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Functional Overview Oracle BPM Suite 11gpacks many best-of-breed features to enable customers to realize the potential of BPM.

In this chapter, you'll see a brief summary of some of the key features of Oracle BPM Suite 11g.

Business-friendly modeling Oracle BPM Suite 11gempowers business users through business-friendly modeling in the following ways:

A comprehensive set of business modeling tools seamlessly unified within one integrated modeling

environment. Different model types fit naturally to different types of business logic, and having

access to a broad set of model types provides for easier and more transparent expression of the

business problem.

A combination of zero-code and what-you-model-is-what-you-execute paradigms where a business

model becomes executable through progressive refinement instead of coding or some other

transformation.

Web-based process and rules, modeling, and change.

A collaborative workspace.

BPM Studio BPM Studio is a comprehensive integrated modeling environment. It supports persona-based profiles,

allowing a process analyst persona to have access only to BPM modeling. However, a developer persona may

also have access to XML, web services, and Java development.

BPM Studio includes the following model types.

BPMN 2.0 Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) 2.0 is a standard from Object Management Group (OMG). BPM

Studio includes rich support for BPMN 2.0 modeling and simulation.

Oracle BPM Suite 11gsupports BPMN 2.0 natively (that is, no transformation to another language or

technology) and BPM Studio enables execution semantics to be associated with BPMN models via declarative

property specifications. Through the usage of BPMN 2.0 constructs, such as gateways (exclusive, parallel, and

complex) and events/event handlers, very complex process logics can be easily expressed.

The swim lanes in the BPMN process may be used as an assignment mechanism. They are logical process roles

that are mapped to physical users and groups in an identity store, such as LDAP.

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BPM Studio also enables simulation

of one or more BPMN 2.0 processes

using modeled process scenarios.

Simulation enables what-if analysis

of various metrics including time

and cost metrics under different

scenarios. Queue build-ups are

visualized on the process model

itself and resources may be

dynamically changed to resolve

such build-ups.

In addition to BPMN 2.0, Oracle BPM Studio also includes support for Business Process Execution Language

(BPEL). BPEL is particularly useful for integration flows and for service orchestrations.

Business Rules: Oracle BPM includes Oracle Business Rules, a RETE algorithm-based (see, for example,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rete_algorithm) true inference rules engine. BPM Studio includes business-

friendly modeling of rules, including both if-then and decision-table metaphors. A decision-table uses a

spreadsheet type arrangement for expressing business rules and supports conflict (or overlap) detection as

well as gap analysis. The gap analysis feature can also automatically create the table structure for the missing

conditions.

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User interface (task forms) Oracle BPM leverages Oracle Application Development Framework(ADF) for task for task forms (or user

interfaces). ADF is a framework based on the industry-standard Java Server Faces (JSF) and includes:

Visual drag-and-drop ADF designer

Rich palette of highly interactive controls as well as data visualization elements (charts, graphs, trees,

and so on)

Declarative specification of complex UI behavior

Consistent abstraction of backend data sources including BPM processes, databases, and web

services, enabling easy composition of mashed-up pages

A rich page-flow technology known as ADF Task Flows that not only provides for screen navigation

but also allows invocation of automated services, evaluation of conditionals, and save/restore of

state

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Also, Oracle BPM Studio includes wizards for

generating the ADF views and Task Flows either

completely automatically or based on user

guidance. These generated UI elements may be

used as-is or can be further enhanced in the ADF

designer.

SCA Composite The SCA (Service Component Architecture, refer to this link: www.osoa.org) The Composite model

provides a component-level wiring diagram. It is automatically created and maintained as part of BPM

modeling and its existence may be totally transparent to process analysts. Process developers would use

the SCA editor as it provides access to web services and application or technology adapters, as well as to

other Oracle SOA Suite components, such as Mediator. The services that developers create in this view

gets added to the business catalog and is available to be used by process analysts in their BPMN processes.

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Process Composer In addition to the BPM Studio,

Oracle BPM Suite 11gincludes a

web-based process (BPMN 2.0)

and business rules modeling

and editing environment.

