Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL

By Kapil Pant and Matjaz B. Juric

In Detail

Modeling business processes for SOA and developing end-to-end IT support has become one of the top IT priorities. The SOA approach is based on services and on processes. Processes are focused on composition of services and in that sense services become process activities.

Experience has shown that the implementation and optimization of processes are the most important factors in the success of SOA projects. SOA is so valuable to businesses because it enables process optimization. In order to optimize processes, we need to know which processes are relevant and we have to understand them, something that cannot be done without business process modeling. There is a major problem with this approach, a semantic gap between the process model and the applications.

This book will show you how to fill this gap. It describes a pragmatic approach to business process modeling using the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and the automatic mapping of BPMN to the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), which is the de-facto standard for executing business processes in SOA. The book will also cover related technologies like Business Rules Management and Business Activity Monitoring which play a pivotal role in achieving closed loop Business Process Management.

Learn how to model business processes in an SOA-compliant approach using BPMN, translate them into BPEL and execute them on the SOA platform. A practical guide with real-world examples illustrating all key concepts.

Approach

The book provides a well-balanced mixture of theoretical discussion and real-world examples. It explains the concepts and approaches, and describes methodology and notation. It demonstrates these concepts on real-world examples and provides a step-by-step example tutorial that guides readers from business process modeling in BPMN through transformation into BPEL to execution on the SOA process server. It also discusses some key concepts using practical examples and business scenarios around Business Rules Management and Business Activity Monitoring with BPM and SOA.

Who this book is for

This book is for CIOs, executives, SOA project managers, business process analysts, BPM and SOA architects, who are responsible for improving the efficiency of business processes through IT, or for designing SOA. It provides a high-level coverage of business process modeling, but it also gives practical development examples on how to move from model to execution. We expect the readers to be familiar with the basics of SOA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: Aug 28, 2008
• ISBN: 9781847191472

Kapil Pant

Kapil Pant is an accomplished BPM consultant and Public speaker with extensive experience in Products and Professional Services consulting. He currently manages Wipro Technologies' BPM/SOA practice in Europe, and leads consulting engagements including Business Process Improvement workshops, BPMS and SOA Tools Study & Recommendations, and BPM Architecture, Implementation & Governance. Over the years, Kapil has been extensively involved in conducting successful workshops on Process Improvement, Requirements Analysis, BPM/SOA and Enterprise Architecture for clients in Telecom, Banking, Securities and Insurance industry verticals. He has also worked closely with leading System Integrators such as Wipro, Tata Consulting, HCL and Satyam to conduct technology enablement programs for client projects across industry verticals. As a recognized Public Speaker, Kapil is known for his well-researched programs delivered in his high-energy, enthusiastic, and down-to-earth style. He has presented keynote speeches, workshops, seminars and over 40 road-shows across the Asia Pacific, Europe and the USA. He was also nominated by the Government of India to lead seminars as a part of a 25-member working committee for E-Governance Enterprise Architecture and Standards Taxonomy. He has a Masters Degree in Computer Applications, a Bachelors Degree in Business Studies, and a TOGAF Certification. Kapil presently lives in Hampshire, UK with his wife and enjoys blogging in his free time.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL

Credits

Foreword

About the Authors

About the Reviewer

Preface

What This Book Covers

Conventions

Reader Feedback

Customer Support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. SOA and Business Processes

Why Care about Business Processes?

Examples of Business Processes

How Business Processes Emerge

How Business Processes and IT Relate

IT Flexibility

Heterogeneous Architecture

Traditional Software Lifecycles

Why Do We Need SOA?

Why Should We Believe This?

