Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM

Matt Cumberlidge

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2007
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781847192370
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Information Technology
• Index: Computer Science

This book takes a practical approach, with step-by-step instructions for business process management, model creation, and implementation. The book uses a typical BPM project lifecycle case study to explore and explain the process in a realistic situation. This is a book for Business Analysts (BAs) who need to develop a process model for implementation in a business process management system. Developers looking at the JBoss jBPM toolset will also find it a useful introduction to the key concepts. This book is a full toolkit for someone who wants to implement BPM in the right way. This toolkit is particularly aimed at Business Analysts, although Project Managers, IT managers, developers, and even business people can expect to find useful tools and techniques in here. We will present the project framework, analysis techniques and templates, BPM technology and example deliverables that you need to successfully bring a BPM solution into your organization.

Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM

A Practical Guide for Business Analysts

Matt Cumberlidge

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Table of Contents

Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code for the book

Errata

Questions

1. Introduction

The BPM approach to software development

Evolution of software development methodologies

The emergence of key technologies

Meanwhile—management theory

What is a business process and why do we want to manage it?

Business process improvement and re-engineering

From this convergence, BPM emerges

Business process management: a definition

Key benefits of BPM

Typical business scenarios ripe for BPM

How this book works

The solution we'll build

Introducing our suggested project lifecycle

Introducing our example business scenario

Introducing our example BPM suite

JBoss jBPM

JBoss

SeeWhy business intelligence platform

Summary

2. Understanding the target process

Setting up the project

Introducing our example business scenario

Project initiation document

Example

Scope the target process

Example

Put together the project team

Identify project sponsors

Project office

Example

Identify process owners and subject matter experts

Example

Kick-off meeting

Analyze the process

Map the workflow

Example

Identify roles and responsibilities

Activity flow diagram

Example

RACI matrix

Example

Put metrics alongside the process

Example

Identify quick wins

Example

Sign off to be process

Summary

3. Develop the process in JBoss jBPM

Introduction

The JBoss jBPM architecture

Installation

Install Java

Install the JBoss jBPM engine and the JBoss application server

Install the JBoss jBPM designer

Set up shortcuts

Touring the designer's user interface

Package explorer

Editor area

Diagram

Swimlanes

Deployment

Design

Source

Properties explorer

Outline view

JBoss jBPM concepts

jBPM process definition language—jPDL

Nodes

Tasks

State

Forks and joins

Decision

Node

Transitions

Actions

Swimlanes

Process variables

Process state

Super state

Building our example process

Add our swimlanes

Adding our nodes

Export for sign-off

Summary

4. The Prototype user interface

Build the prototype

Develop the prototype user interface

Set up our users

Deploy the process and user interface

Investigating the web console interface

End users

Managers

Adapt the web console

Sign off for the proof of concept

Summary

5. Iterate the prototype

Set up for the proof of concept

Set up the team

Set expectations

Plan the proof-of-concept program

Capture requirements

Make jBPM available on a server

Run the proof of concept

Iterate the system

Process changes

Task prioritization

Integration with other systems

Obtain sign-off

Summary

6. Proof-of-concept to implementation

Preparation for implementation

Judging readiness

Implementation plan

Customizing the web console

Swapping the database back end

Install the database server

Install the database tables

Import the data

Set up a JNDI data source

Install the MySQL driver

Amend the JBoss configuration

Amend the hibernate configuration

Monitoring the process

Process management

Process metrics analysis

Process forecasting

Example process reporting suite

Integrating the SeeWhy business intelligence platform

Get SeeWhy

Install SeeWhy

Set up the BAM points on the graph

Make the action handler code available to jBPM

Configure the jBPM JBoss server

Telling SeeWhy about our process event

Configuring SeeWhy's incoming event interface

Tell SeeWhy how to interpret the data

Taking it further

Set up email notifications

Tell SeeWhy when to alert

Configure a notification

Setting up your email client

Testing the notifications

Using SeeWhy for BAM

Go-live

Summary

7. Ongoing process improvement

Project assessment

Project post mortem

Evaluate project versus success criteria

Determine the real ROI of the system

Obtain project sign-off

Process analysis and improvement

Track process metrics

Change request processes

Business process changes

jBPM changes

Business process documentation

What kind of documentation?

Using a wiki

Ideas for further development

Breaking up the process into phases using superstates

Abstracting into a process hierarchy

Building a process-driven enterprise

Automate business rules processing

Replace the user information database

Document management

Summary

Epilogue

Index

Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM

A Practical Guide for Business Analysts

Copyright © 2007 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: July 2007

Production Reference: 1190707

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

32 Lincoln Road

Olton

Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-847192-36-3

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Author

Matt Cumberlidge

Reviewers

Diego Naya Lazo

Dr. David Franklin

Sebastien Michea

Senior Acquisition Editor

David Barnes

Development Editor

Nikhil Bangera

Technical Editor

Ajay S

Project Manager

Abhijeet Deobhakta

Editorial Manager

Dipali Chittar

Project Coordinator

Sagara Naik

Indexer

Bhushan Pangaonkar

Proofreader

Chris Smith

Production Coordinator

Manjiri Nadkarni

Cover Designer

Shantanu Zagade

About the Author

Matt Cumberlidge is a business analyst working for a world leading FTSE 100 provider of information-driven services and solutions based in Oxford, UK. In this role, Matt has undertaken a very wide range of projects, but the common theme running throughout is that of business process. Over the last year or so Matt has extended his core capabilities in business process analysis and re-engineering into the realm of business process management and in particular an investigation of the JBoss jBPM implementation. Matt is delighted to be able to share his experiences and ideas about this exciting technology with a wider audience through the publication of this book.

I'd like to thank my wife, Cathy, for understanding why I wasn't always available to do my share of the housework while I was writing this book and for feeding the cats, who would otherwise surely have died of hunger. I'd like to thank Phil Wilkins from SeeWhy for going way beyond the call of duty in helping me. I'd like to thank my publishers, Packt, and in particular Dave Barnes for his encouragement. Lastly, I'd like to thank and pay tribute to the contributors to the JBoss jBPM community who have built a fantastic product that it was fun for me to write about.

About the Reviewers

Diego Naya Lazo is a Chief Enterprise Architect living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. ...

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• Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM