242 Managing Information Access to an EIS Using J2EE and Services Oriented Architecture
9.1 Managing business processes
An (SOA typically includes a business process management solution as its main
building block. From a business perspective, the business processes are the
procedures and rules that describe how the organization runs its business. From
an IT perspective, a business process is the function of an IT application that
supports users in completing a business-related task.
In an SOA, an IT business process calls services that are provided by
components and applications which are enabled for the SOA infrastructure.
Implementation of a business process management solution comprises all
activities that are required to capture, design, develop, and run the business
processes of an organization on the IT infrastructure.
Organizations have historically focused on departmental efficiency and common
infrastructural concerns, such as implementing EIS systems for reporting and
supply chain management. However, in today’s competitive world, the
opportunity for differentiation lies in quick and efficient integration and
automation of horizontal business processes. Often, business process efficiency
cannot be achieved solely by purchasing packaged applications. The need for
customization has lead to a series of home-grown applications that are
integrated but often inefficient and expensive to maintain.
Enablement of the applications for an SOA and implementation of the business
process in a dedicated business process management layer is the preferred
solution for the optimization and integration problem. Successful organizations
not only optimize and automate business processes, they achieve integration
across these business processes, monitor them in execution, and provide
real-time feedback to improve business processes in light of changes to their
customers’ needs.
The key to improving and streamlining the business processes of an organization
is bridging the business-technology gap through better communication between
the stakeholders in the enterprise. More effective and timely coordination
between ideas and execution is needed, all focusing on improvement results.
The Process and Activity Flow and Framework (PAFF) provided by IBM is an
approach that focuses on serving the business by tight alignment of business
and technology.
One of the biggest chasms in an organization is the chasm between business
and technology. Different stakeholders in an organization need a common way to
communicate and to reduce the gap between business and technology. Line of
business staff are concerned with understanding the business processes,
including the costs, cycle times, resources, and bottlenecks in a process.
Business analysts want to know which changes will yield the greatest return,
Chapter 9. Integration into business processes 243
what the return on investment will yield, and how the changes will positively
benefit the company. The IT group needs to understand the system requirements
that are required to support the suggested improvements in the business
process and should be able to accurately and quickly implement the process
changes to meet the needs of the business. The key is to make seamless
transitions between these stakeholders, from strategy to execution, while
keeping an eye on the value proposition.
Codifying knowledge without needing to rekey, exporting data from simulated
processes into financial spreadsheets, and moving from logical blueprints into
physical assets are key attributes to providing benefits to the business and IT
community. The PAFF software tools allow for dynamic generation of workflow as
well as architectural diagrams that form the basis for the business improvement
process, using languages and views that the IT community understands.
Figure 9-1 illustrates the elements of the PAFF methodology.
Figure 9-1 Business process life cycle
The process starts with modeling business processes and moving clockwise
includes: analyze requirements, design and construct, deploy and run, and
monitor. Except for the analyze requirements step, the following sections discuss
Analyze Requirements
Model Business
Process
LOB
Software
Development
IT Operations
Develop Iteratively
Focus on Architecture
Continuously Ensure
Quality
Manage Change
& Assets
Design &
Construct
Deploy
Monitor
Analyze
Requirements
244 Managing Information Access to an EIS Using J2EE and Services Oriented Architecture
the activities in more detail. Although the PAFF methodology is
technology-agnostic, we focus on the Business Process Execution Language
(BPEL) standard and the supporting WebSphere tools and infrastructure
components.
9.1.1 Modeling of business processes
Line of business staff and business analysts typically model the business
processes of an organization. They have the skills and knowledge to define and
optimize the processes. To capture the business processes and to document the
business rules, they need tools. Often, they rely on office tools, such as text
processors and drawing tools, to generate the business process and rules
documentation.
PAFF, however, suggests using more powerful tools. WebSphere Business
Integration Modeler provides a comprehensive environment for business process
modeling. The tool includes:
???? A visual modeling editor to create business process models.
???? A palette of predefined modeling elements such as tasks and decision nodes.
???? Definitions of business items which are the input and output of tasks.
???? The documentation of processes and tasks by definition of resources,
duration, and cost.
???? Analysis and query capabilities to investigate the process details.
???? Report generation to generate text and visual documentation.
