Enterprise Architecture Business Process Management … · Enterprise Architecture Business Process Management at IBM’s Way ... waterfall model was later called the sashimi model,

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Agile Methodologies in Software Development

Enterprise Architecture

Business ProcessManagement atIBM’s Way

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Development | Mobile platforms in the business environment | Development of iOS applications: iPhone & iPad | Android application development | Scrum workshop | Intoduction to the agile approach of software development | Introduction to functional programming | Golden Standard in software development | Groovy | Grails | JavaScript basics | ExtJS

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Who enjoys reading a typical company profile or a flyer? Nobody! That is why

we have decided to publish our own magazine that presents interesting project stories, latest trends and technologies, as well as insights from our customers. We do everything in this magazine on our own (except press and preparation). And we enjoy it. Then we realized that a lot of our customers cannot read our magazine in Croatian and here it is, the English edition.

It has been a while since I wrote my first editorial in FYI by CROZ. More precisely – six years. A lot of things happened since then. We have been IBM Beacon Award finalists twice, three times ranked highly on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 list for Central Europe; our conferences QED (Quality in Enterprise Development) and Adriatic Mainframe Conference are now well established, and many successful projects are behind us.

However, our basic strategy has not changed. We are very serious about professional IT services. No matter what we do, custom development projects which must

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The best way to check if the whole story holds true, is visiting QED, the upcoming CROZ conference on Quality in Enterprise Software Development, which is taking place on the beautiful Adriatic coast in the city of Zadar, 13 - 15 May. We will discuss various topics about quality and testing, enterprise architecture and agile development.See you in Zadar!

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FYI by CROZ | editorial

FYI by CROZ | IT magazine | Editor: Mura Kokotović | Publisher: CROZ d.o.o., Lastovska 23, 10000 Zagreb, Republic of Croatia | Phone: 00385 1 6184 831 Fax: 00385 1 6184 833 | E-mail: [email protected] | Internet: www.croz.net | Graphic design: SHIFT kreativna agencija, www.shift.ba | Print: Tiskara Grafing d.o.o., Zagreb

Author: Krešimir Mudrovčić

Editor: Mura Kokotović

TEchnologiEs And TrEnds

Agile Methodologies in software developmentThe days when someone would give you a blank stare at the mention of agile methodologies are long gone. What’s more is that agile is now a trend and large global companies are increasingly beginning to use agile methodologies. However, what is agile’s true status in the world, which methodologies are most frequently used, what is valuable, what has been proven to be successful, have some ideas been rejected...? We will try to answer these and other related questions in this article.

We present iBM rational disciplined Agile deliveryThe use of agile methodologies during development of programming products is not news to us. More and more organizations worldwide are deciding to introduce agile principles into their work. Scrum (a method you can read more about in this issue) stands out amongst numerous other methodologies and is likely the most popular and widespread agile method used today. However, this kind of methodology has its drawbacks and areas for improvement; thus, bringing Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) onto the scene.

Enterprise ArchitectureThe role of IT in everyday business has for a long time been irreplaceable; however, the complexity of connections between these two units presents obstacles. Enterprise Architecture aims to align IT with the business life cycle, while at the same time using it for improving business.

Business Process Management at iBM’s WayThe dynamics of the business scene requires from every organization readiness for all possible challenges. Use of Business Process Management solution enables organizations to have direct control of business processes. Examine what kind of aces IBM has at its disposal in this field.

strategy for the development of Electronic government two years laterJanuary 2011 marked two years since the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted a Strategy for the Development of e-Government, which aims to network individual sectors into a unified administration office. Find out more from our interviewees first-hand about the steps that have been made and which ones are anticipated in this area.

croZ in bankingIt is a fact that the banking sector most directly influences all social segments, but the trends that affect banking operation cannot be ignored. This article will deal with what banks are currently doing in IT both short-term and long-term and it will also address CROZ’s position in banking.

iBM Maximo Asset Management finally in croatia“Extra, extra! Read all about it! CROZ involved in first IBM Maximo implementation in Croatia!”

