ora le pm suite 11g usiness driven pm - oracle silver associates 2013 5 process omposer the...
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Bruce Silver Associates Industry Trend Reports Independent Expertise in BPM February 2013
BPMS Watch www.brsilver.com Bruce Silver 1216 New York Drive, Altadena CA 91001 USA Tel: +1 831.685.8803 E-mail: [email protected]
OR AC L E BPM S U I T E 11G
Business-Driven BPM
For years, the challenge for BPM Suite vendors has been how to match BPM’s “business-
driven” promise to the technical complexity of automating core business processes. At one
time, business-driven meant process analysts working with the business to create process
and use case models as “business requirements” that would handed off to developers for
implementation. For today’s BPM market, business-driven demands more. It means
empowerment of process analysts and business users themselves to directly participate in the
implementation. That requires a new generation of tools, not just for process authoring but
for management at runtime, tools designed for business users. Of course, programmers and
traditional IDEs continue to play a vital role in BPM. But implementation would be faster,
less costly, and a better match to user expectations if process analysts and end users could do
some of that implementation themselves, including design of process flows, task forms, data
models, and decision logic, or optimize process performance through simulation analysis.
The latest release of Oracle BPM Suite 11g version 11.1.1.7 embraces this challenge. A
centerpiece of the new version is enhancement of the Business Process Composer, a
browser-based tool for process analysts and business users that bridges the divide between
modeling and executable design. Process Composer in the new release adds features for
team collaboration and versioning, form design, simulation analysis and process playback,
definition of business objects, and decision modeling.
Another key element is case management, in which tasks are determined dynamically based
on case context, using events, rules and process logic defined in Composer in combination
with ad-hoc user actions at runtime. A case is now a first-class component in Oracle BPM
11g, with its own model of case activities, events, stakeholders, and permissions separate
from those embedded in a BPM process, as well as its own Process Space for the case
folder..
This report examines Oracle BPM Suite 11g 11.1.1.7, explains its position and
differentiation in the BPMS landscape, and takes a closer look at the new capabilities of the
latest version. We’ll focus on its new features that empower business users, both at design
time and runtime, and just touch on the developer-oriented tooling and runtime stack that
have made Oracle BPM’s world-class reputation in the past.
Product Overview
Oracle BPM Suite 11g, part of Oracle Fusion Middleware, combines business-driven design
and rich human-centric BPM with Oracle’s well-known strengths in robust integration
middleware. When BPM 11g was first launched in 2010, it was the first BPM Suite to take
advantage of BPMN 2.0 as an executable process design standard, while rivals like IBM and
SAP still had a split personality – BPMN for human-centric processes and BPEL for
integration-centric. That gap has diminished somewhat today, but Oracle’s “unified and
complete” message still remains a differentiator in another aspect, as a single platform
supporting both conventional BPM and case management. Oracle maintains that you
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shouldn’t have to buy two different platforms to do structured and unstructured processes…
and I basically agree.
The new release retains the original BPM 11g architecture (Figure 1), which combines two
formerly distinct BPM offerings – one based on BPMN (deriving from Fuego via BEA) and
the other on BPEL (deriving from Collaxa) – in a powerful unified design and runtime
platform. Today, BPEL is mostly confined to the Oracle SOA Suite, the Fusion Middleware
component providing the underlying integration middleware, while the end-to-end BPM is
BPMN-based.
BPM 11g provides two alternative authoring environments: BPM Studio, a desktop IDE
based on JDeveloper and oriented to Java programmers, and Process Composer, a browser-
based environment oriented to process analysts and business users. Process Composer has
been enhanced to handle several aspects of implementation design formerly requiring
Studio, including definition of business objects, decision models, and task forms.
Figure 1. Oracle BPM 11g architecture. Source: Oracle
The Oracle BPM runtime is based on WebLogic Server, with system monitoring and
management through Oracle Enterprise Manager. In addition to the process engine, the
runtime includes the Oracle Rules Engine and a separate Human Workflow Engine.
Maintaining decision logic separate from process logic increases business agility by letting
business analysts modify the logic without requiring developer assistance or interrupting
business processes. The human workflow service provides task routing to users or roles,
deadlines and escalations, task forms, and similar workflow features.
