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.

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

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

7. 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 ...

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

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

10. 10
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

11. 11
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/

12. 12
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>

13. 13
Standard-based
● BPMN 2.0
● WS-HumanTasks
● JPA
● JTA
● JMX
● ...

14. 14
Generic Process Engine
● Generic features
– Persistence
– Transactions
– Timers
– Expression dialects
– Multi-threading
– Events
– Commands + interceptors
– Session management

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

16. 16
Domain-specific processes
● Other examples
– Email / notifications
– File management: archive, find, copy
– FTP, RSS, Jabber, Rest
– ESB
– Google Calendar, social websites
● Library

17. 17
Overview
● Short introduction to BPM
● jBPM5
– Key Features
– BPMN2
– Architecture
– Roadmap
● Adaptive processes

18. 18
Business Process Life Cycle

19. 19
Architecture

20. 20
Components
● API
● Core process engine
● Repository
● Human task service
● History log
● BAM engine
Web-based consoles
● Management
● Human tasks
● Reporting / BAM
Eclipse plugins

21. 21
Human Task Service

22. 22
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

23. 23
Eclipse Tooling
● Developer-oriented
● Features
– Graphical BPMN2 designer
– Wizards
– Runtime (classpath container)
– Validation / errors
– Debugging
– Repository synchronization

26. 26
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)

32. 32
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

33. 33
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

34. 34
Overview
● Short introduction to BPM
● jBPM5
– Key Features
– BPMN2
– Architecture
– Roadmap
● Adaptive processes

35. 35
Adaptive Processes
● Traditional workflow management systems
have problems with
– Change
– Complexity
– Flexibility
– Data-based
!!!H
O
T
!!!

36. 36
Do we want this?

37. 37
Agility
=
Variability
+
Change

38. 38
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

39. 39
Non-lineair processes

40. 40
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

41. 41
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

42. 42
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