Organizing the Business Process Management Space. Mathias Weske

Transcription

1 Organizing the Business Process Management Space Mathias Weske

2 People 2 Real-World Example FP6 IP on Service composition platform Detailed project plan Sub projects dealing with Architecture Case Studies Processes Semantics Methodologies

3 Sub Project Presentation 1 3

4 Sub Project Presentation 2 4

5 Sub Project Presentation 3 5

6 Observations 6 People tend to centralize own experiences and goals Especially prominent in domains with complex structures broad coverage where disciplines meet like Business Process Management! Several communities are involved, with different backgrounds and experiences Complex and diverse issued need to be solved, from organizational to technological

7 Characterizing BPM 7 Background and Motivation Products are provided through activities a company performs Cost effective and rapid improvement of products is a competitive advantage Information Systems play an increasingly important role in fulfilling these activities Sample Business Processes Ordering Processes, e.g., in online shops Claim handling of insurance companies Request for quotation process

8 Business Process 8 A business process consists of a set of activities that are performed in coordination in an organizational and technical environment. These activities jointly realize a business goal. Each business process is enacted by a single organization, but it may interact with business processes performed by other organizations. Reseller

9 9

10 People Challenge 10 The BPM community consists actually of a set of related communities, characterized by different Terminology Goals Educational background Common understanding between these communities is important

11 Strategy and Goals 11 Enterprise level business strategy Goals to realize the strategy Broken down to subgoals, etc. Realize what needs to be realized, not how

12 Organizational Business Processes 12 Coarse granularity Described textually Input and output behaviour Responsibilities Organized in Process Landscape

13 Process Landscape 13

14 Organizational Business Process 14 Process Name: Product Development Process Responsible Process Manager: Dr. Myers From: Requirements To: Rollout Type: Development Project Process Inputs: Requirements Document, Project Plan, Budget Plan, Prototypes Supplier Processes: Product Planning Process, Innovation Process Process Results: Integrated and completely tested innovative product with complete documentation Customer Processes: Order Management Process, After-Sales Service Process

15 Operational Business Processes 15 Activities and execution constraints between them No information on technical and organizational execution environment Described using graphical notations, often semiformal ones

16 Operational Business Process 16 Different approaches are available to realize this process, ranging from manual to automated involving software systems

17 From Functions to Processes 17

18 Process Meta Model 18 Process Instance * 1 Process Model 1 1 * 2..* 1..* Node Instance * 1 Node Edge 2 1..* Activity Instance * 1 Activity Model Event * 1 Event Model Gateway Instance * 1 Gateway Model

19 Sample Process Model 19 N4 N1 N2 AnalyzeOrder N3 SimpleCheck N5 N6 N7 Initial event model AdvCheck Final event model

20 Execution Semantics 20 Activity instances behavior described by state transition diagram State transitions represented by events

21 Events and States 21

22 Process Instances 22 Occurrence of start event AnalyzeOrder Decision Gateway SimpleCheck Occurrence of end event n1 e1 i2 i3 i4 i6 e2 b2 t2 b3 t3 s5 e4 b4 t4 b6 t6 n7 Initialization of activity instances and gateway instances Skipping AdvCheck(n5)

23 Implemented Business Processes 23 Contain information on the technical and organizational execution environment Realization in silico by workflow or service composition technology Realization in vivo by policies and procedures

24 Implementing Activities 24

25 System Workflows 25 Characterization Process activities realized entirely by software functionality No user interactions in system workflows System workflows solve the EAI integration problem, at least process integration Explicit process representation provides better understanding of the process integration logic Higher flexibility, since changes to the process model are immediately used by the process engine Remark Adapters that hide data heterogeneity are required

26 System Workflow 26

27 Human Interaction Workflows 27 Characterization User interactions during process enactment System activities also present Organizational information required for assigning knowledge workers to process activities Specific graphical user interfaces for process participants required (work lists) Integration of applications with specific user interfaces

28 Human Interaction Workflow 28

29 Conceptual Model 29 Business Process Activity Workflow System Activity User Interaction Activity Manual Activity System Workflow Human Interaction Workflow

30 Process Choreographies 30 Enterprises collaborate to achieve their business goals Value chains are high level organization of B2B or multiparty collaborations These collaborations also need to be embedded in the overall picture

31 Process Choreographies 31 The term choreography indicates the absence of a central agent that controls the activities in the business processes involved. The interaction is only achieved by sending and receiving messages. This situation is similar to dancers who need to agree on a common choreography before the show starts. During the performance, however, each dancer behaves autonomously but in line with his or her part in the choreography.

32 Sample Process Choreography 32 Reseller Buyer

33 Formal aspects in process choreographies 33 Agree on global interactions Create behavioral interfaces for the partners Use these as starting point for process implementations

34 Scenario Behavioral Interfaces 34 Supplier Auctioning Service Buyer!participation_req pr pr?participation_req ra ra!rec_accept!rec_reject rr rr?rec_reject?rec_accept ba ba?accept?reject br br!reject!accept?reject?accept a r a r!accept!reject!notify n n?notify

35 Implementation Alternatives 35

36 36 Buyer Place Order Receive Invoice Receive Products Settle Invoice Business-to- Business Processes Overall Picture Human Interaction Workflows System Workflows / Composite Applications Service Interfaces Service Layer Enterprise Application Integration Enterprise Application Integration EAI Adapter ERP System SCM System CRM System Enterprise Applications Data

37 Conclusions 37 BPM area is broad, complex and different communities are involved Common understanding is required for fruitful collaboration Formal analysis requires abstraction from domain concepts but it is useful to design processes Software plays an important role to provide flexible enactment environments Adequate tooling can contribute to development of the field

38 Textbook on BPM, bpm-book.com Introduction 2. Evolution of Enterprise Systems Architectures 3. Business Process Modelling Foundation 4. Process Orchestrations 5. Process Choreographies 6. Properties of Business Processes 7. BPM Architectures 8. Business Process Methodology

39 39