A Decision Framework for Decentralized Control of Distributed Processes

Abstract

A typical example of a distributed process is trade finance where data and documents are transferred between multiple companies including importers, exporters, carriers, and banks. Blockchain is seen as a potential decentralized technology that can be used to automate such processes. However, there are also other competing technologies such as managed file transfers, messaging, and WebAPIs that may also be suitable for automating similar distributed processes. In this chapter, a decision framework is proposed to assist the solution architect in deciding the technology best suited to support decentralized control of a distributed business process where there are multiple companies involved. The framework takes as input the different areas of concern such as data, processing, governance, technical, and the pros and cons of the technologies in addressing these areas of concerns and provides a method to analyze and highlight the best technology for any process in question. Two example processes, trade finance and price distribution, are used to show the application of the framework.