In addition to providing an

easier to use interface,

especially for users not wanting

to install a tool on their

desktop, Process Composer is

also a role-based collaborative

application. The role based

access feature of Process Composer enables the Business Analyst to share the process definition with

various stakeholders, many of whom may just have view-only access.

Modeling Space: Modeling Space is an out-of-the-box collaborative Oracle Web Center Space that facilitates team work and

collaboration around the process model definition and evolution. The modeling team can use features

such as discussions, documents, issues, Wikis, and blogs to collaborate more effectively as a team.

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Process analysis As discussed earlier, one of the big benefits of adopting BPM is the ability to continually analyze and

optimize the processes. Oracle BPM Suite 11gfeatures rich process analytics and change-edit features to

enable this benefit.

The first aspect of process analysis is process simulation. Oracle BPM Studio enables specification of

various scenarios for a given process, where a scenario includes probability distributions for various

process events as well as a \resourcing and costing model. Multiple processes can be simulated

simultaneously based on these scenarios. Various metrics including cost, unit, and time can be charted and

analyzed. Also, queue build-ups are displayed overlaid on the process model and resources can be

dynamically changed during a simulation run, to do what-if analysis. (See the screenshot in the BPM Studio

section).

The second aspect of process analysis is to monitor and analyze interesting business indicators during

process execution. Oracle BPM Suite 11gincludes many out-of the-box dashboards to analyze common

business indicators such as cycle time, work distribution, work performance, and so on. In addition,

process-specific business indicators may be specified by business analysts along with the process models.

End users can create their own dashboards using these process-specific business indicators as well as

standard indicators.

The dashboarding capability is also well integrated with Oracle Business Activity Monitoring (BAM). Oracle

BAM is an events-based, real-time monitoring product that can aggregate events from a variety of sources,

including Oracle BPM Suite 11gand supporting backend applications, correlate them, and present true end-

to-end dashboards.

BPM Suite 11ghas a STAR schema, called Process Cubes, underlying the dashboarding capabilities. Oracle

BI EE and other business intelligence tools can easily work against this schema.

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Also, Oracle BPA Suite, a complementary product for detailed business process analysis, enables modeling

of various aspects of processes and their supporting environments, including objectives, risks, strategies,

business capabilities, business services, applications, standards, and their inter-relationships. Rich reports

and analyses can be produced based on such modeled information.

Productive work management BPM should not only deliver efficiency through streamlined business processes and intelligent resource

allocation, it should also help process participants in doing their job better. Oracle BPM Suite 11gincludes

many features to facilitate the performance of work from an end user's perspective, and thus not only

increases their productivity but also makes them more enthusiastic in adopting BPM.

Process Spaces (Social BPM) Process Spaces is an out-of-the-box collaborative and social application with composite and

tailored interfaces that makes end users more productive through better collaboration.

Process Workspace Process Workspace is a collaborative space composed of BPM task lists and other components such as

dashboards, and Enterprise 2.0 functionalities such as discussions, documents, and so on. Using the built-

in Page Composer, business users can customize the space and its pages, rearranging components as well

as including other components available in the catalog. Other Oracle products such as Oracle BI may

populate the catalog with their components; customers can add custom/external portlets as well as ADF

applications to the catalog. Everything in the catalog is available to the business user editing a page in Page

Composer, enabling them to compose mashed-up interfaces.

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Process Workspace makes end users more productive in the following ways:

Integrated document manager ensures that relevant policies and best practices are always

available to process participants

Best practices, tips, techniques, and issues can be discussed leveraging the integrated discussions

forum

Ability to compose mashed-up interfaces mean that process participants have, at the point of

action, all the insights and information needed to make the best decisions

Process instance space Some processes are very collaborative and ad hoc in nature. In typical BPM products, the collaboration

and ad hoc interactions happen outside of the BPM product, creating a rich shadow process that

unfortunately is not traceable or auditable.