End user experience is handled through a combination of the Oracle BPM Workspace and
BPM Process Spaces. The BPM Workspace lets users view running process instances, work
on tasks, and monitor performance dashboards. Process Spaces is a collaborative workspace
built on top of Oracle WebCenter Spaces and adds team collaboration features for BPM
users.
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WYDIWYE: What You Draw is What You Execute
When it was first launched in 2010, Oracle BPM Suite 11g was the first BPMS based on
executable BPMN 2.0, a choice that other middleware-oriented BPMS vendors have since
begun to imitate. The advantage of this is true model-driven process execution, sometimes
called WYDIWYE – What You Draw Is What You Execute. WYDIWYE stands in contrast to
BPMN that just serves as a blueprint or business requirements for implementation in some
other process language, such as BPEL or Java. Today, the war is over. For BPM at least,
WYDIWYE, Oracle’s approach, has won.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the BPMN created by the process analyst is the
BPMN used in the executable implementation. Model sharing between analyst and
developer normally requires the analyst and developer to share a common IDE, usually with
the analyst using a simplified “analyst mode.” In fact, when BPM 11g first came out, that is
how it worked, and that approach still works… up to a point. But to be really “business-
driven”, BPM implementation should not require process analysts and business users to use
a programmer IDE, and that is the big advantage of Oracle BPM Suite 11g. It lets business
users go from modeling to execution using Process Composer.
Process Composer is browser-based, not a heavyweight desktop IDE, with a more business-
friendly interface. Unlike the browser-based business-oriented process modeling
environments from, say, IBM or SAP, Process Composer shares the same repository of
design artifacts used by developers in BPM Studio. In other words, Composer artifacts are
not simply business requirements but part of the actual implementation. The familiar
mismatch between business requirements and executable implementation – the notorious
“roundtripping” problem – is greatly reduced.
In terms of BPMN 2.0 support, Oracle was not only first out of the gate but remains ahead of
its major BPMS competitors today. For example, most BPM Suites completely omit
message flows in their BPMN models, the dashed lines representing interactions between the
process and external entities and processes. Oracle does not. For example (Figure 2),
Oracle uses message flows to show in the diagram where one process can trigger another
one or invoke a service, with drilldown to the message details.
Oracle BPM also excels in its support for the most important BPMN events: Message (point-
to-point inter-process communications), Error (propagation of exceptions from child to
parent process levels), Timer (deadline-triggered behavior), and Signal (general purpose
publish-subscribe integration). When drawn on the boundary of an activity, these events
signify that if the event trigger occurs while the activity is running, the process will initiate
the exception flow drawn out of the boundary event. If the activity completes without the
event trigger, then the exception flow is ignored. Such boundary events can be used, for
example, to describe what happens when the customer changes an order in flight, or when an
activity takes too long, or when a service returns an exception (Figure 3). While competitors
ignore certain event-triggered behaviors or hide them behind custom Javascript, Oracle BPM
11g follows the WYDIWYE paradigm for both exception handling and inter-process
communications and makes the behavior visible in the process diagram.
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Figure 2. Oracle supports BPMN collaboration diagrams depicting message flows between
pools. Source: Oracle
Figure 3. Oracle supports all the important BPMN event types for exception handling. Source:
Oracle
Another aspect of Oracle’s BPMN implementation that is a bit different from the norm is the
modeling of human tasks and workflow. Notice in Figure 1 that the Human Workflow
Engine separate from the BPMN process engine. Following an idea that originated in the
BPEL4People standard, a single human task in Oracle’s BPMN process model may be
implemented as a complex human workflow, such as an approval chain involving multiple
actors. The advantages of this are more flexible assignment of the actors, based on
declarative rules, and a common workflow paradigm shared with Oracle applications.
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Process Composer
The browser-based Process Composer is the centerpiece of Oracle’s business-driven
implementation effort in 11.1.1.7. In Composer, process analysts and business users can
create BPM projects based on project templates. Each project template exposes a business
catalog of process components shared with developers using Oracle BPM Studio via the
Oracle Metadata Store (MDS). Composer lets business users assemble these components,
whether created by themselves or by developers in Studio, in executable process solutions.
