1. Business Process Management (BPM)
What is BPM?
Why should I care?
SOA Brown Bag #4
SWIM Team
February 9, 2011

2. Agenda Introduction – why should I care? Definitions
The benefits of BPM
Model-Driven Environment
BPMN and its challenges
DoD Primitives
Adoption Challenges
BPM and SOA
BPEL Orchestration
Key characteristics of BPM Suites
Tools
Getting Started

3. Business and IT are tightly connected; they either succeed or fail together
Business Process: The required steps to accomplish a specific
business function.
“Representation of what an organization does -- its work -- in order to accomplish a specific purpose or objective”
source: BPMN Modeling and Reference Guide
Business processes that require automation are implemented and facilitated through IT.
As business processes change, IT has to change.
Business Processes
IT implementation

4. Processes drive a “true” SOA
Myth:
If you’ve implemented web services, you’ve implemented SOA.
Reality:
An organization will reap the full benefits of SOA if it starts with its business process.
The reward at the end of the journey

5. BPM, BPMN & BPEL defined BPM Business Process Management
A management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization based on the wants and needs of clients.
BPMN
Business Process Modeling Notation
A graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model.
BPEL
Business Process Execution Language
A standard executable language for specifying actions within business processes with web services, created by the Organization for the Advancement of Structural Information Standards.

6. Business Process Execution Business Rules Processing
Additional elements
BPE
Business Process Execution
Supports web-service languages for process definition and execution. Supports BPEL.
BRP
Business Rules Processing
Infers outcomes based on data and operation results from previous business process executions (Business Rules Engine).

7. How does it all fit together?
BPM
BPMN
BPEL
Services Layer

8. What is the benefit of BPM?
To gain sight and control of the business process.
To provide a service orchestration layer in SOA implementation.
To enable business agility.

9. What is a model-driven environment (MDE)?
Models created based on today’s problem and tomorrow’s solution environments.
Models can be created with sufficient specificity to generate the necessary technical artifacts for execution, or can be executed directly in the appropriate run-time environment.
Business Process Automation engine (see next slide)
Business rules engine

10. How do we get to a model-driven environment?
A BPMN model captures business processes transfers them to a Business Process Automation engine in a BPMN-executable serialization format.
Depending on the tool, it may also be:
Transferred as an XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) format.
Translated into the BPEL specification.
Captured in one of the business rules languages.

11. Process and rule models in an MDE
Source: DoD Federation Strategy

12. BPMN: different conformance subclasses for different uses
Descriptive
Contains a limited vocabulary to facilitate model understanding by a broad group of stakeholders.
Analytical
Adds more refined modeling elements, such as different event types and exceptions.
Common Executable
Focuses mainly on the attributes of BPMN elements that need to be maintained to support the execution of a BPMN process.

13. BPMN 2.0 Conformance Class

14. Challenges
There are too many options to accomplish the same results or to diagram the same processes.
Using tools interchangeably is nearly impossible.

15. Project: DoD Primitives
Using DoD Primitives is a way to establish standard format for diagrams and for data that represents the diagrams, and for data that moves within and between the reality that diagrams represent.
The Object Management Group selects DoD primitives as a BPMN conformance class.

16. Primitives Ontology (PrOnto) Primitives Modeling Guide (PriMo)
Provides basic definitions of the architecture model semantics.
Provides elementary rules for the connectivity of primitive constructs.
Provides foundation building blocks for constructing architecture products.
Caveat: A common vocabulary by itself does not guarantee high quality products.
A style guide provides subjective advice that will ensure the design of high quality products.
A style guide advises on:
Choice of words.
Which constructs are appropriate in a given situation.
Choice of grammar:
How to combine constructs to maximum effect.
Dictionary
Source: DoD briefing

17. Adoption challenges
Thinking “Process” – True, executable BPM requires a new level of rigor and attention to business processes.
Managing cultural impact – Documenting processes with tools (as opposed to pictures) will illustrate issues with current processes. A socialization strategy is key.
Many popular BPM suites are ‘heavyweight’ and present a non-trivial learning curve.

18. Coarse-Level Web Services
BPM and SOA
Process Flows
Coarse-Level Web Services
Best Case Scenario

19. A business-driven SOA, defined and the services that enable them.” *
“SOA is a way of describing an environment in terms of shared mission and business functions
and the services that enable them.” *
*Source: DoD Net-Centric Data Strategy

20. BPM and SOA ESB BAM Trusted Enclave DMZ Internet Internal Systems BPEL
UDDI
External Systems
ESB
WS Security
Internal
Systems
BPEL
BAM
Trusted Enclave
DMZ
Internet

21. BPEL orchestration
A BPEL orchestration is considered a web service in the domain to which it belongs.
All BPEL processes provide a set of WSDL and schema definition files within the namespace that identifies the domain.
The BPEL WSDL file will provide the binding information and the endpoint of the location where it is deployed.
The orchestration is represented in a WS-BPEL standard representation that should be portable across BPEL engines.
BPEL orchestration service should follow web service invocation standards (WS-I).

22. BPEL orchestration, continued
All orchestrations have one entry point and one response point.
The invocation/entry to the orchestration is marked with the receive block and delivers the message identified as the input parameter in the operation.
Response block must return a message identified as the output parameter in the operation.
A BPEL process may be synchronous e.g., a client needs to receive response immediately, or asynchronous e.g., a client will continue its operation and receive a response at a later time.

23. BPEL orchestration elements
A BPEL orchestration consists of scopes, sequence, partner-links, variables, activities and fault handling.
Scope: Identifies the unit of operation within an orchestration. This helps to avoid variable collisions, fault handling and ensuring transaction integrity.
Sequence: Identifies a sequence of activities.
Partner Links: External services are represented as partner links and they specify the WSDL file of the external service.
Partner Links/Adapters: Some BPEL tools provide technology and application adapters that extend basic technologies i.e., databases, queues or applications i.e., CRM, ERP as web services through wizards.
Variables: Data stores that hold the operational data within the life of the orchestration. Variables can be localized to a scope or set in the global scope.
Activities: Transformations allow copying whole or sub trees of data across variables. Assignments allow specifying values for leaf nodes of an XML tree.
Fault handling: Scope errors can be managed using fault handling for a graceful exit as well as for ensuring transactional integrity. Errors with partner link invocations must be handled using fault handling.

24. Key characteristics of BPM suites
A graphical modeling capability
Ability to simulate business process
Ability to create rules to drive flow and decisions
Ability to capture, present, and analyze process metrics
Standards-based

25. Getting started Prototype/Pilot – an area for improvements!
Choose a small, but business-significant process.
Engage the vendor for training, preferably focusing on the pilot problem.
Identify business services required for process support.
“Prototype” the socialization process.
Engage stakeholders to assess feasibility of making candidate process changes illustrated by the modeling process.

26. For more information White Papers
IBM Thought Leadership White Paper
Lombardi Downloads
Office of Information Technology – ATO BPMS Services
Julie Flores-Kriegsfeld
Jonathan Beams

27. Discussion