adaptive-case-management-with-alfresco-and-activiti (1).pptx

1. Adaptive Case Management
With
Alfresco and Activiti

2. Short Intro
• Jörg Sauer
• Allianz Life Indonesia
• Head of Application Development
• Jakarta / Indonesia
• Community:
• Alfresco Community Jakarta
• Blog Posts (none in past 12 month )
• Twitter: @joergsauer
• Blog: blogs.ecmconcepts.org
Alfresco
Certified Instructor

3. Agenda
• Introduction into Knowledge Work
• Challenges with BPM
• Adaptive Case Management
• What Alfresco Provides Out of the Box
• What Activiti Provides Out of the Box
• What Needs to be Done / Customized
• Conclusion

4. Introduction to Knowledge Work
• What does a knowledge worker look like?

5. Knowledge Worker?
• University Professors

6. Knowledge Worker?
• Librarian?
Maybe…

7. Knowledge Worker!
Definitely!
People who figure out
what they have to do

8. Knowledge Worker!
People who assess a situation
and determine the course of
action

9. Knowledge Worker
People whose actions are
based on many sources of
information

10. Knowledge Worker
People who gather
clues, follow up and
discover things

11. Knowledge Work is Everywhere
• Rescue Work
• Complex Insurance or Bank Tansactions
• Police & Legal Investigation
• Financial Audit
• Coordinating a Meeting
• Exceptions, e.g. Billing Dispute
• Medical Treatment
• Help Desk
• Hiring
• Executive Management etc.

12. Quality of Knowledge Work
• Non Repeated!
• Two murder investigations are not the same
• Complex insurance claims are not the same
• Endless examples to go

13. Quality of Knowledge Work
• Non Repeated!
• Unpredictable!
• Legal case may take unexpected course
• Medical claim might not be valid due to wrong statements
made in application
• Conflicting factors impact decision making

14. Quality of Knowledge Work
• Non Repeated!
• Unpredictable!
• Emergent!
• A doctor runs a test on a patient
Leading to a treatment plan
Which is monitored and additional test
Which leads to a modified treatment
Which is monitored

15. Quality of Knowledge Work
• Non Repeated!
• Unpredictable!
• Emergent!
• Robustness (in face of variable conditions)
• High velocity and High reliable organizations
run on knowledge work.

16. Industrial Development
• 1840-1920: Industrialization:
Mass Production /Routine Work
• Define exact process
• Run 1000’s times
• Distribute initial cost over many identical copies
• Research: Frederick Winslow Taylor
• 1940-1980: Just in Time Kanban
• Mass customization
• Excess production is waste
• Lean & Pull Based
• Responsive to change
• Research: Taiichi Ohno (Toyota)
• 1980-2005: Knowledge Work
• Knowledge Worker: Someone who knows more about her job than
anybody else in the organization
• Research: Peter F. Drucker

17. Manufacturing Office Work
Unpredictable
Predictable
Mass
Production
Routine
Work
Knowledge
Work
Just in
Time

18. Knowledge Work Facts
• 30%-50% off all Workers = Knowledge Workers
• The number is increasing
• High pay
• Key area of economical growth in economies
• Key factor for developed countries to stay compitetive
• Research: Tom Davenport

19. Cost & Complexity of Implementation
Knowledge Worker
Processes
Routine Human
Processes
System to
System
Processes
€
€€
€€€
More Predictable
Less Predictable value
Routine Work
Knowledge Work
Business
Process
Spectrum
Easier to
implement
Difficult to
Implement

20. Business Process Management (BPM)
• Mature
• Good Tools
• Lots of Experts
• However:
• High upfront investment in process analysis
• ROI = process to be run thousands of times

21. BPM = Mass Production!
• Works only for routine work!

22. BPM Real Life Issues
• Business processes not well understood
• Users = just see what they do
• Scope?
• Management: just cares about results, KPIs, SLAs, head count
• Internal resources most times not sufficiently skilled to do process
analysis
• External consultants = Project = Solve all problems approach = PROBLEM!

23. BPM Real Life Issues
• Conflicts among stakeholders how process should look like
• Scope issues
• Goals not defined
• End to end process = multiple department = multiple interests

24. BPM Real Life Issues
• Misconception that BPM implementation will solve business
problems.
• Business Problem != Human Error != Solvable with BPM
• Automation = Change = Unknown Results how it will work
• Try and Error

25. BPM Real Life Issues
• Focus on end to end processes
• End to End is overly complex
• 3m x 5m process diagrams
• Not all things can be foreseen
• Huge effort gather requirements
• Huge effort to get sign off.
• Always too many compromises
• Once implemented will remain as is for ever

26. BPM Real Life Issues
• Optimistic Flow
• Tendency to include the optimistic flows only
• Error handling on process level missing
• Exception / alternate flows incomplete

27. New Approach Needed
• BPM = assumption that
• Process is predictable
• Implementable as an automated process
• ROI comes from scaling up and repeatability
• BPM = Process is center

28. Adaptive Case Management (ACM)

29. Adaptive Case Management
• Enable Knowledge Worker
• Case Data is Center not Process
• Process not carved in stone
• Worker decides on steps
• SOP as guidance / frame for work
• Holistic View on Data / Information

