Tibco BPM Tutorial

                                                       Tibco BPM

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A standard Business Process Modeling Notation(BPMN) will provide business with the capability of understanding their internal procedures in a graphical notation and will give organization the ability to communicate their procedures in a standard manner.

   BPMN is a graphical notation that depicts the steps in a business process. It depicts the end to end flow of a business process.

   The notation has been specifically designed to co-ordinate the sequence of processes and the message that flow between different process participant in a related set of activities.

   Processes can be co-ordinated from  behind, within and over organizations natural boundaries.

 TIBCO Business Studio supports the industry standards – BPMN and XPDL(XML Process Definition Language)

XPDL :

  XPDL is a format standardized by the Workflow Management Coalition(WfMC) to interchange business process definitions between different workflow products. i.e.) between different modeling tools and management suites.

  XPDL is designed to exchange the process definition both the graphics and semantics of a workflow business process.

  XPDL is currently the best file format for exchange of BPMN diagrams, it has been specially to store all aspects of a BPMN diagram.

 XPDL is the serialization format of BPMN.

BPEL :

  The completed process is deployed and executed using BPEL(Business Process Execution Language).

BPM :

  Business Process Management is a means to study, identify, change and monitor business processes.

  It means by which businesses can focus on and improve their processes.

  BPM focuses on aligning all aspects of an organization.  

  It promotes effectiveness and efficiency whilst aiming

  for flexibility and integration with technology.

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  As part of a BPM project, the overall process 

  is established and monitored enabling improvement

  and optimization.

  BPM helps organizations improve

  1. Customer satisfaction

  2. Product quality

  3. Achieve greater deliver-to-market speed.

Organization Model:

Modeling Elements in an Organization

Organization :

  Represents  both the Organization you are modeling and

  any other enterprise that your organization have

  relationship with.

  E.g.  WIPRO, DBS

  Organization Unit :

  Represents sub divisions of an Organization. They are collection of positions which are associated together because they fulfill a business need within the Organization.

  E.g. Department, Project or Location.

 Position :

 Represents a set of responsibilities for a job of work to

 be performed in an Organization Unit.

 E.g. Sales Head, Sales Executive

Defining Relationships

In the Organization Editor, the relationship between Organization Units are denoted by two similar types of Organization Unit Relationship:

1. Hierarchy: This indicates a hierarchical relationship.  E.g. Relationship between a department and its sub-departments.

2. Association:  This can be used to indicate any sort of non-hierarchical relationship, depending on your requirements.  E.g. Relationships between Organization Units may be based on factors such as resource or work allocation.

  The Relationship type is set by checking the “Is Hierarchy” checkbox property: if checked the relationship is hierarchy, if un-checked the relationship is association.

  for Your Reference.

Adding Groups and Assigning Privileges.

Groups :

   Represents a job type within your Organization. It allows resources to be grouped by their job characteristics.

  This is useful if you want to allocate work to a group

  of people. E.g.  IMG Team, TIBCO Team, Java Team.

  You do not assign Positions within the organization

  model, nor names users to Groups when you are

  working with Organization Modeler. Users are assigned

   to groups at runtime using the Organization Browser 

  in ActiveMatrix Workspace or ActiveMatrix Openspace.

Privileges :

  Privileges are authorization that represent what a user is allowed to do.

  You can add a qualifier to a privilege to provide

 additional information. E.g. if you have a privilege

 that represents authorization to approve expenditure,

  you may want to further qualify that privilege by

  stipulating a maximum amount that can be approved.

Capabilities and Locations

Capabilities :

  Represent abilities, skill sets or qualifications within

  our Organization. E.g. language spoken,

  certifications, licenses etc.(AMX BPM, French, GWT)

  It can be applied to Positions and to Groups.

  You can add a qualifier to a capability to provide

  additional information. E.g. if you have a capability

  that represents an exam qualification, you may 

  want to further qualify that capability by providing a grade.

  You add a qualifier by selecting the 

  “Has qualifier” checkbox on the General tab in

  Properties view. A new Qualifier tab becomes available.

Locations :

  Represent the physical locations that are used by the Organization. Like Organization place, building, room in an office.

