BPM: Responding to external stimuli

[Mike Pokraka]

Hi Andy,

I am surprised at the reactions you got, as this is certainly not a novel
construct. As we all know it's been around in SAP Workflow from way back
when.

In fact, this type of event-driven nature is one of the strengths of the
BPMN standard upon which NetWeaver BPM is based; this is one area where
UML falls short (and possibly why your colleagues are not familiar with
it?). I haven't delved deep enough into NWBPM to know on a practical
level, but if we step back from anything SAP for a moment then modelling
an exception such as you describe using BPMN is simply a message from a
party external to the process that is caught and handled as appropriate.
You could either have a parallel branch or you could make the entire
process segment which depends on the event a subprocess with an exception.
Exact details depend on the modelling software you use.

A slight twist to the story is that the message sender could be a party
that also participates in the process and thus fulfils multiple roles both
internal and external to the process. i.e. in BPMN terms they would appear
as a lane and a pool.

Hope that helps,
Mike


On Fri, February 25, 2011 6:33 pm, andy.m.catherall at kraftfoods.com wrote:
> Hi guys
>
> Final question (for today, I promise!)
>
>
> We are developing a process that cuts across a number of ECC systems and
> also SAP MDM. We are using NW CE 7.2.
>
> I note that the process designs (pools/swim lanes) describe the core
> processes well. But in my humble opinion, the ones I have seen are lacking
> a vital feature.
>
> They do not model any responses to external stimuli. For example, what
> should the workflow do if the data [equivalent of Business Object] is
> changed or deleted by a non-workflow entity?
>
> I have challenged my colleagues and some consultants on this, and was
> surprised to discover that
>
> a)      This was a new concept to them. The idea of putting an
> event-handler in parallel with the main process flow was an entirely novel
> construct. (Does this indicate that it should be done at the header, as in
> ECC style workflows?)
>
> b)      The technical practicality of preparing the workflow to respond to
> events appears to actually be quite complicated. In CE 7.2, we appear to
> be able to make use of "Intermediate Messages", but there are
> challenges... A colleague is adamant that we have to make development
> changes to PI to get some data back to BPM...
>
> In my experience, having workflows that do not respond to the fluctuations
> in the systems in which they operate causes all sorts of problems. At
> best, we 'just' have orphaned work items or confused users; at worst, we
> might be causing subtle data-inaccuracy as we over-write details that were
> changed by someone else already.
>
> So, my question is:
>
> How have are BPM workflows supposed to be designed to ensure that they are
> responsive to the environments in which they operate?
>
> Many thanks
> Andy
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