IBM BUSINESS P ROCESS M ANAGER V7.5

Transcription

1 BPMS Watch Industry Trend Reports Independent Expertise in BPM September 2011 IBM BUSINESS P ROCESS M ANAGER V7.5 A Bold New BPM Strategy In early 2010, IBM shocked the BPM world with its acquisition of Lombardi Software. It was surprising because IBM s BPM reputation was built on core values of SOA and processing power: scalability, reliability, and transaction integrity, while Lombardi s strength was simplicity and value out of the box, particularly for human-centric processes. For a year, IBM offered the two BPM Suites as complementary fit-for-purpose solutions, but now, with the introduction of IBM Business Process Manager 7.5, you get the best of both suites in a single unified package. This white paper explains the key features of IBM BPM 7.5. BPM 7.5 is not simply two suites in a single box. It represents deep integration of former WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere Lombardi Edition components through a shared BPM repository, shared governance platform, common runtime, and integrated tooling (Figure 1). The common repository and governance platform, called IBM Process Center, manages versioning and deployment of assets throughout the entire BPM lifecycle, from early-stage modeling to maintenance in production. The IBM Process Server runtime executes both BPEL and BPMN processes, as well as hybrid processes comprising some of each. And the former Lombardi Authoring Environment and WebSphere Integration Developer (WID) have both been brought forward in BPM 7.5 as IBM Process Designer and Integration Designer, respectively. Since they share the Process Center repository, assets from one tool can be incorporated in models from the other, providing both a unified platform for new solutions and a simple migration path for current customers. Figure 1. BPM 7.5 architecture. Source: IBM Bruce Silver Associates 2011 BPMS Watch: Bear Valley Road, Aptos CA USA Contact: Bruce Silver, Principal [email protected]

2 BPM 7.5 weaves together the strengths of both former platforms: Simplicity. Long the hallmark of Lombardi BPM, BPM 7.5 s Process Designer emphasizes simplicity factors like installation in a few clicks, business-oriented process and screenflow design, instant playback from the design environment, and value out of the box. Process authoring requires a minimum of technical skill, far less than typical Java or BPEL development. Power. Massive scalability, robust integration leveraging ESB and mediation flows, SCA, and customizable quality of service and transaction recovery have long been core strengths of the WebSphere platform and tooling, and these are preserved in BPMN 7.5 s Integration Designer and Process Server. Governance. Process Center, from the Lombardi side, introduces a powerful new style of process asset governance based on models shared by the design and runtime environments, along with concurrent editing (versus traditional check-out/check-in), snapshot versioning with instant rollback, and centralized deployment throughout the enterprise. Process Center provides a governance regime well suited to the evolution of BPM projects into large-scale programs involving multiple development teams, hundreds of processes, and thousands of process assets. Visibility. Operational performance visibility is a key feature of all BPM Suites, but BPM 7.5 stands out in both ease of use and depth of capability. The Performance Data Warehouse provides out-of-the-box business-configurable process performance dashboards that let you define and track KPIs and service level agreements in the context of BPMN processes. To go deeper, IBM Business Monitor provides fine-grained aggregation and tracking of a wide variety of business events, including BPEL processes, mediation flows, and external business systems. While Monitor is an add-on to Business Process Manager, monitor models can be created in BPM 7.5 Integration Designer. That s a lot of functionality in a single BPMS offering, but not every customer needs the full power of BPM 7.5. For that reason IBM offers three configurations (Figure 2). Figure 2. BPM 7.5 is offered in 3 configurations. Source: IBM Express is a single-server entry-level configuration that installs in a few clicks and is optimized for rapid time-to-value. It is limited to three process authors and 200 users, and does not support Bruce Silver Associates