In other words, they can go from model to execution and deployment directly from
Composer. Business users can also create projects not based on a template.
Collaborative Project Workspace
Each project in Composer has its own project workspace (Figure 4), with team collaboration
features including management of project roles, shared editing of processes, human tasks,
business rules, and other project components, snapshot versioning and change history of all
project objects, and project approval workflows.
Figure 4. Project workspace in Process Composer. Source: Oracle
Process Modeling
Process Composer includes a full BPMN 2.0 editor (Figure 5), and allows business users to
review and comment on process models created by others (Figure 6).
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Figure 5. Browser-based BPMN 2.0 editor in Composer. Source: Oracle
Figure 6. Specifying business requirements for process implementation through Composer.
Source: Oracle
Simulation
New in 11.1.1.7 is the ability to perform simulation analysis inside Composer. (In previous
versions, this required BPM Studio.) Simulation lets you project changes in operational
performance metrics such as process cost and cycle time by assigning estimated resource
costs and activity durations to the process model (Figure 7).
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Figure 7. Simulation parameter definition in Process Composer. Source: Oracle
Based on those parameters, for a given scenario of staffing levels and process instance
volumes, simulation projects end-to-end performance and identifies bottlenecks that could
occur (Figure 8). Simulation in interactive, and can combine estimated parameters with real
runtime data.
Figure 8. Simulation analysis inside Composer. Source: Oracle
Activity Guides Oracle BPM supports “guided business processes” that help task performers complete and
manage their work more easily and with less training. Activity Guides defined in Process
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Composer (Figure 9) define milestones, each a set of tasks that the process participant must
complete.
Figure 9. Activity Guide definition in Composer. Source: Oracle
Figure 10 shows how an Activity Guide is presented to participants for an employee
onboarding process, a more business-friendly presentation for many human-centric
processes. Developers can customize the presentation using ADF.
Figure 10. Activity guide for employee onboarding process. Source: Oracle
Task Forms
One of the most significant enhancements in the new release is the ability to design task
forms in Composer (Figure 11). Previously, this required definition of ADF forms in BPM
Studio, in some cases a barrier to business-driven implementation. Now process analysts
can design and preview web forms themselves in Composer. Developers can further enrich
the behavior of Composer web forms through scripting.
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Figure 11. Composer Form Editor. Source: Oracle
Process Player
Another significant addition to Composer in 11.1.1.7 is the Process Player (Figure 12). It
allows the process analyst to step through the process one activity at a time, play the role of
the assigned task performer, display the task form, and interact with it via fields and buttons.
Playback of process models to stakeholders in the business allows immediate feedback,
leading to shorter implementation cycles, shorter training times, and increased user
acceptance. Processes do not need to have implementation details defined in order to use the
Player. Playback of these draft mode models lets business users visualize the flow of work
prior to implementation and facilitates iterative process discovery.
Figure 12. Process Player in Composer. Source: Oracle
Business Rules
Business rules let organizations encapsulate business decision logic in reusable components
defined outside of the processes that use them. Most BPMSs force process designers to
choose between very simple rules defined within the BPMS design environment and third-
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party Business Rule Management Suites that must be integrated with the BPMS. Oracle
stands out by bundling and integrating a full-featured BRMS, Oracle Business Rules, within
the BPMS tooling, accessible from Composer or BPM Studio.
A dictionary is an Oracle Business Rules container for all the components of decision logic,
an XML file that stores the rulesets and the data model. Dictionaries are created in Oracle
JDeveloper and can be viewed and edited in Process Composer. The Composer Business
Rules Editor (Figure 13) supports both IF/THEN rules and Decision Tables. Each condition
row in a Decision Table tests the allowed values of a data input to the ruleset, called a fact.
Each column represents a particular bucketset, an enumerated fact value or range. The
combination of all the condition tests in a column specifies an action, typically setting the
value of a data output. The complete Decision Table defines a ruleset, deployed as a
business rule component invoked from the process as a Business Rule task in BPMN. The
editor provides quick tools for resolving gaps and conflicts in the table.