SOA Approach to Business Processes

Major Improvements in the SOA Approach

Focus on Content, Not Technology

Management Support

SOA Competency Centre

SOA Inception

SOA Forces

Value of SOA for IT Departments

Changes in the Development Approach

Reduced Complexity

Technical Introduction to SOA

BPMN

BPEL

Features

Services

Service Interfaces

Messages

Synchronicity

Loose Coupling

Quality of Service

Other Important Parts of SOA

Enterprise Service Bus

Registry and Repository

Rules Engines

Business Activity Monitoring

User Interactions

User Interaction in BPEL

BPEL4People

How SOA, BPMN, and BPEL Fit Together

Agility

Resilience

Alignment Between Business and IT

New Business Models

How the Puzzles Fit Together

SOA Vendors

Summary

2. Modeling Business Processes for SOA

Business Process Management

IT and BPM

SOA and BPM

Business Process Lifecycle

BPM and SOA—A Perfect Fit for the Lifecycle

Business Process Modeling

Modeling Method and Notation

ARIS

Modeling Notation

BPMN

Process Design

Results of Process Modeling

Process Map

Roles and Relations Structure

As-is Process Model

Process Environment Diagram

Top-level Process Model

Detailed Process Maps

Exception Handling Diagram

Publishing and Communicating Process Models

Process Simulation

Tools for Simulating Processes

Modeling Principles

Common Problems in Process Modeling

Process Implementation

Classic Software Development

Standardized ERP Solutions

Service Oriented Architecture

Process Implementation Phase with BPEL

Process Execution and Control

SOA for the Process Execution and Control Phase

Business Activity Monitoring

Process Optimization

The To-be Process Model

Key Performance Indicators

Typical Problems in Process Optimization

Summary

3. BPMN for Business Process Modeling

The Need for Standards in Business Process Modeling

Business Process Classification and BPMN

Strategic or Operational

Process Type

Process Scope

Business Process Diagrams—Core Elements

Business Process Diagrams—A Deeper Analysis of the Key Elements of BPMN

Events

Activities

Sub-Process

Task

Gateways

Sequence Flow

Message Flow

Association

Pool

Lanes

Data Object

Group

Text Annotation

Introduction to Oracle Business Process Analysis Suite

Developing an Example Process Using BPMN and the Selected Tool

Summary

4. BPMN—Advance Constructs

Business Process Modeling General Guidelines

Rule #1: Process Models Should Provide Aid in Process Understanding

Rule # 2: Match Each Split with a Join

Rule #3: Have a Well-Defined Start and End Event

Rule #4: Look Out for Orphan Tasks

BPMN Attributes and Tools Support

Business Process Diagram

Process

Sub-Process

Events in Detail

Start Events

None

Timer

Message

Rule

Link

Multiple

End Events

None

Message

Link

Cancel

Error

Terminate

Compensation

Multiple

Intermediate Events

Message

Timer

Link

Rule

Error

Cancel

Compensation

Multiple

Process Modeling Patterns and BPMN

Basic Control Patterns

Simple Sequence

Parallel Split Sequence or Forking

Type 1: Uncontrolled Flow

Type 2: Controlled Flow

Type 3: Parallel Box

Synchronization or Joining Flow

Type 1: Use of Parallel (AND) Gateway

Type 2: Sub Process Completion

Branching and Synchronization Patterns

Multi Choice

Structured Synchronizing Merge

Multi Merge

Iteration Based Patterns

Arbitrary Cycles

Structured Loop

Termination

Implicit Termination

Explicit Termination

Multiple Instance Pattern

Multiple Instances without Synchronization

Multiple Instances with a Priori Design-Time Knowledge

Multiple Instances with a Priori Run-Time Knowledge

State-Based Patterns

Deferred Choice

Summary

5. Process Analysis and Transformation—From BPMN to BPEL

Business Process Analysis Using Simulation

The Business Process Model and Data input

Simulation and Scenario Analysis

Model Target Process

Business Process Transition: Bridging the Business—IT divide

BPMN to BPEL—Key Considerations

BPMN Specification for BPEL Mapping

Tools to Support BPMN-BPEL Transformations

Oracle BPM Suite: Oracle BPA and SOA Suite for BPMN-BPEL Mapping

Tool Approach for Process Transformation

Modeling and Analysis Process

Process Detailing for Transition—A Look into Oracle Extensions for BPMN and BPEL

Automated Activity

Human Workflow Activity

Notification Activity

Business Rules Activity

Business- IT Synchronization using Process Blueprint

Transformation Case Study

Business Process Overview—What is 'Portfolio Account Opening?'

