LOW-CODE

MICROSERVICESVS

Which is the Better BPM Approach?

2Low-Code vs. Microservices

The most successful organizations constantly evolve with the marketplace. To stay competitive, they must continuously surveille their markets and adjust their offerings, ensuring a unique and competitive value proposition. The technology and infrastructure that supports the creation, launch, and customer support of these new products and services — as well as the evolution of existing products — also changes frequently.

Adding new suppliers, technology, service providers and customers increases complexity, quickens the pace of business, and amplifies the stress the workforce experiences as the result of change. Technologies that have largely been experimental up until recently — such as artificial intelligence (AI), expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, and others — are becoming essential elements of many new solutions. These new technologies are disrupting tech stacks across the world. The need to simplify and connect business processes for virtually unlimited number of uses has led to a surge in enterprise-wide business process management (BPM) projects.

Organizations must transform the way in which they create products and do business to retain their competitive edge. Simplifying processes while retaining the ability to adjust with business needs is essential to success. BPM is that very powerful tool that allows organizations to quickly adapt, ensuring the delivery of unique business value to customers.

Two-thirds of all business leaders believethat their companies must pick up the paceof digitalization to remain competitive.- Val Sribar, Senior VP at Gartner

As change occurs, enterprise organizations may come to realize that processes and workflows created years ago no longer support newer technologies and tools. Legacy processes are often outdated, inefficient and simply cannot provision changes essential to business evolution and growth. Because legacy business technologies are not readily changed out, robust BPM solutions can be utilized to create new workflows between new and old systems, between people and machines and introduce new technologies – essential to remaining competitive in today’s dynamic world.

The key to creating value at scale, according to Michele Caminos, managing VP of Gartner, is “more frequent, complex decision making, continuous problem solving, rapid pattern recognition, and exception handling.” As a result, business leaders are turning to modern BPM software solutions to embrace — and drive — digital transformation. To be successful and competitive in today’s world, it’s critical that the BPM solutions organizations choose have the power to adapt and adjust as new technologies emerge.

3Low-Code vs. Microservices

At its core, BPM software allows users to examine and improve common business processes that are designed to meet specific objectives. Through a BPM solution, companies can identify those processes that might be inefficient, redundant, or unreliable. BPM framework allows companies to create simplified and agile processes that require less effort and waste fewer resources. Both bottlenecks and items on the critical path are identified and can be resolved. These processes can be updated as needed, resulting in more efficient operations that scale with the organization.

Since BPM has taken such a central role in digital transformation, these tools are increasingly recognized for their strategic value. Modern BPM tools of all shapes, sizes, and features have one thing in common: their importance is more significant than ever before.

Two approaches to BPM have emerged to solve important business workflows: low-code and microservices. The low-code model is designed as a business user’s tool and with non-technical employees in mind. The microservices approach caters to developers that want the full power and flexibility that can only be delivered by coding. Both approaches have their place in the market, and both deliver improved effectiveness, efficiency, and agility — the hallmark value of BPM.

Regardless of its approach, a good BPM system:

• Automates manual processes and optimizes for growth

• Embraces scalability• Eliminates paper-driven procedures• Energizes, supports, and increases productivity among

its users• Leverages the power of technological innovation

Let’s explore the benefits and limitations of each approach. This white paper explores whether low-code, full BPM product experience or a microservices approach is right for the specific use cases within your organization’s digital transformation.

The well-respected Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), a global organization comprised of developers, analysts, consultants, adopters, and researchers, is an authoritative source on trends in BPM, workflow, and industry best practices. The organization recently released a comprehensive list of companies that used BPM to reinvent their businesses, naming thirteen organizations from around the world that “represent the best of BPM across the globe,” not only in technical achievement but also business impact and process innovation. If you’re looking for enterprise organizations to emulate, the WfMC award winners are perfect examples of companies that used BPM to reinvent their businesses.

DIA EPM Gas, Energy, Water Colombia FiberCorp Grupo A Hilti AG ISS Facility Services, Brazil New York State Back Office Operations Pret Communique S.A. de C.V., Mexico Rio de Janeiro’s City Hall SOLIX Inc Valeo* VINCULA-MDT WellCare Health Plans, Inc.