Figure 13. Business Rules Editor in Process Composer. Source: Oracle
Business rules can be used to simplify complex routing logic at gateways, detailed task
assignment and workflow, and dynamic service selection. The combination of a powerful
business-friendly rule designer with direct integration to BPMN process models is another
reason Oracle BPM 11g stands out from the BPMS pack.
Enhanced End User Experience
Oracle has made significant efforts in 11.1.1.7 to increase the flexibility of the BPM end
user experience, both in the process portal or workspace, and in handling assigned workflow
tasks.
Workspace Enhancements
Out of the box, Oracle BPM provides the Business Process Workspace, a customizable form
of a typical BPM end user worklist (Figure 14). In addition, Oracle BPM Suite 11g offers an
enhanced Web 2.0-based social collaboration environment called Process Spaces.
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Figure 14. Business Process Workspace. Source: Oracle
Process Spaces is part of Oracle WebCenter Spaces, a role-based runtime environment built
on Oracle WebCenter Framework and Application Development Framework (ADF). Each
Process Space is a user-configurable container for a variety of widgets combining team
collaboration with process information, including calendars, discussions, documents, tasks,
an activity stream, wikis, process audit trail, and more (Figure 15, Figure 16). They are the
cornerstone of what Oracle calls Social BPM, fit-for-purpose collaboration environments
leveraging Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 technology that place process tasks and dashboards in
a social context.
Figure 15. Process Spaces built on Oracle WebCenter are user-configurable Web 2.0 mashups
of BPM, team collaboration, and other components. Source: Oracle
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Figure 16. Process Spaces. Source: Oracle
Views (Figure 17), introduced in 11.1.1.7, represent end user-configurable worklists instead
of the standard Inbox view. Users define their own sort, filter, and display criteria in both
personal and shared views. Worklist widgets can be bound to any selected view.
Figure 17. User View configuration. Source: Oracle
Rich Human Interaction
BPM Studio supports definition of richly interactive human task user interfaces using the
Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) and configured using wizards as Java
Server Page XML (.jspx) files. ADF is a declarative framework based on industry standard
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Java Server Faces (JSF). It includes a rich set of interactive components, a zero-code
WYSIWYG designer, and wizards for generation of task user interfaces linked to BPM.
Figure 18. ADF Task Flow. Source: Oracle
ADF implements the Model View Controller pattern, separating the data from its
presentation to users. The Model defines the link between the underlying business services
that provide access to both BPM and external data sources and the View, that is, the forms.
ADF task flows (Figure 18) define the screenflow logic implemented by the Controller –
how a BPM end user clicking a button on a page in a Human Task UI interacts with some
data, which is then presented on some other page.
Figure 19. ADF task UI supports rich human interaction. Source: Oracle
In this way, ADF can abstract any back-end data source as a data control and mash it up with
BPM data to create a richly interactive end user experience for BPM users. Custom task
forms support tabbed interfaces including process data, charts and graphs, and action buttons
linked to the process model (Figure 19). ADF also includes data visualization components
supporting a wide variety of charts and graphs, Gantt charts, map viewers, and hierarchy
viewers that can be used to enhance the BPM UI.
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Oracle BPM Suite 11g also supports rendering of web forms, ADF Forms and BPM
Workspace in mobile browsers (Figure 20).
Figure 20. BPM Workspace in iPad. Source: Oracle
Figure 21. Rule-based delegation, reassignment, or automated handling. Source: Oracle
Flexible Process Management
The new release of Oracle BPM Suite 11g provides enhanced process management
flexibility for process participants, owners, and administrators. Through Preferences
configured in a participant’s workspace, User Rules can automatically reassign, delegate, or
approve/reject work items meeting specific criteria, such as arriving while the user is on
vacation (Figure 21). The rule conditions can select instances based on due dates, specific
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tasks, or certain values of process data. Rules can also be used to specify notification
channels based on conditions (Figure 22). By tailoring participation to each user’s needs,
rules such as these can greatly improve the effectiveness of process automation.
