Practical BPM: Process Development Editors

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By Rashid N. Khan

There are several major types of editors that are typically included in business process management (BPM) process development solutions. A vendor may provide some or all of these editors, depending on the scope of their offering.

Process Design Editors

Process design editors are tools for business process owners and managers who are not IT experts. These tools, therefore, must offer easy-to-use graphical process design interfaces and should not be burdened with advanced IT or development-related concepts and terminology. The purpose of process design tools is simply to facilitate the "electronic paper" design and documentation of processes.

Modeling Tools

Modeling is typically provided as a part of the process design tool. Modeling tools enable a business analyst to model and optimize processes to ensure that they will perform – as expected by the process owner and given the resources and capacity constraints of the organization.

Map Editors

The map editor is the tool for IT professionals. It enables them to take the process definitions developed in the process designer and convert them into deployable applications. Business process automation is complex and involves numerous technologies such as databases, emails, electronic document management systems, electronic forms, digital signatures and many others. Using the map editor to develop processes is an activity that is, therefore, best performed by skilled IT professionals who are adept at these technologies. The tasks that are typically preformed in the map editor include the following:

1. Defining and creating process variables that are used to make decisions
2. Implementing business rules and conditions
3. Specifying electronic forms that will be used in the process
4. Linking electronic forms with databases
5. Configuring notification triggers and messages
6. Training automation agents for third-party applications
7. Specifying and configuring sub-processes used in the process
8. Creating subject and body of email messages to be used for proactive email notifications

A robust BPM process development solution enables users to create business processes. Actual functionality is specific to each software vendor.

Form Design Tools

Electronic forms are the user interface of business processes that enable people to participate in these processes. There are many electronic form technologies, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some popular form technologies include HTML, ASP .NET, Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft InfoPath. Each form type has its own design tool. A BPM process development solution should provide integrated capabilities to design such forms, either through built-in functionality or by providing the ability to plug-in third-party form design tools.

Programming Tools

No BPM system, regardless how robust it is, can handle all the requirements of every business process in every organization. This means that in many cases the capabilities of a BPM system have to be customized or augmented for the unique needs of specific customers. This is typically accomplished by writing software code or scripts, and involves the services of software developers who can program or write scripts using development tools. A BPM system should provide a means for developers to work within the system and develop these programs that can be managed in the same repository. Since code development solutions are complex, the ideal solution is to leverage powerful tools already provided by software companies. This uses the concept of plug-in editors, whereby third-party software development tools can be incorporated into the BPM process development solution. While integration of programming tools is beneficial, it is important to emphasize that advanced BPM systems minimize the need for programming by providing a full set of functionality out-of-the box as well as standardized tools for integration such as Web Services, automation agents and robust database connectivity.

Testing Tools

After a business process has been designed, optimized, developed and integrated with other applications, the last major hurdle is to test it before deployment. Testing an automated business process poses a unique challenge, since the process typically involves many users and several third-party applications. It is not practical to test the automated process by installing it in a live environment and checking out all possible scenarios – this would be too disruptive for all involved participants and third-party applications. To provide a means of testing, advanced BPM process development solutions provide a simulation capability to test an automated business process. By using simulation, a quality assurance (QA) engineer can role-play and test the entire functionality of the automated business process on one computer. This includes testing the flow, user interface, business rules and exceptions that are configured to be handled automatically by the process. In advanced BPM systems, the QA engineer also has access to workflow variable values so that testing can be performed in the context of the data handled by the process and the impact of changes in data can be evaluated. Simulation is a prerequisite for more extensive testing in a test environment before the solution is taken to the pilot stage.

Documentation Tools

Documentation is essential for the development and maintenance of business processes. Three types of documentation are necessary:

1. Process design specification: This documentation is owned by the business process owner or analyst, and describes the requirements of the process from a business perspective. It is best produced in the process design tool used by business process owners. Its purpose is to ensure that the intent of the business process owner is properly understood, so that the resulting automated process reflects its intent as much as possible. Creating and writing process design specifications before starting the development improves the process design by pointing out issues and possible solutions upfront. It forces business process owners to think of how the process needs to work, and ensures that the requirements of the business as well as all end users are given due consideration. (One of the most common reasons for the failures of business process automation is incomplete or incorrect design specification.)
2. Technical documentation: This describes the implementation of the business process from a technical perspective. It includes descriptions of key variables, roles, database connections and other resources. The purpose of technical documentation is to ensure that the automated business process can be maintained and updated. With the passage of time the individuals who originally developed the process will no longer be involved with it. As new developers start working on enhancements and improvements to make new versions of the process, it is important that they have access to the technical documentation to understand how the process was initially automated.
3. User help: This documentation provides help to users who participate in the process at various stages. It must be available online for users, and explain how to use electronic forms and its functions at each step in the process. Since documentation is an important part of the process automation activity, it is important for a BPM process development solution to provide tools to easily create and maintain documentation. This is best accomplished by providing third-party plug-in editors – this allows the writer to use best-of-breed tools, and the output of these tools can be managed in the repository with full check in/check out and version control features.

Conclusion

The need for collaborative design capabilities; tools for enabling a variety of users with different skills to participate in the development of processes; a repository for saving design knowledge so that it can be shared, maintained and reused; security; the ability to test processes before they are deployed; and the ability to publish and deploy processes, all combined make the business process development application one of the most important and complex software component of a BPM system.

Useful Links

This article is an excerpt from Rashid Khan's Business Process Management: A Practical Guide. Order your copy here:
http://www.bpmenterprise.com/yDQ

About the Author:

Rashid N. Khan is the founder and Chief Technical and Strategy Officer of Ultimus Inc., a pioneer in business process management and workflow automation. Prior to establishing Ultimus, founded Sintech Inc., a leader in advanced software for mechanical testing. Rashid sold Sintech to MTS Systems in 1989, where he worked for a five years as a vice president and general manager. During this period he took the company through ISO 9000 certification. This experience made him aware of the need for business process management and workflow automation. Rashid obtained two undergraduate degrees from MIT in computer science and political science. Khan is the author of Business Process Management: A Practical Guide, has published numerous articles and spoken at a number of events. Contact Rashid N. Khan at info (at) ultimus.com or visit http://www.ultimus.com.

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