Business Process Transformation—Modeling and Analysis

Business Process Detailing for Transformation

Model Validation before Transformation

Automatic Mapping of BPA Elements for BPEL

Generate Business Process Blueprint

Retrieve the Business Process Blueprint

Create a BPA Connection for Importing the Blueprint

Create a BPEL Project

Blueprint View and BPEL View

Add Implementation Details

Deploy and Test

Updating the BPA Server

Summary

6. Business Process Orchestration for SOA

BPM Architecture and Role of Business Process Orchestration

Executing BPEL Processes in BPEL Process Manager

Initiation of the Process Instance

Accessing a Human Task through the Worklist Application

Task Invocation from BPEL Process Manager and its Integration with Worklist Application

Introduction to Business Rules Management

What are Business Rules?

Business Rules Anatomy

Automating Business Rules

Automating Business Rules for Business Issues

Business Rules Management, BPM, and SOA

Key Considerations for Selecting a BRMS

Key components of a BRMS—A Brief Look into Oracle Business Rules

Implementing Business Rules—The Business Rules Development Process

Introducing Business Activity Monitoring

What is BAM?

BPM, SOA, and BAM

Oracle BAM

Oracle BAM and BPM

Summary

Index

Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL

Matjaz Juric

Kapil Pant

---

Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL

Copyright © 2008 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

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First published: August 2008

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Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-84719-146-5

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Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar ([e-mail])

Credits

Authors

Matjaz B. Juric

Kapil Pant

Reviewer

Frank Jennings

Senior Acquisition Editor

Louay Fatoohi

Development Editor

Nikhil Bangera

Technical Editor

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Copy Editor

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Cover Work

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Foreword

More and more organizations are turning to Business Process Management in their quest for practical ways to create new business value and to streamline their operations, and to ultimately become flexible, responsive and efficient organizations.

For the last 30 years, the business world has become more process aware, and BPM has come a long way since initial iterations that relied heavily on static flowcharts to map out corporate processes in mostly unchanging organizations.

Today, BPM has become a discipline in its own right. It applies sophisticated software and best practices to model, simulate, automate, manage, and monitor processes, in order to coordinate operations with dynamic business priorities. This has given rise to unprecedented process flexibility and scalability, wherein workflows (both human and automated) are determined in real-time by events and/or outcomes within the process, and effective knowledge transfer is made possible as processes become well-documented business artifacts on which employees can be trained.

The introduction of an independent process tier represents BPM's first major contribution to business computing. It puts the management of business logic in the hands of business managers, without threatening the integrity of the application logic.

To enjoy the full benefits of BPM, processes must integrate with existing applications and systems. They require access to the functions that are locked in application silos. Today's IT organization is complex, consisting of many different applications and systems built using heterogeneous technologies, on various types of middleware, using multiple databases and running on many platforms. Hard-coding point-to-point integration with these applications is not a good solution as it creates tight coupling with the application and makes the process brittle and inflexibleThis can make the processes expensive to change and may therefore defeat the entire purpose of BPM.

This is where Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) comes in. It provides the technical ability to create that process independence. The goal of SOA is to expose an organization's IT assets as re-usable services that can communicate and integrate more readily. SOA's aim is to provide a common communication framework to organize and describe the capabilities, usage policies and service provider locations without exposing the implementation details. It allows organizations to plug in new services or upgrade existing services in a granular fashion in order to address new business requirements, while providing the possibility of making the services consumable across different channels, and at the same time enabling existing legacy applications as services. The goal is to eliminate the integration headache common to many organizations today, while leveraging existing IT investments.

BPM and SOA are a natural match —together they facilitate the next phase of business process automation, deriving higher value from services. Business automation will no longer be about hard coding a function that is to be repeated infinitely.

