My predictions for 2012 for Process Modeling and BPM in General

On our Bosch Software Innovations blog, I have posted some observations concerning BPM/Business Rules Management or IBPM (intelligent BPM) and continued predictive conditions for 2012.

As we enter the 5^th year following the real-estate crisis of 2008, we still face hard efficiencies and economic realities both in the EU and the US. Process and Rules Methods and technologies will play a role but probably not the way you think.

The post is here:

http://blog.bosch-si.com/10-predictions-for-information-and-operational-technology/

Ten Business Rules Usage Patterns in BPM and Business Events

In my opinion, Progress Software's acquisition of Corticon marks the beginning of the end of the monolithic ‘rules-engine’. The idea that there is a business rules engine that is ‘called’ by a ‘program’ is past and there is a more nuanced understanding of the role of business. By my estimate there are at least 10 separate usages of business rules within business processes and business events.

Firstly, business rules play an important role in the rules-driven process pattern. The common monolithic conception of business rules is that it is only an element of a decision that affects the gateways of one process.
There are various opinions about this and certainly I have mine. Yet, it as the BPM industry matures it is probably wise to use more standard research methods to develop an approach. Researchers at Georgia State University and Utrecht University have identified five categories of business rules that have a behavioral influence on the business process in terms of mitigating operational risk or achieving compliance to regulation.
The five usage categories are:

1. Rules for task sequencing
2. Rules for actor inclusion or task assignment
3. Rules for effect sequencing or gateway conditions
4. Rules for data / information registration
5. Rules for detection control or event reponses

Briefly, these five usage categories are described:

Task Sequencing: these rules influence the position of one or multiple activities/events/decision (hence process elements) within a business process.  Most often, to create a process that is compliant with the business rules, process elements are simply added, re-ordered or removed. That is, the existing process model is updated to reflect the new rules.

Actor Inclusion/Interaction or Task Assignment: These are rules that influence the assignment of tasks or decision to specific actors. There are several approaches to creating a complaint process. Firstly, defined actors, in the form of participants, can be removed/added or appointed to different elements inside the process. In addition, a processes can call business rules to delegate the activity to the correct actor.

Effect Sequencing or Gateway Conditions: These rules influence the paths chosen by gateways or conditional sequences inside the process. This is the classic pattern of the values, created by the rules, setting the conditions at gateways and directing the flow of the process. That is: the path chosen is directed by an evaluation of business rules associated with individual transaction. This is more dynamic than task sequencing where rules influence the arrangement of the paths.  An example of effect sequencing is a shipping process where, depending on the needs of the shipment, different transportation process activities need to be executed. This is the most common perception of processes and rules. To make the process compliant, business rules need to be enforced during runtime.

Data / Information Registration or Event Responses: These rules influence the recording and viewing of data and information, and the authorization to access it. Most often, to create a process that is compliant with the business rules, internal controls govern timing: how long must the recorded data be kept accurate and the predefined format of complete or registered data. That is: the registered data must contain the following information and authorization, restricting access to predefined user and roles.

Detection Control or Event Reponses: These rules influence how a process responds to events. Events can be external or internal. External events might include weather, or financial events. Internal events arise from the direct or audited results of an activity or processes.  Most often, to create a process that is compliant with the business rules multiple solutions can be used: process elements can be added, reordered or removed, we can have the process respond to an ‘event channel’ or, a new business process can be created to perform the event control.

The last type can be expanded further. Business Events open another set of 5 patterns for business rules. In the Microguide we defined several classes of decision for event processing. These usually occur in the following order: 

1. Detection, 
2. Distribution, 
3. Aggregation 
4. Correlation 
5. Assignment

Not every event processor includes all of these steps. Also, after detection, it is not required for these steps to be executed in this order. The list shown is ideal, in theory, for all event processing situations.

Detection: In event detection, logic is applied to data monitored by the event detector. A business-relevant or ‘event-of interest’ is discovered when the event process matches the logic with the data.

Distribution: In event distribution, the detected event is immediately alerted to the affected process or systems, according the logic and levels of participation. Rules logic decides the level of involvement and the destination of the distributed event. Distribution logic can simplistic, as in a burglar alarm during irregular hours. Complex distribution logic might deliver the event based on the scale of the data within the event.
Events are distributed through two distinct patterns; either through a message, or a broadcast. The message corresponds to the BPMN message. Event processing targets the event activated messages at a process instance. The broadcast distribution method is denoted as a signal event in BPMN, and is analogous to a radio signal.  While a message persists after it is sent, a broadcast is only relevant for a short period of time.

Aggregation: Many business events are only meaningful in combination with other events of a similar or related nature. Logical significance might arise from the timing or temporal nature of the other events. In aggregation, event processing uses business rules logic to identify significant events from a group of events.
Correlation: Event processing includes a correlation step. Event processing can play a role, by detecting internal or external events and correlating these with concurrent processes or data in the enterprise. Active business processes might be identified as intended recipients. Business rules define what data or process states are included in the correlations and the logic of the match.

Assignment: At the conclusion of the cycle, in assignment, the event is assigned to one or more processes. Business rules can choose which process is assigned the event for action. As with all rules, the assignment can be as straightforward as the unconditional assignment to a single process or it can be a time, capability and dependent assignment.

An example of this is shown in the figure below:

Process modelers and business decision modelers use the three metaphors of business processes, business rule and business events these to model solutions. In early incarnation of the business rules engine, the BRMS was built as a separate engine to be included in a batch or separate process. Our understanding of the use of business rules has become more nuanced and more focused on the intended usages. If you model your processes with these rules your rules will be more focused and more compact.

