SCM System
CRM System ERP System
Composite Application
Get Customer Status
Plan Customer Inventory
Store Customer Data
Fig. 2.25.Using service composition to realize composite applications
service compositions, because they provide standardized services interfaces that can be used in service compositions. Typical enterprise application inte- gration middleware features a system workflow component that uses either a proprietary format for system workflows or, if it is based on services, the Busi- ness Process Execution Language for Web services, discussed in Chapter 7.
Fig. 2.26.Business process management landscape
can be used to realize adapters for applications that hide their heterogeneity from one another and, thus, solve the integration problem. Data mapping is an essential part of the realization of these adapters.
In modern enterprise application infrastructures based on the service- orientation paradigm, the functionality of enterprise applications is provided through services. Therefore the concepts introduced in Section 2.5 can be used in enterprise application integration. In Figure 2.26, it is assumed that
the customer relationship management system provides a service interface, which can be used by the upper layers.
Composite applications use the functionality provided by multiple appli- cation systems. In order to do this, composite applications invoke enterprise applications, either by directly using standardized interfaces or via enterprise application integration middleware. The invocation behaviour of composite applications can be described as a system workflow. There are also traditional implementation strategies for composite applications, but flexible response to change and well-specified behaviour by explicit process models are important advantages of using system workflow technology. These aspects have been dis- cussed in Section 2.4 in the context of system workflows and in Section 2.5 in the context of service-oriented computing.
Composite applications can have dedicated user interfaces, but they can also expose service interfaces to be used by higher levels. In Figure 2.26, a composite application realizes a value-added service described by a service interface that makes it usable to the higher levels.
The next level contains human interaction workflows. The activities of human interaction workflows can be associated with knowledge workers, but there can also be activities that are realized by application systems. The example shown in the figure realizes an activity by a composite application that realizes a system workflow.
Activities in human interaction workflows can also be part of a business- to-business process interaction. For instance, activities can send messages to or receive messages from business partners. The interaction behaviour of a set of business processes was discussed in Section 2.3; they will be further investigated in Chapter 5.
While the scenario sketched organizes the business process management area from a technical point of view, different variations are possible. For in- stance, system workflows can also interact with processes run by business partners, and not only with human interaction workflows.
This characterization of the technical aspects of business process man- agement deliberately abstracts from business strategies, goals, and organi- zational business processes. However, business-to-business processes, human interaction workflows, and system workflows are associated with operational business processes. Therefore, they contribute to organizational business pro- cesses and, eventually, to the business goals and the realization of the business strategies.
Bibliographical Notes
Porter (1998) focused on the operation of enterprises and the interaction be- tween business partners from a high-level perspective. To some extent, Porter, with his holistic view on the activities an enterprise performs, paved the way for process orientation. The high-level business functions of value chains are
broken down to smaller-grained business functions, where the granularity is subject to design decision, indicated by the observation that “appropriate degree of disaggregation depends on the economics of the activities and the purposes for which the value chain is being analyzed.”
Process orientation dates back to as early as 1932, when Fritz Nordsieck looked at the goal-oriented cooperation of workers in an organization; see Nordsieck (1932). Based on his work, Erich Kosiol developed organizational principles for corporations in Kosiol (1962), laying an early foundation for process orientation.
Hammer and Champy (1993) added to this work by introducing process orientation as a new paradigm of how enterprises conduct their business, also regarding achievements in information technology. While their approach to business process reengineering postulates a radical redesign, in many cases evolutionary approaches that regard organizational, human, and sociological factors prove more appropriate. Taylorism as an organizing principle for or- ganizations is introduced by Taylor (1967). Smith and Fingar (2006) takes a business-oriented view on business process management by investigating strategic decisions made by enterprises, such as mergers and aquisitions, and by discussing the role of business process management in coping with the resulting challenges.
Schmelzer and Sesselmann (2006) looks at business process management from a business administration and practical point of view. The identification of business processes, the organizational settings in which business processes are enacted and controlled, and the introduction of business processes in large organization is described.
Becker et al (2002) investigates mainly organizational aspects of business process management by looking at process modelling, analysis, and optimiza- tion from a practical business perspective. In the business-focused business process management literature, information technology in general and soft- ware systems in particular do not play an important role.
Major principles in computer science that are also realized by the informa- tion systems architectures are separation of concerns, introduced by Dijkstra (1982), and information hiding identified by Parnas (1972).
There are excellent books on the subsystems discussed in the evolution of information systems. Textbooks on operating systems include Tanenbaum (1992), Silberschatz and Galvin (1994), and Stallings (2004). Ramakrishnan and Gehrke (2002), O’Neil and O’Neil (2000), and Weikum and Vossen (2001) provide a thorough explanation of database technology.
Georgakopoulos et al (1995) provide an overview on workflow manage- ment. Workflow management from the perspective of a commercial workflow product is introduced by Leymann and Roller (1999); in particular, the term production workflow was coined in this book as a highly repetitive and auto- mated realization of a core business process.
Wil van der Aalst et al (2003a) provides a survey of business process management including the business process lifecycle discussed above. The
area of process evaluation in general and process mining in particular is not covered in this book. In this area, excellent formal work is being done in the context of the ProM framework on process mining, addressed in van der Aalst et al (2007). Evaluation of business processes from a business perspective is discussed in Schmelzer and Sesselmann (2006).
A volume on different aspects of process-aware information systems is edited by Dumas et al (2005). The International Conference on Business Process Management series is one of the prime academic venues for research in business process management. The conference proceedings are available as van der Aalst et al (2003b), Desel et al (2004), van der Aalst et al (2005a), and Dustdar et al (2006).
Burbeck (2000) introduces roles in service-oriented architectures: service provider, service requestor and service broker. Alonso et al (2004) looks at middleware systems in general and Web services based system integration in particular. Woods (2003) discusses developments at the edge of business engineering and software technology in the context of enterprise services ar- chitectures. Service-oriented architectures in an enterprise context are also covered in Woods and Mattern (2006). Enterprise service bus is investigated in Chappell (2004).
Business Process Modelling
Business Process Modelling Foundation
This chapter introduces the foundation of business process modelling by inves- tigating abstraction concepts and introducing the main subdomains of busi- ness process modelling, namely modelling functions, processes, data, organi- zation, and operation.