Figure 22. Rule-based notifications. Source: Oracle
Figure 23. Owner view. Source: Oracle
Supervisors and process owners often need to search for specific instances of a running
process for special handling. Owner views (Figure 23) allow search based on multiple
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conditions and ad-hoc actions on the retrieved instance, such as altering its data or flow, all
supported by an audit trail.
Figure 24. Ad-hoc insertion of a new task in human workflow. Source: Oracle
Ad-hoc processing is also possible in the steps managed by the Human Workflow Service
(Figure 24). An assigned task performer can reassign or delegate a task instance at runtime,
and new approvers may be inserted into the chain at runtime.
Figure 25. Instance patching and revisioning. Source: Oracle
In addition, Oracle BPM now supports instance patching and instance revisioning (Figure
25). Instance patching migrates all running instances of a process to a new version, on the
fly. Instance revisioning deploys a new process version and migrates selected in-flight
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instances. An Oracle tool reports which instances can be migrated safely without manual
intervention.
Case Management
The term case management, sometimes called dynamic case management or adaptive case
management, refers to business processes that are unstructured in the sense of lacking
predefined activity flow models such as BPMN provides. Case activities are instead defined
independently and related to each other by rules, events, and ad-hoc user actions. Unlike
some of its competitors, Oracle offers case management as part of the BPM11g 11.1.1.7
product, not as a separate product. After all, many of the concepts and components used in
regular BPM – event-triggered behaviors, business rules, activities, and milestones, for
example – apply in case management as well. The difference is that in case management,
the tasks available to be performed are determined dynamically based on the case context.
Other aspects of case management, such as strong integration with content management,
BAM and case analytics, are already supported by BPM.
A major difference between case management and regular BPM is that case activities,
events, stakeholders, and permissions are related to each other by a different type of logic. A
case progresses through various milestones by a combination of activities, events, and rules.
Figure 26 illustrates editors for specifying the properties for a case (milestones, outcomes,
permissions, etc.) and for a case activity (availability, inputs, outputs).
Figure 26. Editors for defining Case and Case Activity properties. Source: Oracle
Instead of interacting with a the small bit of process information exposed by a particular task
form in regular BPM, case management users typically access all information related to the
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case via an electronic case folder. Oracle implements the case folder as a Case Space, for
which the Process Spaces interface works well (Figure 27). Alternatively, case activities can
be presented to users through an Activity Guide, such as used in regular BPM (Figure 10).
Since all users can access the same shared case folder or Space, case management requires a
finer-grained permissions model than regular BPM. For that, Oracle links Security tags to
sets of security policies, granting user permissions to case objects associated with those tags.
Figure 27. Case Space in Oracle Process Spaces. Source: Oracle
Case information often takes the form of documents rather than fields in a form, and those
documents must be indexed and managed even after the case is closed. That requires tight
integration between case management and a content management repository. Oracle BPM
provides that, integrating not only with Oracle Content Server but with any third-party
content repository supporting the CMIS standard.
Process Analytics
Oracle BPM captures performance data for purposes ranging from basic operational
monitoring to strategic process intelligence (Figure 28). It aggregates process events into
performance measures, which can be sliced and diced by various dimensions. In addition to
the predefined measures, process analysts can define custom measures using business
indicators, a special type of process variable supporting dimensional analysis. Oracle BPM
provides a set of pre-defined cubes, database structures that let you break out aggregated
measures in real time by various dimensions. Oracle BPM calls this Process Analytics and
supports it in various ways.
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Figure 28. Spectrum of Process Analytics. Source: Oracle
For operational monitoring, the standard BPM Workspace Dashboards provide out-of-the-
box charts of workload and performance by process and participant, with drilldown from
process to its activities, and from participant to processes (Figure 29). You can drill down to
individual instances as well. The instance drilldown shows an audit trail (both tabular and
graphical) of the execution path.
Figure 29. Operational Monitoring dashboard in BPM Workspace. Source: Oracle
In addition, Oracle BAM (Figure 30) provides real-time monitoring in tailored reports that
support management by exception and alert-triggered actions. It continuously tracks key
performance indicators and service level agreements, correlating process events and
conditions, and identifying trends as they emerge. Event-triggered alerts and automated
actions allow users to react quickly in response to exception conditions.