*Using ProcessMaker

4Low-Code vs. Microservices

Low-Code BPM ApproachWhat is a low-code BPM approach?

Of the two main approaches to modern BPM, most vendors advertise themselves as “low-code” platform providers. Nearly every BPM solution on the market will tell you they offer a user-friendly, low-to-no-coding, business user approach. This is what a majority of departments look for in a BPM provider.

Essentially, a low-code BPM development platform offers drag-and-drop features that allow non-technical users to build processes in a platform without knowing how to code or program. The user experience is visual, intuitive, and much faster to implement. Since low-code software is easy to learn and simple to use, business analysts and managers have the ability to design and control processes and thus are able to take greater charge of workflow optimization. It’s an ideal solution for workflows within a department. These workflows can be quickly amended on an as-needed basis by business users or managers. There is no need to queue up requests to the help desk or IT development teams for fairly minor edits to workflows with this approach, which expedites time to enhanced productivity.

Traditional development processes are often unable to match the speed at which modern business operates. Change requests are made and shortly after deployment another request is queued up on its heels. Since many traditional software projects take months to roll out, that time would have been better spent utilizing a streamlined low-code approach to BPM.

Traditional BPM application deployment is labor- and resource-intensive because changes are manually coded into the software. Low-code BPM platforms, on the other hand, have an ease-of-use that ensures processes can be automated, tested, and deployed within a much shorter time frame. Low-code BPM platforms are also great for data-capturing forms, record maintenance, procedure management, and process automation.

5Low-Code vs. Microservices

It’s simple.Low-code solutions work out-of-the-box. The only expertise needed is a thorough understanding of the process to be automated. Non-technical staff can create and edit business processes using a low-code BPM platform. Developer credentials aren’t needed since there is little to no coding requirements. A low-code platform has everything built in. Of the two approaches, low-code BPM is definitely more business-user-friendly.

It’s faster to implement.Low-code platforms eliminate the need to send requests to your IT department. There is no waiting for development or multiple iterations of testing before having access to workflows. Since it’s much faster to get low-code software up and running, time to digital transformation is greatly reduced. Also, low-code platforms generally provide a test “sandbox” for accelerated prototyping, which is extremely helpful for business users who are well-versed in their departmental processes.

It’s cost effective.Low-code software generally costs considerably less — provided sophisticated alterations and customizations are not needed. Generally, the low-code payment model is per user per year as well as by subscription. This compares to the bulky process of purchasing the software outright, hiring process re-design and BPM customization consultants, and requiring a heavy amount of IT labor. Conversely, the microservice approach requires your team to make more of its own tooling choices. This could mean more time is spent building and fitting the different pieces together. This is more of a “Maker” approach.

Pros

6Low-Code vs. Microservices

It’s inflexible Low-code is inflexible only in the sense that businesses must stay on model. While low-code BPM platforms are timesaving and easy-to-use, there is a trade-off that needs to be understood during decision making. Low-code BPM solutions provide a more basic “fill-in-the-blanks” BPM solution. Users generally have control over the technology, including how it integrates and how it looks.

If you’re particular about the look and feel of the interface or if, for example, you want the drop-down menu on the right side instead of the left side, the drag-and-drop functionality of low-code may prove unsatisfactory. Likewise, if requirements are a bit more complicated (for example, needing a grid embedded within another grid in your forms) the low-code option may not fully support these requirements. Very unique hierarchies that change based on various factors across your processes may also be problematic when using the low-code approach. While the drag-and-drop builder makes it easy to build visually, it comes at a cost of less control over the user experience.

Interfacing with proprietary databases may not be supported by low-code BPM software. Custom reports are sometimes unavailable in out-of-the-box BPM solutions. If changes are even possible, some BPM companies will require the use of their professional services. As upgrades occur, additional professional services may be needed to bring customizations to the latest release. In some cases, a third party product may be needed to achieve desired functionality, adding to both cost and complexity. Going outside of the packaged solution may be difficult and expensive.

There can be too many cooks in the kitchen.As with meetings, too many users with input (into workflow redesign and implementation) will slow the process. To reach compromise, processes can even become convoluted. Inconsistency in creating new processes can be introduced, as can the potential to duplicate workflows. (Theoretically, this can be fixed by building a process for processes).