  E.g. USA, Bangalore.

Resources and Organization Queries

Resources :

  Represent  user-explicitly named individuals to whom

  work item can be distributed. Information on users is held

  in LDAP and users are added to TIBCO ActiveMatrix

  BPM at runtime from the LDAP directories.

Organization Queries :

  It is a way of identifying an entity within the

  organization model to use a suitable participant for a task

  in a business process.

  You can specify queries either as strings of text

  or as Resource Query Language(RQL).

  You use RQL to create queries that return a

  list of resources(users) based on a set of criteria. You

  can then allocate work(tasks) to one or more resources

   on the list. E.g. group(name = “Support”),

  position(name = “Manager”), privilege

(name = “ExpenseSignOff”  qualifier>5000)

Creating Schemas

  Organization Modeler enables you to create an

  embedded Schema for use in the definition of

  your organization model.

  Using a Schema,  you can specify types that you intend

  to use for certain elements within the Organization.

  By setting these types, you can create a generic model or    template for your organization model.

  Template for creating model instance

  

More representative of your organization’s

structure.

  Apply default or create your own

 Can extend default schema

Deploying Organization Model

  BPM Models are packed into Distributed Application Archives(DAA).

  These DAA files are uploaded to AMX Administrator 

    using the deployment server configuration option in

  TIBCO Business Studio.(First add Deployment Server

  and then amx_bpm_server à Deploy Module).

  The DAA files are then deployed by AMX Administrator

  to the AMX Runtime environment.

  All of these behind-the-scenes actions are automatic

  and done with a single-click through TIBCO

  Business Studio and alternatively can be

  deployed using command-line utilities,

  which involves multiple steps.

  ActiveMatrix Runtime Components

. Node :

The Node is the instance of a JVM that runs all applications. There are two types of nodes,

  i. System Node:

   It is responsible for running the AMX Administrator service. 

  It also provides a centralized dashboard for all nodes,

   centralized logging and the ability to create users and roles

  with various levels of privileges.

  ii. BPM Node:

  The BPM Node is like any other node, in the sense of being a JVM  instance.

  It can run both SOA and BPM applications.

  ActiveMatrix BPM is the main BPM application which runs

   all the BPM models created with TIBCO Business Studio.

   The AMX-BPM runtime can start multiple instances of

  process models and provides the user interface for users to

   interact with the process.

ActiveMatrix Runtime Components

   SOA applications include Java, spring and Web Applications

   also built using TIBCO Business Studio and also deployed as DAAs.

  Having SOA and BPM applications in a single JVM allows for a seamless interaction between the two types of applications.

  The amx.bpm.app application is run by the BPM node.

  The BPM application itself has a series of components that are

   responsible for all aspects of BPM.

  This includes the ability to start and stop different process

  models, and the ability to manage multiple versions of a process.

  The BPM application also starts up the two browser based clients,

  Openspace and Workspace.

  Node Configuration Details

2. TIBCO Host:

This is the light weight application that manages

  and monitors the other components

(System Node, BPM Node).

  It starts up and shuts down the Nodes and

  communicates with them using JMX

(Java Management EXtensions) technology.

  Usually there is one TIBCO Host per machine.

Node Configuration Details :

  A minimum of two nodes is recommended for running

  the AMX-BPM runtime environment. Technically,

  the System Node and BPM Node can run as a single

  Node, but this is not recommended for performance reasons.

  The System Node runs the web application for

  AMX Administrator and provide access through its

  HTTP port (default 8120, which can be changed).

  The BPM Node runs the Workspace and Openspace

   clients using its own web application and has a separate   HTTP port (default 8080).

Organization Browser and LDAP

The Organization Browser is a function available

from ActiveMatrix Workspace and Openspace that

allows you to map resources(users) to groups, positions

in an Organization model so that users can log

into ActiveMatrix Workspace/Openspace, as well as

receive works in their work lists.

Linking Organization Model to LDAP Users :

  LDAP containers are a collection of one or more

  LDAP sources. An LDAP source represents an

  LDAP server, which holds information about

  potential resource(that is, users) who may need

  to use or participate in TIBCO BPM applications.

