Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM: A Practical Guide for Business Analysis: Develop Business Process Models for Implementation in a Business Process Management System

This book shows business analysts how to model business processes in JBoss jBPM and use these models to generate a fully-functioning workflow application. The book shows how business analysts can use the tools to build a solution without the need for Java coding expertise. It also introduces more advanced functionality that can be implemented by Java developers in partnership with the BA.

In Detail

JBoss jBPM is a free, open-source, business process management solution. It enables users to create business processes that coordinate people, applications, and services.

A business process is a sequence of activities triggered by a certain input that results in a valuable output. Business Process Management is about analyzing those activities in a structured way and eventually supporting their execution with a workflow application. This allows for the following results:

• Better management visibility of their business: improved decision making
• Low cost of inputs: de-skilled labor requirements, less waste, standardized components
• Better outputs: consistent quality, more customer satisfaction

Businesses have always tried to manage their processes, but software such as jBPM brings the methodology and management theory to practical life.

JBoss jBPM offers the following key features:

• Graphical process definition
• Flexibility to integrate code into the graphical process definition
• A customizable web-based workflow application that runs the process you’ve defined
• Easy programming model to extend the graphical process definition
• A process-oriented programming model (jPDL) that blends the best of process definition languages and Java.
• Easy to integrate with other systems through the JBoss middleware suite.

What you will learn from this book

This book will teach business analysts:

• What a business process is and why you would want to manage it
• How to map your business process
• Eliminating waste from the process
• How to define roles and responsibilities within the process
• Taking your process map into the jBPM toolset
• Activities/States and decision points
• How to work with process variables
• Automating activities/decisions where possible
• Setting up business rules: task assignment
• Business Activity Monitoring: analyzing process execution data, conducting ongoing process improvement

The book covers tasks that are common to all BPM implementations, but focuses on implementation in the popular and free jBPM.

Approach

This book takes a practical approach, with step-by-step instructions for business process management, model creation, and implementation. The book uses a typical BPM project lifecycle case study to explore and explain the process in a realistic situation.

Who this book is written for

This is a book for Business Analysts (BAs) who need to develop a process model for implementation in a business process management system. Developers looking at the JBoss jBPM toolset will also find it a useful introduction to the key concepts.

This book is a full toolkit for someone who wants to implement BPM in the right way. This toolkit is particularly aimed at Business Analysts, although Project Managers, IT managers, developers, and even business people can expect to find useful tools and techniques in here. We will present the project framework, analysis techniques and templates, BPM technology and example deliverables that you need to successfully bring a BPM solution into your organization.

About the Author

Matt Cumberlidge is a business analyst working for a world leading FTSE 100 provider of information-driven services and solutions based in Oxford, UK. In this role, Matt has undertaken a very wide range of projects, but the common theme running throughout is that of business process. Over the last year or so Matt has extended his core capabilities in business process analysis and re-engineering into the realm of business process management and in particular an investigation of the JBoss jBPM implementation. Matt is delighted to be able to share his experiences and ideas about this exciting technology with a wider audience through the publication of this book.