Tuesday, December 14, 2010

jBPM-5.0-CR1 is out

We're glad to announce jBPM-5.0-CR1. This release candidate includes many small improvement on the core process engine, the web-based monitoring and management console and the human task integration.


Want to give it a try, but don't know where to start? Download the installer and follow this chapter that will guide you through the different components using a simple example.

Here are a bunch of useful links:
Should you have any problems, feel free to contact
If all goes well, we'll be doing a final release in a few weeks. So give this one a try and let us know if you still discover some issues, so we can do the final fixes.

Friday, November 19, 2010

jBPM5 webinar online now

For those who missed the JBoss Developer Webinar on jBPM5 last Wednesday, a recorded version is now available. It gives a short intro on BPM and gives an overview of the new features of jBPM5.

If you're only interested in the slides, you can see (and download) them here.

There were a lot more questions than we actually could handle in the Q&A part of the presentation, so I'll try to compile a list of additional answers and publish them on this blog next week.

Hope you all enjoyed it!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

JBoss Developer Webinar on jBPM5

As part of the bi-weekly JBoss Developer Webinar Series, I will be giving a presentation on jBPM5 next week Wednesday, November 17, 12:00 PM EST / 17:00 GMT.

This presentation will be suited both for people that are not really familiar with jBPM but would like to get an introduction what it is all about as well as for people that have experience with previous versions of the project and would like to know what's new. With the possibility to ask your questions afterwards of course.

I will also touch on how jBPM5 is tackling exciting hot topics like case management, event-driven BPM, etc.

So don't miss out and register now!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Should you bet on jBPM?

In a recent webinar from Active Endpoints called "Should you bet on jBPM?", Michael Rowley described the findings of his evaluation of jBPM. This includes what he believes jBPM is good at and what it is bad at, relation to standards, etc. It's always a good thing if competitors think they need to do a comparison, right? ;)

Unfortunately, he decided to evaluate jBPM v3. Fair enough, jBPM5 isn't out yet, so selecting jBPM3 probably made sense. But luckily, a lot of the "issues" he has with jBPM3 have already been improved significantly in jBPM5! For those that might have seen the presentation and are wondering what is still applicable for jBPM5, some highlights ...

Standards
jBPM5 is using existing standards wherever possible. BPMN2 is used for process definitions (both at the graphical level as well as the underlying XML). This means that concepts like exception handling, event signaling etc. are all offered using the concepts as defined in the specification (which were agreed upon as the best possible solution to represent these concepts by many experts in the working group). But it's not just BPMN2, but also WS-HT for human tasks (see below), JPA / JTA for persistence and transactions, etc., as we believe the use of these standards only brings benefits to our users.

Human tasks
Instead of having an embedded, proprietary human task solution, the new human task service is an independent service based on the WS-HumanTask specification, and allow more advanced features like escalation, reassignment, etc.

Low-level details
We try to hide low-level implementation details from the end user as much as possible. For example, there's no more concept of a "token" that the user needs to know. Also, we strongly encourage users to keep implementation details out of their process definitions. No more low-level Java integration code is needed inside your process (or handlers) to link to external services, this all can be handled as domain-specific extensions. The use of code inside a process should be limited to simply expressions / actions.

XML editing
While people are allowed to edit the underlying XML (used for storing process definitions) themselves, this is not are recommended approach and users should not be forced into doing that. There are property panels, but more importantly, there are user-friendly editors that pop up when double-clicking specific nodes (and yes, you can contribute your own!). For example, a screenshot of how you could specify the details when you need to send an email below.



Service Orchestration
It is true to say that jBPM is (currently) more focused on a Java environment. This doesn't mean you can't do web service invocations, but if all you're currently interested in is web service orchestration, you might find the default support for process interface generation, correlation and XML data handling a little bit limited. We'll be working on improving that after jBPM 5.0, but luckily JBoss has another project called RiftSaw which does exactly that: offer web service orchestration using WS-BPEL execution based on the Apache ODE engine. Both projects share a few components already and we're working on a combined long-term strategy, but definitely take a look there as well if you need pure service orchestration.