The idea of the citizen developer sounds great. Nobody wants to wait on IT to be able to continue to deliver business value. In many cases, however, the citizen developer can be likened to the underage driver. Do you really want them on the road?

Most IT teams won’t like it.Whether an end user has a question about the software or a manager requests a particularly complex workflow, the IT team will likely be asked for assistance at some point. Generally speaking, business users will embrace out-of-the-box BPM solutions, but engineers tend toward powerful platforms for flexibility and enhanced functionality. IT staff often view drag-and-drop development tools as clunky obstacles to code around.

Cons

7Low-Code vs. Microservices

The best fit for low-code BPM?

Low-code BPM works well when a smaller company or department wants to implement process automation or replace an existing BPM solution. The time individual departments spend coding and building out their individual process will add up and hinder growth if either microservices or more traditional BPM approaches are selected. If BPM and workflows aren’t a direct product or service that is offered, a low-code solution might be best. A low-code BPM is best suited for the following sectors:

• Education• Finance and Insurance• Government• Healthcare• Manufacturing• Tech and Telecom*

*Software companies that make their own product are generally better off using the microservices approach. Usually, their teams tend to be more tech-savvy and desire a curated approach.

8Low-Code vs. Microservices

Microservices BPM ApproachWhat are microservices?

While a low-code approach is fairly self explanatory, “microservices” require more explanation. Microservices are self-contained processes that provide unique business capabilities. These processes can be deployed independently in a standalone fashion. Microservices also control their own data stores.

Communication between microservices is usually done through HTTP and messaging. Since microservices are stateless, organizations have the ability to scale effortlessly. Microservices break work into components and are easier to maintain due to the independent nature of each self-contained process.

Their architectural opposite? An application is built as a single, monolithic, autonomous unit. This traditional approach has processes which are inextricably linked and that end up tied to other services. As a result, a small modification to one process could affect the entire system.

Microservice architecture solves this problem. If a microservice needs to be modified, rebuilding it should be straightforward. For enterprises, this is incredibly important. With traditional software programming, changes that need to be made could affect the entire operating system. Microservices have the advantage in that they can be quickly and easily swapped out when designed correctly.

In short, a microservice focuses on a single business capability. That’s not to say it only does one thing — it simply has a very specific purpose. Due to the ever-increasing complexity of business systems, focused microservices have become more popular. Microservices divide up responsibilities and each tackles a singular task to ensure that all facets of the business receive adequate attention. Microservice technology is specifically designed to be embedded within existing applications, such as customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, to name a few. The resulting architecture allows for scalable software development.

9Low-Code vs. Microservices

Microservices make it much easier to incorporate the latest technology.Microservices are scalable and easy to integrate with third-party services. There is no need for a long-term commitment to underlying applications. Corporations won’t be “stuck” with outdated technology the moment a new tech stack is released.

Microservices provide immense freedom and flexibility.Individual processes can be modified or paused without having to rework the core application. Microservice architecture reduces the friction of technical workflow alterations and allows developers to both develop and deploy services independently.

Developers love it.Unlike with low-code, development teams tend to love microservices. It’s easy to see why: they have immense control. Once a team is given access to the “workflow engine,” everything can be developed around the core BPM system — making it perfectly match business and technology needs.

Most development shops already have strong “religions” when it comes to languages, tools, and systems. Some will insist on Angular over Jquery, MongoDB over SQL, etc. Developers desire creative freedom. They don’t want to be told by an application how to do everything. Since a workflow engine microservice will most likely be REST-based, developers can code the front end in the language they prefer, include connections to other systems to manage services they want to use, and choose the desired backend for their system.

Microservices prevent interruptions and downtime.When business processes are viewed as connected gears in a machine, it’s easy to see that when one section fails, it has the potential to bring the entire process to a standstill. A microservice approach separates each business process. If one part fails, the others still continue to function. Similarly, if an adjustment to a singular process is required, it is unnecessary to modify, test, and redeploy the entire application. This approach results in fewer service interruptions and less downtime.

