BPM
A Roadmap for Web Services-driven BPM - Learning through example
A Roadmap for Web Services-driven BPM - Learning through example
Dec. 1, 2003 12:00 AM
In previous issues of Web Services Journal (Vol. 3, issues 7 and 10) we discussed how
Web services-driven BPM presents an opportunity for new types of business solutions and
explored the challenges to Web services business process management (BPM). This month, we
provide a roadmap for success.
For optimal results, a
roadmap should take into
account not only the available
technology, but also
the prevailing industry standards
and the internal characteristics
of a company. Organizations
must carefully weigh risk and
reward, and align their processes
to address each of the major Web
services-BPM challenges. They
must address technical challenges,
such as lack of security
controls at the protocol level and
lack of transaction management
capabilities, by leveraging available
enterprise architecture technology
and maturing WS standards.
In our experience, service
portfolio challenges, such as unstructured
proliferation of services and lack of architectural
layering, are effectively addressed
through a cross-functional team referred
to as a Center of Excellence (COE). The
COE manages policy decisions, makes
them operational and translates them into
business solutions.
Following are two examples that illustrate
how a good roadmap and COE can
deliver concrete BPM-Web services solutions
that successfully weave business
processes.
Example One: Real-Time CRM
Web services-driven BPM enables longspanning
interactions that start and end
with a customer. To deliver a realtime
system for CRM and prevent it
from becoming a functional silo, we
recommend the following roadmap:
Use the roadmap to create a
process model that maintains
transactional integrity by selecting
products and standards to
ensure that the system is transaction-
driven.
Roadmap your CRM architecture
(i.e., the interfaces with existing
systems) in the same way you
merge multiple support organizations
into one integrated team
with standardized processes.
Build business layers that break
monolithic CRM applications into
services clusters, externalizing
components as dictated by the
business process. Examples
include:
- An external Product Repository
- An independent and scalable multi-channel order processor
Build two common integration layers to
"sandwich" the business functionality,
isolating it from the core CRM application
and from legacy systems and making
it compatible with the other business
processes in the enterprise.
Apply the high-quality, incremental,
process-based development model dictated
by the COE to adhere to the business
process evolution.
Finally, since BPM facilitates the creation
of a "true" real-time system by
quickly and cost effectively dealing with
business exceptions
- Build a centralized subsystem to collect
errors, where all systems can
interface using Web services or more
appropriate delivery mechanisms
- Build automatic proceed/retry/abort
mechanisms for controlled, predictable
resolution capabilities while
also providing error resolution tools to
minimize the cost and maximize the
reliability of human intervention
Example Two: Legacy Systems Application Transformation
Businesses today need to generate additional
shareholder value while reducing
investments in technology. This is particularly
difficult for organizations experiencing
competitive or regulatory pressures and that
have their IT assets "locked-up" in costly,
inflexible, and complex legacy applications.
BPM and Web services enable companies to
gain a competitive advantage by transforming
millions of lines of outdated COBOL
code into a flexible, service-oriented architecture
(SOA). The recommended roadmap
for companies in this position has three
main steps:
Avoid service portfolio pitfalls by reverseengineering
and documenting existing IT
assets, including program hierarchy, job
flow, data model, business rules, and context.
Subject matter experts and application
designers should then use this information
to describe the capabilities of the
target SOA in terms of discrete units of
functionality (i.e., services.)
Catalog the identified services by tier based
on their purpose (for example client, presentation,
business logic, integration, or
resource.) If the target SOA addresses new
functionality or constraints, identify and
add the additional services to the catalog.
Because the solution will operate within the
boundaries of the enterprise architecture,
technical challenges will be overcome by
leveraging existing components.
Define a value-based roadmap for deploying
Web services within the SOA. For
example, some services may remain within
the boundaries of the legacy systems,
wrapped with a Web service interface;
others may be decommissioned legacy
components rewritten in J2EE or .NET. In
most cases, client- and presentation-tier
services are migrated first, resource-tier
services last.
These services become resources to
BPM for creating, managing, and monitoring
processes. Web services give BPM the
potential to create nimble processes and
applications by capturing events from a
variety of sources and presenting them
with a consistent interface.
Building BPM solutions that leverage Web
services requires neither luck nor a stroke of
genius, but rather is the result of methodical
approaches. The opportunity is certainly
there, and by creating a solid roadmap that
identifies and overcomes the challenges, companies
can reap the reward.
About Alejandro DanylyszynAlejandro Danylyszyn is a senior manager in Deloitte Consulting's Technology Integration practice. He has worked for over 15 years as a consultant to large high-technology manufacturing, telecommunication carriers, and financial services companies in the areas of strategy, operations/process improvement and solution design/implementation, with a focus in systems integration, enterprise portals and web services.
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