Tom Debevoise

Second Edition Microguide Process Modeling in BPMN Released

I would like to announce the availability of second edition of the ‘Microguide to BPMN 2.0’. Of the many books available on BPMN, this is to first to enter its second edition in a new and enhanced form.  

Amazon Page

A new era for process modeling has arisen and in our second edition, we continue with the most concise coverage of BPMN available. We cover more ‘real-life’ business scenarios and model more unstructured, monitored and indefinite activities in BPM. The text not only corporates new metaphors of events and decision-directed event processing, it also covers 15 different BPM design patterns, forged in the furnace of practical, state-of-the-art process modeling, that provide a shortcut to a proven design. The material in this comprehensive, focused book has been gleaned from actual practices and proven in many of the most advanced processes in production today.

In concise language, we explain how to build visible, agile and powerful process that meet the needs of a chaotic and globally federated environment. It truly is an essential resource on the practical application of event, decision and process modeling.

This is my forth book project, and a few years ago I wrote some words of wisdom on the topic of book writing. If you are thinking about writing a book you might read them here.

Over the next months I intend to focus on BPM and BPMN on this Blog.

The book is available from amazon at http://tinyurl.com/MicroguideBPMN.

- Tom Debevoise

Business Rules Usage Patterns

Dr.  Ketabchi, from Savvion, believes there are seven process usage patterns. These are 

1. Human Centric
2. Document Centric
3. System Centric
4. Decision Centric
5. Case Management
6. Project Centric
7. Event Centric     

There is an eighth one, the 'shadowing' process. This is a process for monitoring 'legacy' processes. Dr. Ketabchi A description of each of these processes can be found in this BPM Institute recorded webinar.

As the BPM Industry matures, these patterns will emerge. We know from design patterns, that best practices can emerge from the wisdom of experience. 

I believe there are some distinct business rules usage patterns. I list these here:

Usage Pattern Center	Typical Legacy Sources	Application	Characteristics
Computations and Score Carding	Spread Sheets, Desktop Databases and Scripting	Credit Risk, Security Targeting	Generally Computes one or more metrics. Often one or more decision tables serve as the final arbitrator
Hierarchical or Hierarchical Graphs	Database and Scripting Languages, Cobol	Insurance, Social Benefits or Entitlements	Seeking a number of nodes in a large graph of options and factors. Logic can be deeply nested and the graph can be imperfect
Pattern Matching	The Gamut of Source Code (C++, Fortran, Basic, C#)	Fraud Detection, Market Abuse, Security	Often applies multi-variant or fuzzy logic
Algorithmic Decisions	Source Code	Derivatives,  Hedging, Environmental Modeling	Focusing on Applied Numerical Methods, Regression Techniques and Statistics
Event Directors	Java	Sensor-Based Controls	Uses within event processing applications

 - Tom Debevoise

Business Process Management, Remember the Basics

As Sandy Kimsley pointed out in her links, Ken Swensen responded to the question, is BPM Dead? In all of our discussions of technology, business processes, business rules, business events, it is easy to lose focus on the basic worth of business process management.

Therefore, it is useful to review the differences between function- and process-orientation within organizations. Most organizations, that use BPM, intend to become process-centric. Organizations with a robust process focus are distinguished by having a extensive, cultural process orientation. Big, complex organizations consider the process focus as extremely important, and this system is particularly common in insurance, healthcare, and financial services. A functional organization orientation, on the other hand, is more prevalent in small enterprises and is well-suited to the way they handle business.

A functional organization is an organization that delivers a strong capability in a limited number of functions. These might include highly specialized product and skills where knowledge or availability is limited. Obviously, a functional focus works for them.

Each focus,functional versus process-centric has advantages and disadvantages. In his admirable work on business process management, James Chang created the table below that summarizes the differences between organizations adopting each focus. A functional organization allows an easier balance of work among workers with functional excellence because they all have similar skills. This organizational style outlines natural, comprehensible ways that each task should be performed and assigns this to the appropriate proponent.

	Functional Organization	Process Organization
Work Unit:	Department	Team
Key Figure:	Functional Executive	Process Owner
Benefits:	Functional excellence, Easier work balancing because workers have similar skills, Clear management direction on how work should be performed	Responsive to market requirements, Improved communication and collaboration between different  functional tasks, Performance measurements aligned with process goals
Weaknesses:	Barrier to communication between different functions, Poor handover between functions that affects customer service, Lack of end-to-end focus to optimize organizational performance	Duplication of functional expertise, Inconsistency of functional performance between processes, Increased operational complexity
Strategic Value:	Supports cost leadership strategy	Supports differentiation strategy
Work Management:	Functional Quality Focus	Cross Functional Coordination

Table 1 Benefits and Drawbacks of the Functional Versus Process orientation in organizations (Business Process Management Systems, Chang).

Conversely, a process organization enjoys improved communication and collaboration and may therefore be highly responsive to market requirements. Further, performance is easily measured across the process organization, as it is stated in terms of process goals. However, process organizations suffer from lack of or poorer quality communication between the different functions relative to their functional counterparts. There is reduced end-to-end focus, as opposed to the functional structure. Moreover, there may be considerable duplication of functional expertise, inconsistent functional performance between processes, and increased operational complexity. This may make the structure of the process-based organization redundant and bulky.

- Tom Debevoise