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Agile Methodologies in Software Development | technologies and trends

Agile Methodologies in software development

Author: Bojan Šmid

The days when someone would give you a blank stare at the mention of agile methodologies are long gone. What’s more is that agile is now a trend and large global companies are increasingly beginning to use agile methodologies. however, what is agile’s true status in the world, which methodologies are most frequently used, what is valuable, what has been proven to be successful, have some ideas been rejected...? We will try to answer these and other related questions in this article.

When talking about agile methodologies, many initially think of the well-known Agile Manifesto

(Manifesto for Agile Software Devel-opment) from 2001. Over the years, it acquired such a reputation that many from the IT industry who are not famil-iar with agile methodologies can even say that they have heard of it. Someone might even incorrectly say that it marks the moment when agile methodologies came into existence. However, the truth is that the history of agile methodologies is much longer than this.

Japanese genesSome of the basic principles of agile meth-odologies, like iterative and incremental principle and the principle of adaptability have in the context of software develop-ment first been mentioned in the 1950s.

Many methods that are known today as agile evolved before Agile Manifesto. One of the first methods was announced at the beginning of 1995 (though it is poorly represented today) – DSDM (Dynamic Sys-tems Development Method). Shortly after, Scrum, today’s most popular agile meth-odology in software development officially entered the scene. Scrum, as it is known today, actually evolved behind the scenes in 1993, and its origins can be found in Japan in the mid-1970s at the Japanese company Fuji Xerox. During the development of a new photocopy machine, they modified the classic, sequential waterfall model, in which the next development phase begins only after the previous one has been completed, so that the phases overlap. Given that the authors were Japanese, this variant of waterfall model was later called the sashimi model, based on the Japanese dish sashimi (thinly sliced raw seafood).

The overlapping of phases brought about the need for increasing communica-tion and interaction between project partici-pants, and project teams were made up of people from various professions (research engineers, sales, developers, testers...), which is one of the traits that characterizes project teams led by agile methodologies. There were multiple benefits: ranging from shorter project duration, greater flexibility toward change, promoting responsibility and collaboration, increasing the exchange of key information between team members who have different tasks, to eventually, a product of better quality.

The sashimi model became dominant at Fuji Xerox, as well as across Japan, by the mid-1980s. Since Japan was then at its peak and it seemed that its numerous corporations were unstoppable in conquer-ing the rest of the world, numerous analysis were done which attempted to uncover the

6 | FYI by CROZ / english edition / april 2012

technologies and trends | Agile Methodologies in Software Development

light or agile?Due to a need for agility, over the years numerous new methodologies emerged whose goal was to ensure lightweight of product development. A group of enthusi-asts for such methodologies came together for an informal gathering in February of 2001 where they came up with the popular Agile Manifesto. The manifesto alone is quite short and it emphasizes some knowl-edge gained through experience:• People and interaction are more valu-

able than processes and tools • A functional code is more valuable

than extensive documentation• Collaboration with the user is more

valuable than negotiating a contract• Responding to a change is more valu-

able than adhering to the planEven if the common theme was

‘’lightweight’’, ‘’agile’’ was the word attrib-uted to manifesto and its development method. The reason for this is simple: the word ‘’lightweight’’ also denotes nega-tive connotations and, therefore, another word had to be found in order to improve the “sale” of this kind of software devel-

opment approach. From then on, Agile became the buzzword, which surely sped up and simplified the implementation of these methodologies in the development process, even in the largest (traditionally conservative) companies in the world. Of course, if methodologies alone did not create added value, the hype would prob-ably be ephemeral.

scrumThe Scrum project progresses iteratively through sprints. Each sprint should last two to four weeks (but this duration must be fixed and determined in advance; time-boxing is one of the key features of Scrum) during which a version of the product that is ready for delivery is created. During the entire project, a Product backlog exists, in which crucial functionalities of a product are prescribed. It is sufficient to describe them at a high level, without details. Func-tionalities that are implemented during one sprint are strictly specified before the sprint is initiated, during its planning. Their set is called a Sprint backlog, in which the functionalities from the Product backlog will be found through an agreement

12 principles of Agile Manifesto:(1) customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of useful software, (2) welcome changing requirements, even in late phases of development, in order to further increase the client’s position, (3) working software is delivered frequently, every several weeks or months (the shorter, the better), (4) working software is the principal measure of project’s progress, (5) sustainable development, which can sustain a constant pace during the entire project, (6) close cooperation between business people and programmers on a daily basis, (7) face-to-face communication is the best form of communication, (8) the projects are built around motivated individuals who should be trusted, (9) continuous attention to technical excellence and good design which increases the agility of the project, (10) simplicity, (11) self-organizing teams are capable of delivering the best architectures, requests, and design, (12) periodic reviews within teams and adaptation to changes in the environment.