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Figure 30. Oracle BAM. Source: Oracle
For true process intelligence, Oracle BPM integrates with Oracle Business Intelligence
(OBIEE). The process model in combination with the BPM STAR schema can be mapped
to the BI model to create process-aware BI dashboards (Figure 31).
Figure 31. Process-aware BI. Source: Oracle
Oracle Real-Time Decision (RTD) software adds predictive analytics and business
intelligence to business logic. An automated self-learning system, Oracle RTD attempts to
make the best possible decision at the current moment based on data and situational context,
and uses data to discover insights that continually improve decisions over time. It combines
software and expertise to automate and improve decision-making within critical business
systems, continuously updating itself based on new data and optimizing its
recommendations. For example, in product promotional offers, it provides situational
awareness that correlates attributes such as customer demographics, location, income, and
purchase history, and can learn from previous outcomes, such as the most favorable time of
day.
Finally, Oracle Event Processing (OEP) provides complex event processing, correlating
business events and generating triggered actions based on defined patterns and rules. These
events can be generated by both processes and external sources.
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In sum, Oracle’s broad spectrum of process analytics offerings translates into “smart BPM”
that not only automates and monitors the process but optimizes performance as it runs.
Process Accelerators
To reduce time-to-value for its customers, Oracle offers a variety of Process Accelerators
(Figure 32). Designed in collaboration with customers, these prebuilt, extensible “product-
grade” solutions embody domain knowledge and best practices. Each Process Accelerator
provides a collection of process and data models, automated services, richly interactive
human tasks, business rules, content management, and process analytics, together with
documentation and learning content.
Figure 32. Process Accelerators currently available (checked), with more on the way. Source:
Oracle
Unified Foundation for BPM and SOA
With all the emphasis on business empowerment, we should not forget that Oracle BPM
provides a unified and complete platform for all types of processes: human-centric,
integration-centric, structured or unstructured, all layered on a world-class SOA foundation.
Unified Process Authoring
Although used primarily by developers, Oracle BPM Studio shares its catalog of process
components with Composer through the Oracle Metadata Store (MDS). Thus, there is a
single set of modeling artifacts shared by process analysts, business users, and developers,
from conception to execution, avoiding the Business-IT roundtripping problem faced by
most BPM Suites.
BPM Studio (Figure 33) provides a comprehensive, unified authoring environment for BPM
developers. In addition to a BPMN 2.0 process editor, BPM Studio provides editors for
process data, organizational roles, services and application integration, human tasks
(including ADF forms and task flows), business rules, process analytics, and all other
components of a complete BPM solution. All of the Studio components used in a BPM
project are collected in the business catalog, which is shared with Process Composer in the
form of project templates. Process analysts can use BPM Studio as well, although many of
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the tasks formerly done in Studio’s process analyst perspective are now available in Process
Composer.
Figure 33. BPM Studio. Source: Oracle
Integrated SOA Foundation
Most BPM Suites supporting business-driven implementation lack a robust SOA foundation
well integrated with the BPM stack. Not so with Oracle BPM 11g. Its unified runtime
architecture (Figure 34) layers BPM on top of the world-class Oracle Fusion Middleware
foundation supporting SOA, process orchestration, human task management, and business
rules.
Figure 34. Unified runtime architecture. Source: Oracle
Oracle’s scalable grid infrastructure supports extremely high transaction rates and thousands
of concurrent users for both system and human workflows. The integration layer offers a
Studio – Comprehensive IDE for Developers
Single BPMN 2.0
model
Empower business analyst with
catalog of implementation
artifacts
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common JCA-based connectivity infrastructure, Oracle adapters, Oracle Service Bus,
mediation flows, and policy-based security and quality of service. You also get UDDI,
identity services, B2B services, event infrastructure, and other Fusion Middleware features
missing in a pureplay human-centric BPMS.