As you can see, lots of improvements and new features have already been added in jBPM5. Want to know more? There's a webinar next week where I will give a one-hour introduction to jBPM5! So register now!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Towards Case Management

Case management was one of the recurring themes last week at the Business Process Forum. There definitely seems to be a growing need amongst end users for more flexible and adaptive business processes, without ending up with overly complex solutions. Everyone seems to agree that using a process-centric approach only in many cases leads to complex solutions that are hard to maintain. The "knowledge workers" no longer want to be locked into rigid processes but wants to have the power and flexibility to regain more control over the process themselves.

The term case management is often used in that context. I'm not going to try and give a precise definition of what it might or might not mean [1,2], but it refers to the basic idea that many applications in the real world cannot really be described completely from start to finish (including all possible paths, deviations, exceptions, etc.). Case management takes a different approach: instead of trying to model what should happen from start to finish, let's give the end user the flexibility to decide what should happen at runtime. In its most extreme form for example, case management doesn't even require any process definition at all. Whenever a new case comes in, the end user can decide what to do next based on all the case data.

A typical example can be found in healthcare (clinical decision support to be more precise), where care plans can be used to describe how patients should be treated in specific circumstances, but people like general practitioners still need to have the flexibility to add additional steps and deviate from the proposed plan, as each case is unique. And there are similar examples in claim management, helpdesk support, etc.

So, should we just throw away our BPM system then? I don't think so! Even at its most extreme form (where we don't model any process up front), you still need a lot of the other features a BPM system (usually) provides: there still is a clear need for audit logs, monitoring, coordinating various services, human interaction (e.g. using task forms), analysis, etc. And, more importantly, many cases are somewhere in between, or might even evolve from case management to more structured business process over time (when we for example try to extract common approaches from many cases). If we can offer flexibility as part of our processes, can't we let the users decide how and where they would like to apply it?

Let me give you two examples that show how you can add more and more flexibility to your processes. The first example shows a care plan that shows the tasks that should be performed when a patient has high blood pressure. While a large part of the process is still well-structured, the general practitioner can decide himself which tasks should be performed as part of the sub-process. And he also has the ability to add new tasks during that period, tasks that were not defined as part of the process, or repeat tasks multiple times, etc. The process uses an ad-hoc sub-process to model this kind of flexibility, possibly augmented with rules or event processing to help in deciding which fragments to execute.


The second example actually goes a lot further than that. In this example, an internet provider could define how cases about internet connectivity problems will be handled by the internet provider. There are a number of actions the case worker can select from, but those are simply small process fragments. The case worker is responsible for selecting what to do next and can even add new tasks dynamically. As you can see, there is not process from start to finish anymore, but the user is responsible for selecting which process fragments to execute.

And in its most extreme form, we even allow you to create case instances without a process definition, where what needs to be performed is selected purely at runtime. This however doesn't mean you can't figure out anymore what 's actually happening. For example, meetings can be very adhoc and dynamic, but we usually want a log of what was actually discussed. The following screenshot shows how our regular audit view can still be used in this case, and the end user could then for example get a lot more info about what actually happened by looking at the data associated with each of those steps. And maybe, over time, we can even automate part of that by using a semi-structured process.

We hope that already goes a long way in supporting your cases!

Monday, October 18, 2010

jBPM5 and BPMN 2.0

jBPM5 introduces a new language for representing process definitions based on the BPMN 2.0 specification, replacing older (proprietary) formats like jPDL or RuleFlow. Because not everyone might be familiar with this specification, let me give you some background. [The BPMN 2.0 specification has been finalized for some time now, but still needs to go through the final steps of the administrative process. Nevertheless, the contents of the specification seems to be stable and ready to be used.]

What is BPMN 2.0?
"The primary goal of BPMN is to provide a notation that is readily understandable by all business users, from the business analysts that create the initial drafts of the processes, to the technical developers responsible for implementing the technology that will perform those processes, and finally, to the business people who will manage and monitor those processes."
The second version of the Business Process Model and Notation specification (BPMN 2.0) by OMG not only defines a standard on how to graphically represent a business process (like BPMN 1.x), but now also includes execution semantics for the elements defined, and an XML format on how to store (and share) process definitions.