Today, ten years (and many projects) later, we can identify the methodologies that have had the most success.

Waterfall and sashimi model

The scrum process

origin of their strength. One of the most crucial features discovered was actually the sashimi approach.

As a further evolution of the sashimi model, which includes overlapping only between neighboring phases, another model emerged in which multiple phases could overlap simultaneously while team members participating in the project in dif-ferent phases could reach their goal with a coordinated effort. This kind of model was dominant in other Japanese companies, like Honda and Canon and it was described as the rugby approach. Thus, the origin of the name of Scrum methodology and the roots of its evolution become obvious to all fans of this respective sport (as for the rest of us, scrum is a term used in rugby for an interwoven group of players who begin the action). Another interesting fact that should be mentioned is that the Scrum methodology has one more connection to its Japanese roots – in Scrum, sashimi is a name for the report which marks a com-pleted activity (i.e. a part of code).

Requirements

RequirementsDesign

Design

Implementation Implementation

Verification

Verification

Maintenance

Maintenance


between the project owner and the devel-opment team. The idea is that the sprint is planned so that there is enough time for implementing tasks that are placed in the Sprint backlog and it is very important that development team gives its assessment of planned work. The tasks found in the Sprint backlog should be described in more detail than those in the Product backlog, while the estimated amount of work per each task should not exceed sixteen hours.

It is important to keep in mind that the Sprint backlog is fixed. In other words, it is not possible to add new activities from the Product backlog into it after a sprint has begun. This is very important for many reasons: the team is entrusted with the responsibility of assessing what can be done and in which time frame and no un-foreseen challenges will be found before a sprint. This makes people more motivated in their work, while important functionali-ties selected during the planning phase have a higher possibility of actually being implemented on time.

The Product backlog is adjustable in many ways. One of these is detecting new functionalities that the product should have and which were not perhaps obvious or clear enough in the moment when the project began. The other is in the event that some of the functionalities from the current Sprint backlog are not able to be implemented dur-ing the current sprint (i.e. if some external prerequisites are not met for that function-ality or if there simply is not enough time).

PBZ has for some time been using agile methodologies on its projects. What were the key reasons for introducing them?

The concrete problems that we identified before we engaged in Scrum were: an excess overhead in development, slow deliveries that were always late, unclear requests, slow and inefficient communica-tion and bureaucracy. For these reasons, we decided to use Scrum methodology on one of our projects at the start of 2010.

Why was Scrum selected? Have you thought about combining with other agile methodolo-gies, like XP?

Well, Scrum has, in the last few years, become a prevailing agile methodology for project manage-ment. We realized that agile development is a good way to solve our problems so we were looking for a concrete methodology we could apply. It was easier to gain information about Scrum methodology so that was our choice. We are very satisfied because of that.

With regard to Scrum and XP, these two metho-dologies actually do not have many common points because they cover different areas. Scrum exclusively deals with project management and does not prescribe any development practices, while XP has the opposite situation. This actually makes them quite suitable for parallel use, which we do, in part.

To what extent has Scrum been implemented into PBZ? What were the greatest obstacles in implementing Scrum into an organization of such great size?

‘’Full-blooded’’ Scrum is only used on one maintenance project for now, while we are using elements of agile development on several other de-velopment projects. During Scrum implementation, we actually had very little resistance and problems. With this lag time, I would say that the key thing was unreserved support from higher management.

What does the use of Scrum look like on one of your projects? How many members does your Scrum team have?