BPMN-SOA Links
Unlike other BPMSs, Oracle makes the linkage between BPMN shapes and their SOA
component implementations explicit and configurable in the process model. User tasks in
BPMN call human task components; BPMN Business Rule tasks call business rule
components; BPMN Service tasks call synchronous service composites, including BPEL
processes; BPMN Send/Receive tasks and Message events invoke asynchronous composites,
including other BPMN processes, and their callbacks. BPMN Signal events leverage the
power of the Fusion Event Delivery Network for loosely coupled publish-subscribe
integration based on business events. BPMN Error events reference exceptions defined in
the BPM Studio business catalog. In the integration layer, BPEL continues to play an
important role in defining automated composite services that are called by BPMN business
processes.
Service Component Architecture
Both BPM and SOA composites are described using the Service Component Architecture
(SCA) standard. Connections between the service components representing each process,
service, human task, business rule, and adapter used in a BPM project are modeled as wires
in the SCA Composite Editor (Figure 35). Security and quality of service properties can be
specified for the wires using policies defined either in JDeveloper or at runtime in Enterprise
Manager.
Figure 35. Composite editor shows connections between all solution components. Source:
Oracle
The Metadata Store (MDS) repository stores deployed applications and components as well
as projects and project templates for both BPM and SOA. MDS is a key enabler of
collaborative process design and business-empowered implementation using Process
Composer. The implementation of each BPMN activity and event is defined by a service
component.
Unified Administration
BPM and SOA are integrated in runtime monitoring and administration as well, through
Oracle Enterprise Manager, the administrator console for Fusion Middleware. All deployed
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BPM and SOA composite applications are tracked by Enterprise Manager, which
continuously monitors the state of running instances with flow tracing and fault recovery.
That means you don’t need to go to different tools to track down problems and take
corrective action, since Enterprise Manager provides a uniform view from high level
processes down to low level service components. For debugging and fault recovery,
administrators can drill down to the process audit trail. The flow trace in Enterprise
Manager is a list of inter-component messages in a BPMN process instance, operation across
instances of the various components involved in the process, linked by execution context ID.
The Bottom Line
Oracle continues to raise the bar with BPM11g 11.1.1.7. Known for its strengths in
application integration and SOA, Oracle has now made a large portion of human-centric
BPM implementation accessible directly to business users and process analysts through
Process Composer. Areas that formerly required BPM Studio – form design, simulation
analysis, aspects of data and decision modeling – now can be performed in web-based
Process Composer. In fact, for many processes you can go from concept to executable
design and deployment all within Composer. The new Process Player allows playback to
stakeholders, even for incomplete process models, directly from Composer, resulting in
immediate feedback supporting continuous iterative improvement.
What sets Oracle’s business-driven BPM approach apart from that of its major competitors
is use of a common model repository, the Oracle Metadata Store (MDS), to share Composer
artifacts with developer artifacts from BPM Studio. Sharing of the business catalog avoids
the roundtripping problem that often plagues BPM projects, and allows business users to
collaborate directly with developers throughout the implementation cycle. The result is
faster implementation and better user acceptance.
A second key differentiator is embrace of the case management processes within the core
BPM platform, as opposed to requiring separate products for BPM and case management.
Yes, case management is different from structured BPM. It needs different tools, a different
user interface, and different underlying rules. But it also has many elements in common
with regular BPM. Faced with the choice between buying separate products for case
management and BPM or a single product providing both, there is no doubt which is
preferable. The fact that it is hard to do seems the main reason why other vendors don’t
offer this.
Even within regular BPM, Oracle has increased the flexibility of process management at
runtime, including ad-hoc insertion of human workflow steps, instance patching and
versioning, and enhanced search and instance rerouting with Process Owner views. And
they continue to work toward shortening BPM time-to-value by expanding the portfolio of
Process Accelerators.
And with all of this, it’s important to remember that Oracle is not a human-centric BPM
pureplay, but a major middleware provider that layers BPM on a world-class SOA
foundation. When BPM is managing critical business processes in the enterprise, nothing
less than that will do. It’s not that it’s impossible to combine BPM with a third-party
integration layer, but having a common middleware platform for both BPM and SOA makes
both development and runtime management much easier.
For all of these reasons, if you’re looking at BPM, you need to take a look at Oracle BPM.
Bruce Silver
February 2013