30. • Routine Work • Knowledge Work
BPM vs. ACM modelling

31. Knowledge Work
• Requires
• Guidance & Rules: SOP & Business Rules
• Adaptable approach
• Templates: Filing structure
Check lists
• Small Workflows
• Customizable elements
• Collaboration
• Holistic Data / Information
• Visibility of
• documents
• structured information
• communication
• Historical data
• Related cases

32. Statement
• “Knowledge worker productivity is the biggest of the 21st
century management challenges.
In developed countries it is their first survival requirement”
Peter F. Drucker

33. Case Management with Alfresco
• Does Alfresco provide case management out of the Box?
• Not really – at least not as a solution
• Can Alfresco do case management?
• Off course if you implement the required things
• Who is doing case management with Alfresco?
• Many companies
• Who is implementing case management in Alfresco?
• You
• Partners
• Community

34. Case Management Support in Alfresco
• Case management based on folder (structures)
• Small Workflows
• Rules and Actions
• Simple Workfows
• Tags

35. Alfresco Functionality for
Case Management Implementations
• Custom Content Models
• Document & Folder types
• Metadata
• Custom Workflows
• Web Scripts
• Integration with 3rd party systems
• Filing structure initiation – create case structure
• Metadata synchronization
• Status updates
• Extending Alfresco & Share functionality
• Freemarker
• Templates
• Components
• Reports

36. Alfresco Functionality for
Case Management Implementations
• Custom Actions:
• Automation of manual tasks
• Create case
• Start workflow
• Synch information
• Generate status report
• Transformations
• Generate Status Reports
• Full text index on holistic data
• Synchronization
• Share documents with (external) stakeholders

37. Alfresco Functionality for
Case Management Implementations
• Data Lists
• Check Lists
• Todo’s
• Policies
• Events in Repository trigger actions
• Start configured workflow if data list entry is created
• Update status on workflow completion

38. Activiti Case Management out of the Box
• Standard Workflows
• Ad Hoc Workflow
• Review Approve Workflow
• Etc.

39. Adaptive Case Management With
Alfresco & Activiti
• Basic Repository Customizations
• Case Metadata Model Foundation
• Case Group Container
• Case Folder
• Case File
• Aspects
• Case Check List (Data List)
• Basic Workflows
• Activiti Workflow to run on Folder chains
• User configurable sequential workflow, with full support for task list, escalation,
task assignment etc.
• Basic Case Workflows
• Main Case Status workflow
• Identify expert workflow
• Assessment workflow
• Request additional document workflow

40. Adaptive Case Management With
Alfresco & Activiti
• Share Customizations
• Additional Folder Views
• Case Status
• Including workflows running
• Case Information Aggregation View
• Template components for extensibility
• Data lists on case folders
• List entry can initiate workflow
• Workflow updates list entry on completion or status updates.
• Just a foundation!

41. Adaptive Case Management
Version Chart
Version Functionality Extensibility
Alfresco 3.4 Core functionality
Replication
Easy
Not existant
Alfresco 4.0 Core functionality
Replication
Easy
Supported
Alfresco 4.2 Core functionality
Replication
Easy
Better as in 4.0?
Share 3.4 Components
Modules
Complicated
not existing
Share 4.0 Components
Modules
Markers
Easy
Basic
Not yet
Share 4.2 Components
Modules
Markers
Easy
good
Yes
Activiti 5.7 (Alfresco <4.2) Call Activiti expression
Signals
Compensation
Messages
Other cool stuff
No
No
No
No
No
Activiti 5.10 (Alfresco 4.2) Call Activiti expression
Signals
Compensation
Messages
Other cool stuff
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

42. Activiti Adaptive Case Management

43. Implementation
• Initiated two month ago as Jakarta Alfresco Community
project
• Goal
• Learn about Alfresco by doing something useful and which is fun
• Delivery Date 1st release
• Missed 
• When to be expected?
• November 2012
• Where to be found
• http://code.google.com/p/alfresco-adaptive-case-management-toolkit

44. Q & A

45. References
• Presentations:
• Keith Swenson:
The Nature of Knowledge Work
http://www.slideshare.net/kswenson/the-nature-of-knowledge-work
• Books:
• Keith Swenson: Mastering the Unpredictable
• Keith Swenson: Taming the Unpredictable
• Jakob Freund, Bernd Ruecker: Real Life BPMN
• Jakob Freund, Bernd Ruecker: Praxis Handbuch BPMN
• Web:
• Activiti User Guide:
http://www.activiti.org/userguide/index.html
• Alfresco Wiki:
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Main_Page
• Blogs: http://blogs.alfresco.com/wp/
• David Draper: http://blogs.alfresco.com/wp/ddraper/
• Will Abson: http://blogs.alfresco.com/wp/wabson/

46. References…
• Training:
• Alfresco Share Configuration
• Alfresco Share Development
• Alfresco Activiti Workflow
• Alfresco API Developer
• Customized Training Alfresco: Averi
• BPMN and Process Analysis: Camunda
• Adaptive Case Management Toolkit
• http://code.google.com/p/alfresco-adaptive-case-management-
toolkit/
• Stay tuned for the first code to be posted shortly