Activiti in Action for BeJUG Part II

Part II : Vision and Future

by

for

Agenda

• Process engine• Collaboration• Cases

Where Is The Problem?• Discuss requirements• Build what they want• Show results• Turns out they want something else• Make up your mind• That’s normal• Solution: More and faster prototyping

Where Is The Problem?• Imagine building a webapp– Show one form to one user– Then invoke procedure in CRM app

• Logic grows in webapp – Show approval form to multiple users– When 80% approves proceed– Timer for escalation

• If-then-else forest• Solution: Build overview diagram of steps

Manual And Automatic Steps

Essence of BPM System

Forms

Tasklists

Automatic Tasks

SaaS• Salesforce•Google docs• Concur• Facebook• Basecamp• Tripit• …

Logic• Java

• Scripting

On-premise back-office• SAP• SQL• LDAP• Custom

apps• …

Generic• REST• WS

Process

Why Use A Process Engine?• Technical benefit– Overview diagram– Rapid prototyping– Fast implementation• Prebuilt activity types

Emails, tasks, forms, Alfresco and Google docs,…

• Business benefit– Improve communication between business and IT

Why Activiti?• BPMN 2.0– New, endorsed industry standard

• Liberal Apache license• Big and active community

• Java library– Deploy anywhere

• Advanced Tooling

Agenda• Process engine

• Collaboration• Cases

Server

Software Project

Executable Process

Non-techBusiness Analyst Developer<details />

Java, XML, Buildscripts,

Tests, …

Activiti YourApp

Analyst

Developer

Abstract Process

Software

Activiti Cycle• Collaboration for process solutions• Repositories– Alfresco, nfs, Activiti Modeler, svn, Jira

• Link and discuss artifacts from different repos• Lifecycle guidance• Revamp in 5.4 (tomorrow)

Agenda• Process engine• Collaboration

• Cases

Simple And Fast• Mantra– We shall not be harder then email

• Speed– Only task title is required– The new Post-it™– Text – Enter – Text – Enter

Share Context• Get people involved– Open full context– Comments replace emails

• Link emails• Upload content • Link ‘stuff’ from online accounts– Alfresco sites, docs, wiki pages, calendars– Google calendar– Forum threads– Jira issue

Emails Meetings

Productive• For yourself• For your collaborations

ACM and BPM

Borrowed with permission fromSandy Kemsleyhttp://column2.com

Viral• Expect this on the cloud– As a service– No installation treshold

• Addictive for individuals• Extra benefit for collaboration with collegues• Extra benefit for B2B collaboration

Multipurpose• Dedicated case types will make it massively

applicable– Generic cases– Workflow tasks– Meeting– Issues– Call center– Opportunity / deals

Grow Processes Organic• Start doing ad hoc• Grow organic• Once you spot a pattern• Build process as you go• Start building process by example

Store Processes In Systems• Knowledge typically in people• People can leave– Huge replacement cost

• Processes captured in systems like Activiti– Can’t leave

Questions