???? A simulation mode to simulate the business process and to analyze the
process dynamics.
The first step in the modeling phase is to document the current process as it is
and record as many data elements as possible so that you can run a simulation
to understand the bottlenecks and inefficiencies. After you have determined a
baseline process and all stakeholders have agreed that this process represents
the current state, you next need to develop a new process by applying
techniques to improve the process. Even if you intend to develop a new
application and focus on the new process, we strongly recommend that you
model the business processes by using WebSphere Business Integration
Modeler. In many environments, we have seen that the tool improves the
communication between business analysts and IT architects.
WebSphere Business Integration Modeler Version 5.1 is based on the Eclipse
open source tool infrastructure. Because WebSphere Studio Application
Developer Integration Edition is based on the same Eclipse infrastructure,
seamless integration between both tools is provided. A combined installation of
Chapter 9. Integration into business processes 245
both tools in a single environment is possible, so Modeler functions are provided
in an additional perspective of WebSphere Studio Application Developer
Integration Edition.
Business processes designed with Modeler V5.1 can be exported in BPEL
format and therefore easily imported into the BPEL development environment.
Modeler V5.1 also allows you to export the business process in UML format so
that you can use Rational XDE Developer to detail the business process design.
See “Modeling the business process” on page 250 for information about how to
use the Modeler tools.
9.1.2 Developing business processes
You can develop BPEL-compliant business processes with WebSphere Studio
Application Developer Integration Edition. You then deploy the generated
artifacts on the Business Process Container of WebSphere Business Integration
Server Foundation.
The BPEL standard includes specifications of modeling artifacts and structuring
elements. Among others, the following artifacts are available:
???? Partner links that describe parties that interact with the business process
???? Invoke, receive, and reply activities to call services and to send and receive
messages
???? Variables to hold data in the business process that is sent to and received
from services
???? Sequence, flow, switch, and while elements that are used to structure the
business process
The Business Process Container available in WebSphere Business Integration
Server Foundation extends the BPEL specification by providing the following
additional features:
???? Staff activities that describe human interaction with the business process, for
example approvals and data provisioning
???? Service bindings to call services implemented in Java or as EJBs
???? Java snippets that allow to run Java code from within the business process
The development of BPEL business processes using WebSphere Studio
Application Developer Integration Edition is described in detail in 9.3.2,
“Developing the BPEL process” on page 267. For more information refer to:
???? WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation V5.1 Handbook,
SG24-6318
246 Managing Information Access to an EIS Using J2EE and Services Oriented Architecture
???? Using BPEL processes in WebSphere Business Integration Server
Foundation. Business Process Integration and Supply Chain Solutions,
SG24-6324
9.1.3 Deploying and running business processes
You must deploy the business process that is designed by arranging the BPEL
elements into the BPEL process engine for execution. The deployment process
results in the generation of an enterprise application (EAR module) that includes
EJB modules and the BPEL file. You can install the generated EAR file on
WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation using the administration
console.
If a client application initiates a BPEL process, the WebSphere Business
Process Container triggers and executes the business processes. The process
flow is interpreted, the potentially distributed services are called, and state
changes in the business process are recorded. A business process can be
interrupted until an external event indicates that the process can be resumed.
The abstract interface and technology binding describe the services called. If the
internal service implementation changes, the business process is not affected. In
case of changes in interfaces and technology, the process model is also not
affected, but you have to update the service definitions.
The BPEL process engine records all state changes of business processes in its
database. State changes typically occur after having successfully called services
or having received events from external applications. Processes may also call
other processes to form a nested business process model. The process engine
records dependencies and the relationship between processes and their sub
processes and therefore provides end-to-end state management. Exceptions
thrown in sub processes are forwarded to and handled in the main process to
provide an integrated exception handling mechanism. Exception handling is
mainly a design issue, because system and service exception handling has to be
modeled for the specific business process. The BPEL editor of WebSphere
Studio Application Developer Integration Edition provides all of the required
artifacts and concepts to support comprehensive exception handling, such as
exception nodes and a compensation mechanism for undo actions.
Sub processes may share state and data if a specific modeling artifact (block) is
used to define the sub processes. Processes can also be split up into parallel
sub processes or branches that are executed concurrently. A specific modeling
artifact (join) ensures that the main process continues only if all the sub
processes have successfully ended.
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