3 Integration Designer and associated runtime functionality. Standard has similar functionality, but supports unlimited authors and users, and allows clustered multi-server configurations. It is sufficient to support, for example, a typical Lombardi solution in production. Advanced adds Integration Designer and WebSphere Process Server-compatible execution, ESB and integration adapters, transaction support, and the Web 2.0 Business Space environment. Moreover, BPM 7.5 integrates with other components of the IBM BPM ecosystem, including: BlueWorks Live, a business-oriented environment in the cloud for collaborative process modeling and ad hoc process automation. BlueWorks Live process models, called blueprints, can be interchanged with BPMN models in Process Designer. IBM Business Monitor, mentioned earlier, provides real-time business activity monitoring and operational analytics based on a wide variety of business event sources, including BPM 7.5 processes. Monitor models are created in Integration Designer. ILOG JRules is the industry s leading Business Rule Management Suite, used for compliance and decision management. ILOG s business-oriented rule language, called BAL, is supported by the business rule editor in BPM 7.5 Process Designer. IBM Case Manager, a platform for managing semi-structured, content-rich, event-driven cases involving multiple related processes and documents. Process Center Process Center, BPM 7.5 s repository and governance component, is the most radically innovative part of the offering. Governance, including process ownership, change control, and dependencies on reusable process components, plays a critical role in process improvement initiatives, especially as they mature from isolated projects to large-scale programs. Process Center is optimized for end-to-end governance in a BPM environment comprising many authors, many processes, and many process assets. In addition, it unifies the versioning and management of Process Designer and Integration Designer assets, and allows them to be used together in business processes. It also centralizes deployment and administration of all process assets from development through to production, and enables business users to participate in the management and governance of business processes. Figure 3. Process Center console administers application deployment and versioning. Source: IBM Bruce Silver Associates

4 Process Center is accessed either from its own administrator console (Figure 3) or through either of the authoring environments, Process Designer or Integration Designer. The Process Center runtime includes the Process Center server and Performance Data Warehouse, allowing authors in Process Designer or Integration Designer to instantly run ( play back ) designs and store performance data for testing and end user feedback. For WebSphere Process Server customers, the concepts and terminology of Process Center are new, so it is worth summarizing them here. Each BPM solution in the repository is called a process application, equivalent to a Project in a conventional IDE. Each application represents a separate team workspace and a container for all the assets used in the solution: process models, data definitions, services, rules, user interfaces, etc. Tracks are optional subdivisions in a process application that support parallel development. Strictly speaking, process applications can only be created in Process Designer. Integration Designer projects, also known as enterprise applications, are composed of assets grouped into modules and libraries. Process Center manages Integration Designer assets at the module and library level, allowing the reuse of enterprise applications in a variety of processes. Process Center approaches the problem of process asset governance and reuse in an environment with many authors and processes very differently than a traditional developer repository. For example, instead of checking assets in and out, Process Center allows concurrent editing by multiple process authors. Process Center maintains multiple versions of an application, each based on specific versions of its component assets. Individual assets are grouped into toolkits, which are the basic unit of versioning and reuse in Process Center. Toolkits may be versioned independently of the applications that use them. In that case, application authors can choose whether to update to the newer toolkit version or not. The Revision History panel (Figure 4) lists all versions of the application, and lets the user revert to a previous version also in a single click. Figure 4. Authors can revert to any previous version of a process application. Source: IBM Users can see at a glance which assets are currently open for editing by any author. From Process Designer, authors create a new version of an application simply by taking a single-click snapshot. Users can also easily track assets of particular interest through Smart Folders, tailored selections of process components based on tags automatically applied by Process Center (Figure 5), such as Changed today or Validation errors. Users can also add their own tags. Bruce Silver Associates

5 Figure 5. Smart Folders organize process assets based on tagging. Source: IBM Inclusion of both Process Designer and Integration Designer assets makes Process Center the hub of integration between the two authoring environments. For example, a Process Designer task implementation may be bound to a BPEL process from Integration Designer. Alternatively, a BPEL process can contain a human task or BPMN process created in Process Designer. A key feature of Process Center is a built-in execution environment for testing processes and individual components, such as screenflows, rules, and routing logic, directly from the authoring environment. This playback feature allows instant testing and stakeholder feedback, critical for agile implementation. An orange Playback button at the upper right of Process Designer runs the selected process from Process Designer, stepping through each task to allow for data input through the task user interface and tracing the flow through the Inspector view (Figure 6) to verify the design. This works even when process tasks are implemented via modules created in Integration Designer. Figure 6. Processes or individual activities can be played back immediately from Process Designer. Source: IBM Finally, the Process Center console provides a central point of deployment and administration of process components to all Process Servers, test and production, in the enterprise. Deployment of a BPMN process application that includes Integration Designer assets, such as a BPEL process, Bruce Silver Associates