Today, business automation through BPM and SOA is all about creating services that are re-usable in many different ways, in multiple processes that can be continually improved. Through this synergy, organizations will achieve better business and IT results than were ever possible through either discipline alone.

This book provides adequate coverage of BPM in the context of SOA, as well as a pragmatic approach to carrying out the analysis, execution and monitoring of business processes from end-to-end, using Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), and the automatic mapping of BPMN to the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) for executing business processes in SOA.

Geoffroy de Lamalle

Business Development Manager, SOA—Europe, Middle East & Africa,

IDS Scheer AG

About the Authors

Matjaz B. Juric holds a Ph.D. in computer and information science. He is Associate Professor at the University of Maribor and the director of Science Park project. In addition to this book, he has authored or coauthored SOA Approach to Integration, Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (English and French editions), BPEL Cookbook: Best Practices for SOA-based integration and composite applications development, Professional J2EE EAI, Professional EJB, J2EE Design Patterns Applied, and .NET Serialization Handbook. He has published chapters in More Java Gems (Cambridge University Press) and in Technology Supporting Business Solutions (Nova Science Publishers). He has also published articles in journals and magazines, such as SOA World Journal, Web Services Journal, Java Developer's Journal, Java Report, Java World, eai Journal, theserverside.com, OTN, ACM journals, and has presented at conferences such as OOPSLA, Java Development, XML Europe, OOW, SCI, and others. He is a reviewer, program committee member, and conference organizer.

Matjaz has been involved in several large-scale projects. He has been a consultant for several large companies on SOA projects. In cooperation with the IBM Java Technology Centre, he worked on performance analysis and optimization of RMI-IIOP, an integral part of the Java platform. Matjaz is also a member of the BPEL Advisory Board.

Matjaz is the chair of SOA Competency Centre, and the author of courses and consultant for the BPEL and SOA consulting company BPELmentor.com. For more information, please visit http://www.bpelmentor.com/

My efforts in this book are dedicated to my family. Special thanks to my dear beautiful Ana. Thanks to my friends at Packt Publishing and University of Maribor and to Ales Frece.

Kapil Pant is an accomplished BPM consultant and Public speaker with extensive experience in Products and Professional Services consulting. He currently manages Wipro Technologies' BPM/SOA practice in Europe, and leads consulting engagements including Business Process Improvement workshops, BPMS and SOA Tools Study and Recommendations, and BPM Architecture, Implementation and Governance.

Over the years, Kapil has been extensively involved in conducting successful workshops on Process Improvement, Requirements Analysis, BPM/SOA and Enterprise Architecture for clients in Telecom, Banking, Securities and Insurance industry verticals. He has also worked closely with leading System Integrators such as Wipro, Tata Consulting, HCL and Satyam to conduct technology enablement programs for client projects across industry verticals.

As a recognized Public Speaker, Kapil is known for his well-researched programs delivered in his high-energy, enthusiastic, and down-to-earth style. He has presented keynote speeches, workshops, seminars, and over 40 road-shows across the Asia Pacific, Europe and the USA. He was also nominated by the Government of India to lead seminars as a part of a 25-member working committee for E-Governance Enterprise Architecture and Standards Taxonomy.

He has a Masters Degree in Computer Applications, a Bachelors Degree in Business Studies, and a TOGAF Certification.

Kapil presently lives in Hampshire, UK with his wife and enjoys blogging in his free time.

I would like to express my thanks to my colleagues in Wipro Technologies, specifically my senior colleagues Gopalakrishna Byllahalli and Gunendra Patil for their firm support, guidance and encouragement.

Ashish Sharma for his technical understanding and help with some of the key sections in the book.

Louay Fatoohi and Patricia Weir from Packt Publishing for their continued support, patience and understanding during the course of this project.

Finally, I am grateful to my parents and grandmother for their blessings and my wife Ekta for her constant encouragement and critical advice without which this book would not have been possible.

