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.
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.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
A block of code will be set as follows:
if( income < 10000 )
{
declineLoan = true;
}
return declineLoan;New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: "The parallel instance generation check box is also set to signify creation of multiple parallel tasks ".
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