6 deploys both the BPMN and BPEL assets in a single click from Process Center. The Deployment Dashboard (Figure 7) shows instances in flight, by server, for each installed version of a deployed application. Figure 7. Process Center console manages deployment of multiple versions across all servers, from development to production. Source: IBM For many BPM users, Process Center replaces the governance features of WebSphere Registry and Repository (WSRR), but WSRR provides governance capabilities beyond the BPM 7.5 domain. For example, it manages all services, whether they run in BPM 7.5 or not, providing encapsulation and versioning of all SOA artifacts, regardless of platform, comprehensive enterprise-scope analysis and design-time governance, plus runtime metadata suitable for dynamic endpoint selection. Thus Process Center and WSRR will continue to coexist within IBM s BPM/SOA portfolio. Process Designer Process Designer (Figure 8) is the primary tool in BPM 7.5 for building executable processes, human tasks, and process performance dashboards. Executable design is fully model-driven; except for occasional Javascript, there is no programming involved, so it can be used by a broad spectrum of developers. Process design follows the BPMN standard and the WYSIWYE principle: what you see is what you execute. Because BPMN is widely used by business users for process modeling for example, in Blueworks Live Process Designer enables a more agile iterative style of implementation in which business process analysts, or stakeholders in the line of business themselves, can interact directly and collaboratively with developers throughout the implementation lifecycle. Instant playback of the process as a whole or a selected activity directly from Process Designer is a key enabler of that collaboration. Bruce Silver Associates

7 Figure 8. Process Designer. Source: IBM In Process Designer, the BPMN diagram describes just the activity flow logic. The implementation of each activity in the model is configured by attaching it to a service, either one already built and catalogued in Process Center, or a new one configured in place using the Activity Wizard (Figure 9). Services for human tasks, rule-based decision logic, and basic automated functions can be created in Process Designer using other point-click editors. Advanced Integration Services are implementations, such as a BPEL process or Java service, built in Integration Designer. Figure 9. Activity Wizard defines the implementation of a process activity, either in Process Designer or Integration Designer. Source: IBM The Coach Designer (Figure 10, left) is a business-friendly editor for creating task forms based on a few basic layouts, controls, and variables. Coaches can be combined with automated services such as database lookups in graphically defined screenflows (Figure 10, right). Bruce Silver Associates

8 Figure 10. Coach Designer (top) and screenflow editor (bottom). Source: IBM In BPM 7.5, rule services are based on ILOG s business-oriented rule scripting language called BAL. While users can add on the full ILOG suite, the integrated rules editor powered by ILOG reduces the cost and need for specialized training. Figure 11. BAL rule definition in Process Designer. Source: IBM A major innovation of BPM 7.5 is the ability to implement a Process Designer activity with a BPEL process, transactional microflow, or Java component built in Integration Designer (Figure 12). When the process application is opened in Integration Designer, process variables from Process Designer are translated into their corresponding Integration Designer data types. Binding of the Integration Designer implementation, deployed as an SCA component, and the BPMN data inputs and outputs, is handled seamlessly by BPM 7.5 and Process Center. That means that technical integration functions built by developers using the power of WebSphere adapters, ESB, Bruce Silver Associates

9 transaction support, and Java, can be easily snapped into end-to-end BPMN process models built with more business-friendly tooling. Figure 12. Implementation of Process Designer activity (left) as BPEL process in Integration Designer (right). Source: IBM Integration Designer Integration Designer, formerly WebSphere Integration Developer (WID), is the primary tool in BPM 7.5 for building automated service implementations, particularly services that integrate with business systems across the extended enterprise. If Process Designer represents the businessoriented process layer of a business solution, Integration Designer represents the technical SOA layer. Developers use it for visually constructing services, data transformations, BPEL processes, and integration to applications and back-end systems. While some service implementations, such as than human tasks, BAL-based decisions, and simple synchronous web service and Java calls, can be built directly in Process Designer, BPM 7.5 Advanced Integration Services are built in Integration Designer, which provides a more advanced developer IDE based on Service Component Architecture (SCA) and Java standards. Integration Designer s visual editors create service components and assemble them into complex integrated applications. Following SCA, Integration Designer components are assembled in modules that interchange data through their imports and exports. Integration Designer artifacts placed in a library can be shared among modules. In BPM 7.5, modules and libraries can be associated with a process application for use with the Process Center as task implementations in Process Designer. In addition to inclusion in BPM 7.5, Integration Designer is available as a standalone toolset for SOA developers. Fully compatible with the latest versions of WebSphere Integration Developer, it includes a comprehensive set of adapters to service-enable packaged and custom applications, legacy systems, technology protocols, and databases. Mediation flows created in Integration Designer can be deployed either to WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus or to the Process Server. Also, Integration Designer can create data types and xml maps for deployment on the WebSphere DataPower appliance. Bruce Silver Associates

