trading partners find each others
  profile in ebXML registry
• Obtain CPA template from one partners registry
  entry
• Or compose draft agreement from the two profiles
• Negotiate details based on
• Template or draft agreement
• NDD
• Deploy copies of agreement into their systems
• Do business

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Negotiation Business Process

• Negotiation algorithm
• Design of business process
• Specify in sufficient detail that two independent
  implementations will interoperate
• Negotiation Protocol
• Choreography
• Message exchanges
• Documents

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Components of Negotiation Protocol

• Protocol definition (BPSS instance doc.)
• Definition of message-exchange transactions
• Order of message exchanges
• Negotiation CPA (NCPA)
• Governs negotiation protocol (BPSS instance)
• Must not have to be negotiated
• Basic functions that all users support
• NDDs
• Whats negotiable in CPP or CPA template
• Contents of message payloads

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Protocol Example
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Status

• Requirements document
• Negotiation Details document
• CPA composition appendix in CPPA spec.
• Consider moving to negotiation spec and making
  some material normative
• Earlier documents provide input
• ebXML E-Commerce Patterns, v 1.0, 11 May 2001
• ebXML Automatic CPA Negotiation
• Duane Nickull proposal, 11 Feb 2001

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Work in Progress

• Analysis of negotiability of CPPA elements and
  attributes (spreadsheet)
• Main work item for this week
• BPSS instance, initial draft
• Initial discussions of NDD contents
• Initial discussions of message content

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Work to be Started

• Negotiation business process