  You must create a LDAP container so that you

  can select the users you want to map to the

  organization model. Those users will then be

  able to log into ActiveMatrix Workspace

  and participate in TIBCO BPM applications.

Assigning Resources

LDAP :   Actual users that are associated with an organization model, to do work.

Database :  Stores stateful BPM data. It can be either Oracle 11g or MS SQL Server.

Please note that TIBCO EMS is responsible for logging and other infrastructure activities.

Assign Resources to Positions and Groups :

  You must assign users to groups or positions in the Organization Model so that they can receive and process work items sent to organization model entities.

  Assign capabilities with users.

  Business Object Modeler

  The Business Object Modeler allows you to define a vocabulary of core business objects and the relationships between the different objects.

  A Business Object Model is defined using the Business Object Model Editor, which is a class diagram editor in Unified Modeling Language(UML).

  Business Object Models are used for analysis, documentation and to create Data Fields in a Process that have the attributes of a class.

  To create an object, simply choose it from the palette and drop it into the model.

Defining Packages and Classes

Package :

A package is a way of grouping related model elements. It also contain other packages.

  It used as containers to organize classes in your model..

  It contains Classes, Packages, Primitive Types, Enumerations.

  E.g. com.example.tt

Class :

  A class is a description of set of properties that,

 when grouped together, create a meaningful unit.

  Can be organizes in a hierarchical structure

  E.g. Employee, Manager, Department, ExpenseItem, ExpenseReport

  Primitive Types and Enumerations

Primitive Types :

  It is a data type. Defining a Primitive type enables

  you to define you own data types and then specify how

  data of that type is interpreted.

  You can specify what values the data can have or

  any constraints on the data.

  You can use this across your business model.

Enumerations :

  Define enumeration in object model.

  Enumeration must contain at least one literal.

  Assign enumeration as attribute type.

  Enumeration choices displayed in option list on form(radio group).

  Defining Attributes

  Class Attribute Type :

  Standard data type

   String, Integer, etc.

   Primitive data type

   US Phone

   Enumeration

   Card Type

   Other class

   Address class

   Multiplicity

   Occurrences of an attribute. It can be 1, 0..1, * , 1..*

   Relationships

   1.Generalization :

   I.Super-class, sub-class definition

     II.Inherit attributes of super class

    III.Represented by a hollow triangle connected to general form.

    IV.E.g. Customer class inherits all the attributes of the Person. One can say a “Customer is a type of Person”

●

   2.Associations :

    I.An association shows a relationship between two Classes.

   II.The relationship indicates that the Classes need to share data and how one class can assess other.

 III.E.g. If you have property (Address, state, zip code) then you can locate the customer who owns it.

IV.

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3. Aggregation :

  I.Contained class remains, if container class is destroyed

II.Aggregation are not supported in BPM

4. Composition :

  I.Contained class destroyed, if container class is destroyed

●

à An error will be generated if you try to deploy a business object model containing an Association or an Aggregation to BPM.

●

    Data Fields and Parameters

Data Fields :

  Represent data that is used internally by the process.

  Right click the appropriate process or package

   and select New à Data Field and it will open

  “New Data Field” dialog box.

  Option for select Type and Initial Values(optional).

  Type can be Basic Type – Text, Int, decimal, Boolean, or External Reference – link to BOM type.

  Performer data type is used to dynamically assign a participant value to a task.  Any field of type Performer will appear in the “Select Participant(s)” dialog when assigning a participant to a task.

Parameters:

  Use parameters to pass data into / out of process

  Mode (In, Out, In / Out)determines direction of data.

  Configure User Task Interface

  To configure the user task interface, select the User Task in the design window and open the interface tab in the properties window.

  Click on “+” icon to add data fields and parameters to the user task. Once the data has added, select the mode for each data field.

   The mode will determine the way in which the

  field is defined on the default form – In = Read

  Only, In / Out or Out = Optional or Mandatory(depending

  on Mandatory field). Check the Mandatory check

  box to create mandatory field on the form.

  The order of the form can be arranged using up/down

  arrow buttons.