Pros

10Low-Code vs. Microservices

Microservice complexity can hold you up.Within microservices architecture, testing individual processes saves time. However, due to distributed deployment, system testing has the tendency to grow increasingly complex and repetitive. What’s more, as more services are added, an organization becomes more susceptible to duplicate procedures. The potential for information barriers also exists if processes aren’t set up properly. Since processes are coded differently by each individual developer, highly skilled developers may be required to navigate multiple programming languages. Business users are fully dependent upon these developers to create and modify their processes. If speed is an issue, microservices have the potential to become a serious drawback. Communication isn’t easy.The distributed deployment and potential for large quantities of services requires developers to put additional effort into properly managing inter-service communication. It’s easy for microservice architecture to become very complex, fast. As a result, communication may slow down considerably.

Knowledgeable coders required.Due to the complexity of the microservice architecture, talented developers are required. A dedicated developer for the solution’s maintenance, user queries, and new integrations will be needed. While microservices need more work and more coding than their low-code counterpart, they will ultimately give you more control and it will be easier to swap pieces out as technology continues to improve. Here again, though, knowledgeable developers are essential to making future process changes.

Microservices are a long-term commitment.For those who need more control, the decision to transition from a low-code solution to microservices is easy. however, microservices are a long-term commitment to learning and deeply understanding system architectures and how to manage and maintain them.

Cons

Who’s the best fit for microservices architecture?Software companies and high-tech organizations are the best candidates for a microservices architecture. A microservice-based approach to BPM is great for building enterprise cloud applications. It’s particularly beneficial for independent software vendors (ISVs) creating enterprise software who need a fully-integrated workflow engine in their product stack. The nice thing about microservice architecture is that software companies can simply buy the BPM “engine” and build out everything they need around the powerful core.

11Low-Code vs. Microservices

SummaryLow-code and microservices are two of the most popular BPM approaches for a reason. Each has considerable benefits, but it’s important to address the tension between enterprise level engineers and business analysts.

Engineers have the technical know-how to build microservices. They overwhelmingly prefer the microservices approach to the low-code approach. To highly technical development teams, low-code BPM tools add a significant amount of friction to process development. Sam Newman, a consultant specializing in microservices, puts the anti-low-code argument best.

Sam goes on to say, among other things, that while the average business user needs insight and visibility into the behavior of business processes, it often can be achieved “without hamstringing dev teams with expensive, alien, BPM tech.”

Business analysts and the end users they serve, on the other hand, tend to prefer the more intuitive, user-friendly, low-code approach. They’re closest to the actual work that’s being carried out by the processes, so they want a non-technical way to quickly define, design, and manage business processes without compromising benefits of their other high-tech systems. Business analysts tend to view IT projects as lengthy processes, so the allure of quick time to value BPM design is enticing.

In the battle for BPM, there’s no clear winner. It comes down to who’s using the BPMS and what they’re using it for.

Which one is right for you?

Consult with amicroservices expert

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12Low-Code vs. Microservices

Low-Code Microservices

A few days to get up and running Months to create all the custom interfaces neededSetup

Per User or per transaction modelTransaction based pricing and/or Developer LicensesPricing

Drag-and-drop interface. Pro-cesses can be created, tested,

and deployed within weeks/months.

Processes will be created by developers using customized

tooling of their choice.Process Creation

More Limited ability to customize parts of the solution.

Infinitely customizable. Choose front-end technologies, DB layer,

etc.Flexibility

Non-technical employees can create processes and use apps

with minimal training

User experience is built from scratch by selecting best of

breed components.User Experience

Medium HighCommitment

Differences At-A-Glance

About ProcessMaker

ProcessMaker Inc. is an industry leader in workflow management and BPM software. The company has developed a suite of applications that automate form-based, approval-driven workflows. Whether your company needs a microservices-based approach or a low-code approach, ProcessMaker has you covered.

ProcessMaker’s software solutions improve the way data flows between systems and people to make organizations run better. ProcessMaker Open Source has been downloaded more than one million times. The ProcessMaker solution is used by thousands of companies around the world and is supported by a network of partners and process professionals located across 5 different continents. Visit us at www.processmaker.com.

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