Sprint lasts one month. At the beginning of sprint, we decide on the scope and at the end we deliver what was agreed upon. We hold 15 minute Scrum meeting every day and at the end of the sprint a revision and a retrospective. Thus, I would say that this is one ‘’geeky’’, Scrum implementation by the book. The reason for these strict implementations lies in the fact that, at the beginning, we agreed that we would not give anything of ours until it is necessary. Later, it turned out that there was not a need to neither change nor adjust anything. Generally, I would recommend this kind of approach to anyone who is just getting into Scrum because the value of some of the rules will be evident only after some time.

The team consists of five members, of whom three are developers and two are from the business side who deal with analysis and testing. For now, this number has proven to be a good ratio.

How do you measure its success? Have you conducted any assessments by which you can see the benefit of implementing Scrum in relation to previous methodologies?

We gave full attention to measuring the success right at the beginning. We were lucky because even before Scrum we had quite an orderly situation in terms of monitoring requests, bugs, etc., so that as a basis for comparison we had rather quality informa-tion. We carried out an initial assessment of success three months after implementing Scrum, comparing it to the direct quarterly period before introducing Scrum. The comparison indicated extraordinary results: 60% less bugs and 211% more improve-ments. I am noting once again that this does not have to do with subjective assessments, but rather with exact information based on documentation from our Production Committee and evidence in our issue management system. A subjective assessment by all team members who unanimously stated that this method is much better should surely be added.

Do you intend to implement Scrum on other projects and do you see agile methodologies as a strategic choice for achieving even greater quality of your products in the future?

In the near future, we wish to try Scrum on so-called development projects, but especially on projects being worked on by multiple geographi-cally remote teams. This deals with the use of so-called Scrum of Scrum modification of Scrum methodology. After a year’s worth of experience, we believe that we are finally ready for this kind of step forward.

PBZ, Zvonimir Križ(Team leader and ScrumMaster for PBZ365 team)

Scrum, as it is known to-day, actually evolved behind the scenes in 1993, and its origins were in Japan in the mid-1970s at the Japanese company Fuji Xerox. During the development of a new photocopy machine, they modified the classic, sequen-tial waterfall model, in which the next development phase begins only after the previous one has been completed, so that the phases overlap.



In these kinds of situations, the task must be returned to the Product backlog. Extend-ing the sprint beyond the initially given time limits is not permitted!

Another key feature of Scrum is standup meetings, for which it is important to:• Set a time limit of 15 minutes• Always begin on time, without being

late – at the same time and the same place

• Ensure that all team members stand during the meeting (hence the term standup) – since standing for a long time is uncomfortable, staying focused on key topics is ensured

• Have each team member respond to the following three questions:1. What has been accomplished since yesterday?2. What will be accomplished today?3. Are there any problems standing in the way of ability to complete the task?

Even though this is merely a cur-sory glance at Scrum, some features that strengthen it should be evident even here:• A simple, easy to understand, and

strong development process• Focus on important functionalities that

the development team itself assessed can be implemented

• Everyday communication at standup meetings, which are only focused on important items

• Communication between all team members (business analysts, program-mers, testers...)

• More satisfied team members, which results in faster and higher quality development

• More satisfied product customers and users

Extreme programming (XP)XP kicked up a lot of dust when it surfaced at the end of the 1990s and it is surely numbered amongst the most popular rep-resentatives of agile methodologies. Like other agile methodologies, it emphasizes the need for short iterations, communica-tion within a team, giving team members responsibility and power, readiness for change requests at any given time…Over time, XP gained many fans and critics, but statistics show (more on this later) that the most valuable and most widely used aspect of XP methodology was not project management but, rather, the part dedicated to the technical area. Beginning with four basic principles – communication,

feedback, simplicity and courage – XP builds a set of ’’best practices’’ which should be applied to software projects.

According to XP, these practices are interrelated and interwoven and support one another. Therefore, all must be used or else this is not XP. The most interesting ones are those that deal with development, or programming itself:

Pair programming – 2 individuals work together on one task and at one work station and they regularly exchange roles between one person coding and the other overseeing and thinking about the big picture. Of course, this practice will not sit with everyone and a period of adjustment is needed for this kind of work. Regardless, it seems that this is a frequently used method in the agile world.