Form Preview

  A form is a model of a user interface designed

  for a task. When deployed, the form drives the user

  interaction while the human who has been assigned the

  step in the business process.When you right click

  on a user task, and select the

  Form Preview option, the default form is generated

  using the data fields and parameters that are configured

  for the task. It is a GWT Form.

  Read-only controls are created for inbound fields

  and editable controls are created for outbound fields.

  Form generated with default layout

  -- In/Out , Out parameters à Enabled control

  -- In parameter à Read – only control

  -- Cancel, Close, Submit buttons

  -- By default, Boolean parameters are converted into check boxes.

  -- Data type is integer or decimal à text control.

  PASS

  Exposes BPMN process as a (web) service.

  Core feature of ActiveMatrix BPM.

  Benefit : True convergence of SOA and BPM.

  Process can call a Service.

  Service can call a process.

  A business process can expose service operations

  that can be invoked by other processes or applications.

  A process as a service(PAAS) is simply a process with a SOAP wrapper around it, i.e.) it is like any other web service.

  A PAAS has to use SOAP as the communication

  protocol and HTTP or JMS as the transport. That

  means, any SOAP client can invoke the service.

  Have a SOAP wrapper around the business

   process promotes the seamless integration

  between SOA(SOAP bases) and BPM.

Business Service to call a PAAS

  Define a Message Trigger Start event (Select Start

  Event and Right click Trigger Type à Message

  Trigger) ,WSDL is automatically generated and will

 place in “Generated Services” folder.

  ActiveMatrix BPM provides an out-of-the-box function to create a Business Service (Right Click Message Trigger Start event  and Right Click Business Service à Generate..)which is automatically configured to invoke your business process.

  By default, a Business Service will use virtualization to invoke the business process.

  Types of Business Service

  1.Simple Process starter

  i.No data (Start Event à Send Task)

●

  2.Process starter with data

i.  Gather data in Pageflow (Start Event à User Task à Send Task)

  ii.E.g. Start à Enter Employee Id à End

3.  Simple Business function

  i.Execute all tasks in Pageflow(Start Event à User Task à Service Task àSend Task)

  ii.E.g. Start à Get Employee Details à Update Employee Details in Database à End

Deploying Project

  When you deploy a project which expose a web service, 

  you must bind the system participant to the

  httpConnector resource instance.

  The system participant defines the web service

  endpoint. The httpConnector resource instance is

  used by BPM to provide the runtime connection to

  all web services that it provides.

  The Property Configuration dialog is displayed when

  you deploy your project using the deploy modules

 wizard. There is an httpConnector resource instance

 pre-configured in ActiveMatrix BPM.

  Since the Business Service is also hosted in BPM, the web service is accessed using Virtualization.

Starting Business Service

 Once the business process project is deployed, the business service can be started using the ActiveMatrix client Applications – Workspace and Openspace.

  By default, Workspace users see the “Business Service” folder.

  In Openspace, you need to open the Business Service tab which contains the Business Services gadgets.

BPMN Gateways

  Control Mechanism for the sequence flow in the process

  Parallel Gateway(Unconditionally split/ joins flow).

  Exclusive Data Based Gateway(Conjunction

  with a conditional sequence flow and a default

  sequence flow)

  Exclusive Event Based Gateway

  Represented by Diamond

  Used for Merging, Forking,  Joining and Branching.

  Forking – Perform 2 or more activities in parallel.

  Joining – Synchronize parallel path in the process.

  Events

  Different Events are Start, Intermediate, End Events.

  Start Event

  Represented with a circle

1.No Specific Trigger

2.Message Start Event(Start triggered by message)

3.Timer Start Event(Start triggered at specified times)

4.Conditional Start Event(Start triggered when conditions are met)

5.Multiple Start Event(Start triggered by one of a number of methods)

6.Signal Start Event(Start triggered by signal)

  End Event

  Represented with a thick circle

  Intermediate Event

  Can alter business flow, cannot start the process and

  directly terminates the process.

Used for exception handling and activity deadline.

2 types.

1.Catch Intermediate Event(Represented with double circle)

2.Throw Intermediate Event(Represented with double circle with inner part shaded)