10 Figure 13. Integration Designer modules represent SCA components, imports, and exports. Source: IBM When building a BPM 7.5 Advanced Integration Service, developers choose between a Java component, a long-running BPEL process, or a short-running transactional process called a microflow. In a top-down implementation scenario, a BPMN task defined in Process Designer specifies an implementation built in Integration Designer. Process Center enables business object sharing between Process Designer and Integration Designer, smoothing over differences in the separate data modeling environments. The shared business object can be opened in both authoring environments (Figure 14), allowing mapping between process variables and service interface parameters. Figure 14. Data models are shared between Process Designer (left) and Integration Designer (right). Source: IBM In a bottom up scenario, prebuilt services imported from Integration Designer can simply be dragged into a Process Designer BPMN model, creating a fully configured executable process task (Figure 15). You can also go in the other direction, adding a Process Designer human task or process to the middle of an Integration Designer BPEL flow. Bruce Silver Associates

11 Figure 15. Integration Designer modules reuse by dragging into Process Designer BPMN. Source: IBM In Figure 16, an insurance claims process in BPEL invokes a Repair activity implemented as a Process Designer workflow process. Again, Process Center facilitates the integration of BPEL and BPMN data. Figure 16. BPEL process can call a Process Designer workflow. Source: IBM End User Experience At runtime, users manage processes, perform tasks, and monitor process performance through the Process Portal, an out-of-the-box browser-based environment. The basic portal layout, divided into My Tasks, My Scoreboards, and My Projects, is shown in Figure 17. Also, from the Process Portal, users can connect to the Process Center server or a Process Server in any configured runtime environment development, test, or production. Bruce Silver Associates

12 Figure 17. Process Portal. Source: IBM Worklists in Process Portal are implemented as searches of available tasks. In addition to systemdefined properties such as subject, due date, and priority, users can build custom worklists filtered or sorted on business data, even across multiple process definitions (Figure 18): for example, retrieve all process instances where Customer equals XYZ Corp and order amount exceeds $15,000. These custom queries can be saved and shared or reused. Figure 18. Worklist definition as custom query. Source: IBM Besides the standard Process Portal, IBM offers a few alternative end user environments. BPM Advanced Edition users can instead use Business Space, a Web 2.0 mashup container carried forward from WebSphere Dynamic Process Edition. Worklists, coaches, and other BPM runtime components are exposed as REST-based UI fragments called widgets that can be assembled by Bruce Silver Associates

13 end users in their Business Space (Figure 19). Alternatively, through optional add-on components, BPM 7.5 users can perform process tasks directly from Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint. Figure 19. Worklist and Coach widgets in Business Space. Source: IBM Performance Visibility and Optimization BPM 7.5 provides business-oriented metrics used to optimize running processes in real time and respond to changing conditions. Key performance indicators, service level agreements, and workgroup performance metrics are all tracked continuously in the BPM Performance Data Warehouse. Unlike some other BPM Suites, BPM 7.5 requires no database work to maintain performance management metrics when the implementation changes. The Performance Data Warehouse features an abstraction layer that allows changes to the process model, variables, and service implementations without breaking performance reporting. Runtime data values specified at tracking points in the BPMN process model are captured and transferred to the Performance Data Warehouse. Scoreboards provide analytical assembly, formatting, and presentation of tracking data to provide process visibility through the Process Portal and active optimization through runtime-adjustable variables called Exposed Process Values. In addition to the out-of-the-box KPIs, custom KPIs can be defined by process authors for tracking at runtime. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) based on the KPIs can generate real-time alerts or other triggered action. Each SLA is defined by a complex condition, expressed in a sentence editor (Figure 20), with an associated consequence or action. An SLA violation can trigger a report or start a process. In addition, alerts are warnings posted to a Scoreboard based on metrics in the Performance Data Warehouse, such as low inventory for a particular item. Alerts allow users to take immediate action, and they maintain an auditable record of the exception condition. Bruce Silver Associates

14 IBM Business Process Manager 7.5 Figure 20. Business-friendly KPI and SLA definition. Source: IBM Figure 21. Scoreboards in Process Portal. Source: IBM Scoreboards organize graphical reports into predefined layouts specific to individual users or roles, providing both functional customization and access control. When users log in to the Process Portal, they see all the Scoreboards associated with their roles (Figure 21). Reports are linked to the underlying data and allow users to drill down for root cause analysis and remediation. BPM 7.5 provides Scoreboards measuring process, team and individual performance out of the box. Bruce Silver Associates