About the Reviewer

Frank Jennings works in the Information Products Group of Sun Microsystems Inc. He has more than 9 years of experience in Java, SOA and System Design. He is an Electronics Engineer from Madras University and has worked for several open-source projects.

Frank has written regular columns for leading Java journals including Java Developer's Journal and Linux Developer's Week. Frank is also the co-author of the book SOA Approach to Integration focusing on SOA design pattern for enterprises. Frank also is involved in technical publications for Sun Microsystems in the fields of Solaris and Developer AMP Stack. His blog can be read at http://blogs.sun.com/phantom and he can be reached at . He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science and an Advance Diploma in Computer Integrated Management from University of Indianapolis

Preface

Modeling business processes for SOA and developing end-to-end IT support for these processes have become top IT priorities for many organisation. The SOA approach is based services and on processes. Processes are focused on composition of services and in that sense services become process activities.

Experience has shown that the implementation and the optimization of processes are the most important factors in the success of SOA projects. SOA is so valuable to businesses because it enables process optimization. In order to optimize processes, we need to know which processes are relevant and we have to understand them – something that cannot be done without business process modeling. There is a major problem with this approach – a semantic gap between the process model and the applications.

This book will show you how to bridge this gap. It describes a pragmatic approach to business process modeling using the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and the automatic mapping of BPMN to the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), which is the de-facto standard for executing business processes in SOA. The book will also cover related technologies such as Business Rules Management and Business Activity Monitoring, which play a pivotal role in achieving closed-loop Business Process Management.

What This Book Covers

Chapter 1 looks at the relation between SOA and business processes. SOA provides the technology platform for the implementation of business processes, and the development of applications that provide end-to-end support for business processes. This chapter also covers the long-term association of SOA with business processes and BPM.

Chapter 2 gives an overview of the role of business process modeling for SOA. It outlines the importance of BPM and its life-cycle, which consists of business process design, process implementation, process execution and control, and process optimization. It discusses each of these stages in brief. It also briefly discusses ARIS the methodology, BPMN notations, and process simulation.

Chapter 3 covers the concepts of business process modeling, and the use of BPMN as a standard in providing a consistent, process vocabulary to any business. It discusses the essential components of BPMN using some examples, which will enable you to start creating BPDs. It also introduces the Oracle Business Process Analysis Suite.

Chapter 4 addresses some general guidelines for process modeling before taking a deep dive into some complex constructs of BPMN, especially the length and breadth of Events, and the role they play in creating and visualizing BPDs. It also covers support for workflow patterns in BPMN and their use during process execution using BPEL.

Chapter 5 covers two important aspects in the BPM process: process analysis using simulation and process transformation for implementation. It emphasizes the importance of tools to extend support for some of the gaps in the current standards and transformation to reduce the issues of synchronization and process round-trips.

Chapter 6 covers business process modeling using BPMN and process analysis using simulation techniques. It covers process transition from BPMN to BPEL, followed by process orchestration and execution using process engines such as Oracle's BPEL Process Manager. It also evaluates some of the best practices for implementing various technology components to make the end-to-end process of BPM and SOA seamless.

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Chapter 1. SOA and Business Processes

The main objective of information technology is to provide support for business operations. IT has successfully automated various functions such as payroll, general ledger, and invoices through the introduction of application systems. Although this has been very valuable for companies, there has also been an understanding that automation of such activities is not all that IT can provide. Therefore, information systems have tried to cover more and more functions. As a result, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), SCM (Supply Chain Management), and similar systems have emerged.

Through the introduction of these systems, companies have started to realize that the ultimate objective would be to automate business processes – in other words, to develop applications that would provide support at each and every step of a business process, from its beginning until its completion.

Although fulfilling this objective might sound simple, it is not! There are at least two major challenges:

Each company has its unique business processes (and application systems should be designed around the business processes, not vice versa).

Business processes are not constant; they change with time. Every change in the business process has to be reflected in the enterprise systems. This requires the enterprise systems to be highly flexible, so that they can be modified quickly