1. jBPM5:
Are your business
processes ready for the
future?
Kris Verlaenen
Core Developer

2. Overview
• Key characteristics of (j)BPM
• From Workflow to BPM
• Ready for the future?
• jBPM5: What, where?
• Roadmap

3. Key Characteristics of BPM
A business process is a process that describes
the order in which a series of steps need to be executed,
using a flow chart.

4. Business Process Example

5. Key Advantages of BPM
• Visibility
• Monitoring
• Higher-level
• Continuous improvement
• Speed of development
• Increased agility
• ...

6. Key Characteristics of jBPM5
• Open-source business process
management project offering:
– generic process engine supporting native
BPMN 2.0 execution
– targeting developers and business users
– collaboration, management and monitoring
using web-based consoles
– powerfull rules and event integration

7. From Workflow to BPM
• Core engine is a workflow engine in
pure Java
– state transitions
– lightweight
– embeddable
– generic, extensible
Core
Engine

8. Core Engine
Knowledge
Base
Stateful
Knowledge
Session
Process
Definition
Process
Instance

9. Java Interface
ProcessRuntime interface
• startProcess(processId)
• startProcess(processId, parameters)
• signalEvent(type, event)
• signalEvent(type, event, instanceId)
• abortProcessInstance(instanceId)
• getProcessInstance(instanceId)
• …

10. From Workflow to BPM
Core
Engine

11. From Workflow to BPM
Core
Engine BPMN
2.0
XML

12. BPMN 2.0
• OMG standard that defines
– Graphical notation
– Process definition format (XSD / XMI)
– Execution semantics
• Focus on executable processes
• Extensible + Interoperability !
• http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/

13. BPMN 2.0 Example
<definitions ... >
<process id="com.sample.bpmn.hello" name="Hello World" >
<startEvent id="_1" name="StartProcess" />
<sequenceFlow sourceRef="_1" targetRef="_2" />
<scriptTask id="_2" name="Hello" >
<script>System.out.println("Hello World");</script>
</scriptTask>
<sequenceFlow sourceRef="_2" targetRef="_3" />
<endEvent id="_3" name="EndProcess" />
</process>
</definitions>

14. Java Example
// (1) Create knowledge base and add process definition
KnowledgeBuilder kbuilder =
KnowledgeBuilderFactory.newKnowledgeBuilder();
kbuilder.add(
ResourceFactory.newClassPathResource("sample.bpmn"
),
ResourceType.BPMN2);
KnowledgeBase kbase = kbuilder.newKnowledgeBase();
// (2) Create new stateful knowledge session
StatefulKnowledgeSession ksession =
kbase.newStatefulKnowledgeSession();
// (3) Start a new process instance
ksession.startProcess(“com.sample.bpmn.hello”);

15. From Workflow to BPM
Core
Engine BPMN
2.0
XML
Oryx Web-
Based Editor
Eclipse
BPMN2
Editor

18. From Workflow to BPM
Core
Engine BPMN
2.0
XML
Persistence
Trans-
actions
JPA
JTA

19. From Workflow to BPM
Core
Engine BPMN
2.0
XML
Persistence
Trans-
actions
Events
History
Log
Management
Console BAM

23. From Workflow to BPM
Core
Engine BPMN
2.0
XML
Persistence
Trans-
actions
Events
Integration
Domain-specific
Processes
Human Task
ServiceESB

24. Domain-specific Processes
• Extend palette with domain-specific,
declarative service nodes
– define input / output parameters
– runtime binding

25. Human task service
• User task
• Human task
service (WS-HT)
– Task lists
– Task life cycle
• Task clients
– Task forms

26. Ready for the future?
Traditional systems have problems with
change, complexity, flexibility, data-
intensive applications, etc.
• Adaptive Case Management (ACM)
• Unstructured, non-lineair or flexible processes
• Event-driven BPM (edBPM)

27. 27
Processes + Rules + Events

28. Flexible processes

29. jBPM5: What, where?
• jBPM home page
• Source http://github.com/krisv/jbpm
• Hudson
http://hudson.jboss.org/hudson/job/jBPM5
• Blog http://kverlaen.blogspot.com/
• #jbpm on irc.codehaus.org
• jbpm-dev@jboss.org
• jBPM user forum

32. jBPM5 Installer
• ant install.demo
– Download JBoss AS
– Download Eclipse (+GMF)
– Install Drools Guvnor into JBoss AS
– Install Oryx Designer into JBoss AS
– Install the jBPM gwt-console into JBoss AS
– Install the jBPM + Drools Eclipse plugin
• ant start.demo
– Start the H2 database
– Start the JBoss AS
– Start Eclipse
– Start the jBPM Human Task Service

35. Misconceptions
• For developers only?
– Targeting business users as well
• Proprietary, not standards-based?
– BPMN2, WS-HT, JPA, JTA, BPAF, etc.
• Low-level, technical details?
– Domain-specific nodes
• Not flexible?
– Processes + Rules + Events

36. jBPM5 Roadmap
• jBPM 5.0 snapshot releases available
• Beta before the end of the month
• Final release of 5.0 before the end of
the year
• jBPM 5.x
– Business Activity Monitoring
– Service Orchestration
• Productization during 2011

37. jBPM5:
Are your business
processes ready for the
future?
Kris Verlaenen
Core Developer