1.
by Kris Verlaenen
The future of
(j)BPM

2.
2
Overview
● Short introduction to BPM
● jBPM5
– Key Features
– BPMN2
– Architecture
– Roadmap
● Adaptive processes

3.
Business Process
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.
Palette
Predefined set of generic node types
– Start, end
– Gateway
– Script
– Sub-process
– Event
– ...

5.
Business Process
Management
● BPM is a discipline
– Many actors
– Entire life cycle
● We focus on executable processes
● Core engine = key component

6.
BPM Advantages
● Visibility and transparency
● Monitoring
● Higher-level (involve business analysts)
● Automation, continuous improvement
● Increased speed of development
● Increased agility (change process more easily)
● and many more ...

7.
8
Overview
● Short introduction to BPM
● jBPM5
– Key Features
– BPMN2
– Architecture
– Roadmap
● Adaptive processes

8.
9
2005
jBPM3
RuleFlow
jBPM4
jBPM5
2011
Drools Flow
20092008
Best
of both
worlds !

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Key Characteristics
● Business process engine
– using BPMN2 standard (native execution)
– lightweight, embeddable
– generic process engine
● Full life cycle support
● Higher-level, domain-specific processes
● Powerful business rules and event processing
integration

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BPMN 2.0
● OMG standard that defines
– Graphical notation
– Process definition format (XSD / XMI)
– Execution semantics
● Extensible
● Interoperability !
● http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/

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BPMN 2.0
<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>

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Standard-based
● BPMN 2.0
● WS-HumanTasks
● JPA
● JTA
● JMX
● ...

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Generic Process Engine
● Generic features
– Persistence
– Transactions
– Timers
– Expression dialects
– Multi-threading
– Events
– Commands + interceptors
– Session management

14.
Domain-specific processes
● Extend palette with domain-specific, declarative
work items
– define input / output parameters
– runtime binding

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Domain-specific processes
● Other examples
– Email / notifications
– File management: archive, find, copy
– FTP, RSS, Jabber, Rest
– ESB
– Google Calendar, social websites
● Library

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Overview
● Short introduction to BPM
● jBPM5
– Key Features
– BPMN2
– Architecture
– Roadmap
● Adaptive processes

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Business Process Life Cycle

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Architecture

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Components
● API
● Core process engine
● Repository
● Human task service
● History log
● BAM engine
Web-based consoles
● Management
● Human tasks
● Reporting / BAM
Eclipse plugins

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Human Task Service

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History Log
ProcessInstanceId ProcessId StartDate EndDate
1 com.sample 1/1/2010 08:34 1/1/2010 09:32
2 evaluation 2/1/2010 15:43 4/1/2010 08:55
3 evaluation 2/1/2010 01:45
Id Type NodeInstanceId NodeId ProcessInstanceId ProcessId Date
1 enter 11 3 1 com.sample 1/1/2010 08:35
2 enter 2 2 3 evaluation 3/1/2010 12:41
3 exit 11 3 1 com.sample 1/1/2010 09:20
● What happened / is happening ?
● Query
● Customizable

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Eclipse Tooling
● Developer-oriented
● Features
– Graphical BPMN2 designer
– Wizards
– Runtime (classpath container)
– Validation / errors
– Debugging
– Repository synchronization

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Web Tooling
More business or end-user oriented
● Process management console
● Human task console
● Reporting / BAM console
● Repository console
● Web-based BPMN2 process editor (Signavio)

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jBPM5 Roadmap
● Currently under community review
● More details soon !
● jBPM 5.0
– Focus on core components
– Near the end of the year
– Productization approximately 6 months later
● Regular (2-3 month) releases after that

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Migration
● Migration process from jBPM 3 or 4
– One-shot migration process
– Process definition
● Transform jPDL to BPMN2
● Semi-automatic
– API
– Documentation
– No runtime data migration

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Overview
● Short introduction to BPM
● jBPM5
– Key Features
– BPMN2
– Architecture
– Roadmap
● Adaptive processes

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Adaptive Processes
● Traditional workflow management systems
have problems with
– Change
– Complexity
– Flexibility
– Data-based
!!!H
O
T
!!!

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Do we want this?

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Agility
=
Variability
+
Change

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How?
● Decision service to externalize decision logic as
business rules
● Process improvement
– Migration of running instances
● Unanticipated work
● Unstructure processes
● Processes, rules and events working together

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Non-lineair processes

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Processes + Rules + Events
A business solution usually involves the interaction
between these technologies.
● Technology overlap
● Business overlap
Several (good) products on the market, better either at
rule or business process or event processing
Attribute the same importance to the three
complementary business modeling techniques

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Links
● Website
– http://www.jboss.org/jbpm/
● Blogs
– http://planet.jboss.org/view/jbossjbpm
● Feedback?
– jbpm-dev@lists.jboss.org
● #jbpm on irc.codehaus.org

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Persistence
ProcessInstanceId ProcessId StartDate State LastRead LastModification ByteArray
1 com.sample 1/1/2010
08:34
Active ... ... 0x0423495820...
2 evaluation 2/1/2010
15:43
Active ... ... 0x0425894756...
3 evaluation 2/1/2010
01:45
Active ... ... 0x0659862034...
● Binary persistence (performance, migration, ...)
● Safe points
● Pluggable variable persistence