Book Image

Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM

Book Image

Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM

Overview of this book

JBoss jBPM is a free, open-source, business process management solution. It enables users to create business processes that coordinate people, applications, and services. A business process is a sequence of activities triggered by a certain input that results in a valuable output. Business Process Management is about analyzing those activities in a structured way and eventually supporting their execution with a workflow application. This allows for the following results: Better management visibility of their business: improved decision making Low cost of inputs: de-skilled labor requirements, less waste, standardized components Better outputs: consistent quality, more customer satisfaction Businesses have always tried to manage their processes, but software such as jBPM brings the methodology and management theory to practical life. JBoss jBPM offers the following key features: Graphical process definition Flexibility to integrate code into the graphical process definition A customizable web-based workflow application that runs the process you’ve defined Easy programming model to extend the graphical process definition A process-oriented programming model (jPDL) that blends the best of process definition languages and Java. Easy to integrate with other systems through the JBoss middleware suite.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Analyze the process


We must now put our project team to work. The analysis phase of our project will roughly follow the five step process made famous by Dr Michael Hammer, that is to say:

  • Identify and understand processes

  • Share processes

  • Measure and reward against process performance

  • Improve processes where necessary

  • Appoint a process owner

As you can see, we have already made a start on some of these activities, but the analysis phase will really deepen our understanding of the business processes. The key to success will be in communicating the "As Is" situation with crystal clarity to all the stakeholders, so that everyone has the same shared understanding. Only then will we be able to design the "To Be". The first step on this road is to very simply map out the sequence of activities.

Map the workflow

Mapping out the workflow as a flowchart model is a fantastic participatory exercise that works best in a workshop environment. The technique is low tech but extremely effective: we stick big sheets...