For example, a very simple process that would write out "Hello World" when it is started would look something like this (both visual and using XML):


<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>

The BPMN2 specification contains an explanation of how to represent executable business processes, both visually and syntactically, by combining a large set of different node types (and related elements). jBPM5 supports most of the "Common Executable" subset of the BPMN2 specification (containing the most common node types and attributes for specifying executable business processes) and already a few more node types. The documentation gives a detailed overview of which elements an attributes exactly.

To get started, the BPMN2 specification obviously serves as the reference, but additional to that, the jbpm-bpmn2 module contains a lot of junit tests for each of the currently supported node types. These test processes can also serve as simple examples: they don't really represent an entire real life business processes but can definitely be used to show how specific features can be used. For example, the following figures shows the flow chart of a few of those examples. The entire list can be found here.


Want to know more details, check out the BPMN2 chapter in the jBPM5 documentation.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Here we go ... first jBPM5 snapshots !

We've been talking about it for a while now, and working on it even longer, but we believe the time has come to just get the jBPM5 code out there and start asking for community feedback and assistance.

The current jBPM5 snapshot offers open-source business process execution and management, including
  • an embeddable, light-weight process engine in Java, supporting native BPMN2 execution
  • BPMN2 process modeling, both in Eclipse (developers) and web-based (business users)
  • process collaboration, monitoring and management through the Guvnor repository and the management consoles
  • human interaction using an independent WS-HT human task service
  • strong and powerful integration with business rules and event processing

So where to start looking?

For those that want to get their hands on the source code:
http://github.com/krisv/jbpm

Documentation (which is still under heavy construction but will be extended significantly in the next few weeks) can be found here.

And you can always download the latest snapshot binaries, sources, the gwt-console, documentation and an installer here:
https://hudson.jboss.org/hudson/job/jBPM5/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/target

Enjoy !

Monday, September 6, 2010

JUDCon Berlin, October 7-8 2010

After the first success at Boston, JUDCon, the conference for and by JBoss users and developers, is coming to Berlin on October 7-8. This time, there is a special track on Workflow and BPM on day 1. So hopefully there will be a lot of interesting presentations on Drools Flow / jBPM. The call for papers is still open (until September 13), so hurry is you want to submit a session. So if you are or want to become part of the community, don't hesitate!

http://jboss.org/events/JUDCon/JUDCon2010Berlin.html

I'll be giving a presentation on jBPM5 and will be available if you want to talk or even dive into code. Ideal chance to talk to core or other community developers.

Hope to see you all there.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Proposal for jBPM5 roadmap

A while ago, we presented a request for comments on jBPM5, where we asked you, our community, to provide feedback on the vision, architecture and key features for (the next version of) the jBPM project. We would like to thank anyone who participated in the discussion and provided feedback or suggested additional requirements.

Based on these requirements we would like to present a proposal for what we would like to include in the first release of jBPM5. While we have not yet pinpointed an exact date for this release (but we will do this asap, stay tuned), we are planning to release this near the end of the year (preferably a few months before even). As many people have requested, this release will focus on delivering a solid core and simple tooling, while additional (more advanced) features will be rolled out in the subsequent releases.

The key features of this release include:
  • Native BPMN2 execution
  • Highly configurable, embeddable, lightweight process engine using a generic process engine (PVM) underneath
  • Domain-specific processes and rule / event integration
  • Independent, human tasks service (using WS-HT)
  • Eclipse and web tooling for things like process creation, deployment, management, reporting and human tasks.
  • Migration capabilities from jBPM 3 and 4
More details on the roadmap can be found here. Disclaimer: this is currently still a proposal, so the content might still change (slightly), but we're planning to put out a confirmed roadmap as soon as possible.

Feedback on the roadmap is welcome on the jbpm-dev@lists.jboss.org mailing list.

By the way, don't fear that we're only getting started now. A lot has been implemented already, building on top of jBPM4 and Drools Flow. Don't worry, we're not building from scratch. And if you'd like to help a hand, you're more than welcome to drop a note on the mailing list as well.

JBoss User Group Belgium

I'll be doing a one-hour presentation "Looking forward to the future of (j)BPM" on the next JBoss User Group Belgium next week (Thursday, 3rd of June). Things are rapidly changing nowadays, so if you're in the vicinity and might be interested in we're doing regarding BPM in general, and jBPM5 in particular, don't hesitate to register as the seats are limited!