Oracle BPM Suite 11gsupports the creation

of a collaboration space specific to a

process instance. In this space, process

participants can not only see and manage

the process instance as modeled and

executed in the BPM Suite process

execution engine, but also use its team

collaboration capability to collaborate on

the process completion. For example, a

sales team working on a specific

opportunity can create a collaboration

space tied to the process instance (Request

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Quote process) and use that space to manage all the documents, discussions, and events associated with

closing the opportunity.

Work organization and management In addition to the collaboration features described earlier, Oracle BPM Suite 11g includes features enabling

process participants to organize and streamline their work.

Views Views enable organization of work. A view is essentially a search criteria; it can also have display attributes

including columns to include and sort order. Views can be used not only to organize one's work but also as

a delegation mechanism—entire views may be delegated.

Personal and group rules Oracle BPM Suite 11gfeatures rules-

driven work management. Using a very

simple-to-use interface, end users can

write rules to handle work assigned to

them. These rules may reassign,

delegate, or automatically complete

the work. Users managing groups can

also write rules handling work assigned

to the group. In this scenario, out-of-

the-box as well as custom load

balancing algorithms may be used.

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Dashboard-driven filtering Earlier in the chapter, we discussed Oracle BPM Suite 11g's support for out-of-the box as well as custom

business indicators and dashboards. These dashboards may also be used to filter the process instances.

For users dealing with a large work load, who need some intelligent analysis on what to focus on, the ability

to drill down from process dashboards to a filtered list of instances is very helpful.

Built for change Agility, or the ability to respond with speed, is an important benefit of BPM. Agility comes from at least the

following three aspects of BPM:

BPM projects can be rapidly developed and deployed using tooling discussed earlier.

BPM processes have optimized cycle times, both through streamlining of the process as well as

through enhanced productivity of end users as discussed in the previous section.

Once the operating environment changes, a BPM process can rapidly react to that change. This

section describes how Oracle BPM Suite 11gsupports rapid change.

The first aspect of being able to react to change is to build the processes to be resilient to change. The

most common way this can be accomplished is by leveraging business rules—rules that can be changed

independent of the process as needed.

Oracle BPM Suite 11gnot only integrates business rules seamlessly into process definitions but also

leverages rules more pervasively to provide more resilience to change. Some such usages beyond a process

using business rules as a decision activity include:

A process activity can be dynamically bound to its implementation based on business rules. This

is an elegant pattern to handle variance in processes arising from differences in geographies,

products, and so on.

Business rules can drive task assignment and routing.

End users can define their own work management rules as discussed in previous section.

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In spite of building the process to be resilient to change, it may not be possible to foresee all possible

variances or exceptions. In such scenarios, Oracle BPM Suite 11genables an appropriately privileged user

to change the process in an ad hoc fashion.

Such changes include:

Reassignment of current task

Re-routing of current task, including adding additional participants

Re-routing of future task, including adding additional participants

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Finally, there are situations where the process definition needs to be changed.

Process Composer (discussed earlier) enables rapid change to process definition. By enabling business

users or analysts to change the processes themselves and deploy without requiring any IT engagement is

a key enabler of agility. While addressing the need to change rapidly, Process Composer also features

governance mechanisms governance mechanisms to protect from bad changes. These mechanisms

include:

The ability to specify in the process model what can and cannot be changed

Support for change approval workflows

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Summary: Oracle BPM Suite 11gincludes a rich set of features in a very complete and unified product. These features

deliver on BPM's promise of efficiency, visibility, and agility in the following ways:

Business-friendly modeling tools that allow the business users to model and manage their business

processes

Rich process analysis capabilities that enable the discipline of continuous process improvement as

well as allows the process initiatives to be aligned with business drivers and IT landscape

Easy to use, collaborative, and social interfaces that enable end users to be more productive as

well as make better decisions leveraging more enterprise knowledge and insight

The ability to handle anticipated and unanticipated changes

References:

Book “Getting Started with Oracle BPM Suite 11gR1” A Hands-On Tutorial

Authors

Heidi Buelow

Manoj Das

Manas Deb

Prasen Palvankar

Meera Srinivasan