15 Exposed Process Values (EPVs) allow Scoreboard users to adjust the values of specially declared variables in order to optimize process performance. EPVs play a role similar to rule maintenance applications in Business Rule Management Systems. For example, a manager may want to be able to adjust the purchasing approval levels for a group of customer service representatives. The manager s Scoreboard provides access to an EPV called ApprovalAmount that can be adjusted in a range between high and low boundaries. The running process reads the value of ApprovalAmount and blocks all purchases without approval below that amount. The manager can raise the Purchasing Amount Exposed Process Value during a particularly busy purchasing period to avoid being overwhelmed by approval requests. Any changes applied through a Scoreboard take effect immediately without versioning and redeploying the process. The Process Portal s Optimizer view (Figure 22) combines performance analytics on actual and simulated data to support continuous process improvement. Heatmaps provide color-coded indicators of process trouble spots in the context of the BPMN diagram. Actual data can be compared with historical data or what-if simulation output. The Live Reports tab in Process Portal (Figure 23) displays metrics for the selected process or activity, including instance analysis, KPI analysis, and activity analysis. Figure 22. Optimizer heatmaps show performance bottlenecks. Source: IBM Bruce Silver Associates

16 IBM Business Process Manager 7.5 Figure 23. Optimizer Live Reports provide real-time performance analysis. Source: IBM Figure 24. IBM Business Monitor extends performance management to BPEL, ESB, and external systems. Source: IBM An optional add-on to BPM 7.5 Advanced, IBM Business Monitor provides expanded performance management capabilities. Scoreboards and the Performance Data Warehouse only track performance at the BPMN activity level, but Monitor offers finer granularity by monitoring individual events from BPEL processes, mediation flows, and external applications (Figure 24). Bruce Silver Associates

17 Monitor models defining event sources, metrics, reporting, and triggered actions are defined in Integration Designer. Monitor provides its own server, which aggregates, filters, and continuously evaluates business events. Monitor generates reports, drilldown charts, and alerts, similar to those provided by Scoreboards, and presents them to users through widgets in Business Space. In addition, Monitor provides advanced features not found in Scoreboards, such as KPI History and Prediction (Figure 25), which uses pattern analysis to predict future values of process metrics. Figure 25. KPI history and prediction in Monitor. Source: IBM BPMS Watch Analysis BPM 7.5 goes further than most analysts thought possible in uniting WebSphere Lombardi Edition and WebSphere Process Server. Instead of asking customers to pick one platform or the other for a BPM solution, IBM is now using them in combination, leveraging the separate strengths of each. Process Designer, from the Lombardi side, accelerates time to value with a simpler programming model. Leveraging WYSIWYE BPMN modeling and instant playback at any stage of development, Process Designer also offers business-friendly modeling of human tasks and performance dashboards. But Integration Designer provides the power needed for the heavy-duty backend work, creating services and integrating business systems with high performance, transactional integrity, quality of service, and conformance to SOA standards. In the end-to-end process solution, Integration Designer modules are typically used as implementations of tasks defined in the BPMN model. The Process Center repository is the glue between the BPM and SOA layers, serving as the common governance platform for both tools. A process application thus contains assets created in both tools, and lets them be freely mixed in the solution. Support for multiple concurrent versions, instant application snapshots, and back-in-time comparisons are perfectly suited to today s BPM marketplace, as isolated projects mature into enterprise programs sharing many assets, but with small variations. IBM Process Server provides the unified BPM runtime, supporting a mix of Process Designer and Integration Designer assets. All the assets used in a process application are versioned and Bruce Silver Associates

18 deployed as a unit from a common Process Center repository to all servers in the enterprise, whether development, test, or production. The combination of simplicity and power also offers performance visibility at multiple levels. The Performance Data Warehouse focuses on easily customized KPIs and SLA tracking at the BPMN activity level, while sophisticated monitor models, created in Integration Designer, allow fine-grained monitoring of individual SOA components, or even external business events, via the add-on IBM Business Monitor. Whether you are an existing Lombardi /WLE or WebSphere Process Server customer, IBM BPM 7.5 represents a big step in the right direction. WebSphere customers get dramatically simpler design tools, offering faster time to value and BPMN-based execution. Lombardi customers get world-class integration capability with the power of IBM s industry-leading SOA platform, including service component architecture, enterprise service bus, adapters and mediation flows. Moreover, the investment of existing customers is protected, as WLE and WPS models can be brought into the BPM 7.5 environment, and artifacts from WebSphere Business Modeler and Compass can be imported as well. IBM s ability to take the best of both worlds and combine them in a unified BPMS is really unmatched. Bruce Silver September 2011 Bruce Silver Associates