Test driven development – first a test is created for some part of code and then the code itself. In this way, the programmer is forced to think about the logic of his code be-fore it goes into implementation. As parts of the logic are added so are the tests. Eventu-ally, an additional effect of detailed coverage of test codes is achieved, which guarantees high quality and eases regression testing of larger changes in the future. This deals with a rather valuable practice which is for many foreign or exhaustive in the beginning, but with time every programmer learns to value this (or slightly modified) kind of work.

continuous integration – deals with the need for frequent integration with the code being worked on by the remaining team members. If multiple people are working on the same parts of the code and development lasts longer (without mutual synchroniza-tion), the differences are greater and it is more difficult to integrate the code into a well thought-out unit when that time even-tually comes. Additionally, there is a greater chance for the occurrence of bugs which are not visible to the eye. This practice stems from a number of methods without which quality software development would be practically impossible:1. Maintaining a code repository that serves

for storing and synchronization of a code in a team. Tools like CVS, SVN or Git are today indispensable even on the smallest of projects.

2. Automated build of application artifacts – it can oftentimes also include instal-lation of the application on the test environment. The well-known tools Ant,

scrum in combination with XP

The Scrum project improves iteratively through sprints. Each sprint should last two to four weeks (but this dura-tion must be fixed and deter-mined in advance; timebox-ing is one of the key features of Scrum) during which a version of the product that is ready for delivery is created. During the entire project, a product backlog exists, in which crucial functionalities of a product are prescribed.



Maven, IBM Rational Build Forge, etc. are usually used for this.

3. Frequent commit of code into the repository.

4. Testing of code should be done in an environment that is very similar to the production environment.

refactoring – as an application im-proves through development, individual parts of code become awkward or unsuit-able to use. For instance, a good indicator for code or architecture that should be refactored is a situation in which a change in one part of the code results in an entire range of changes in other parts.

coding standards – it is necessary to have a set of standards that all team members will adhere to during coding. These standards are related to the method of naming application artifacts, the coding style, etc.

A Scrum + XP combination is frequently used precisely because of this technical part. Scrum is used for general project management (managing sprint) while XP techniques are used for development within the sprint itself.

leanThis methodology is praised for emerging from the philosophies and practices of the Toyota Production System, which were the driving force of this Japanese company. Unlike Scrum, which gives a clear structure for project management and XP which additionally emphasizes development practices during application coding, Lean gives suggestions that are applicable at the company level.

Eliminate the superfluous – every-thing that brings no benefit to the client represents a surplus, whether this refers to resources, functionalities or bureauc-racy.

learn as much as possible – about the product being developed and about the development process first-hand.

Making a decision as late as possi-ble – if some requirements are not fully recognized, the product should be devel-oped so that it can be easily customized to the facts that become apparent later. Decisions should be made based on facts and not on uncertain assumptions and predictions.

Most frequently used agile methodologies

Most frequently used techniques in agile development

Agile methodologies according to the organizational level at which they are used



Is RUP an agile methodology?RUP (Rational Unified Process) has a long and successful history of its use in the world of development projects, but an equally long history of misunderstandings and wrong ways of use which has a closer resemblance to the traditional waterfall approach. The blame here lies less in the actual methodology and more with the people that apply the methodology. RUP is actually a process, rather methodological framework, of numerous good meth-odology practices, patterns, behavior rules published in the form of a huge knowledge database under the name RMC – Rational Method Composer. RMC is a huge box filled with artifacts from which those artifacts that are applicable for concrete situations using RUP should be chosen, customized to that concrete situation and then adhere to the rules that were by the choice and customi-zation created this way. This is where problems appear. Despite it being modular and customizable, RUP has strict rules. These rules are formulated into phases and iterations, documents and activities that are prescribed by RUP. At the moment when the development teams face these, they begin to (sub)consciously avoid RUP’s good sides because they are under the impression that RUP is ‘’difficult’’, that it demands the production of hundreds of pages of documentation and drawing large numbers of strange diagrams. These are not the central and most important ideas of RUP. The most important idea that RUP presents is simple: with the consistent use of RUP rules we remove risks from the very first moments of the project (inception), build architecture prototypes as soon as enough information about the project is acquired (elaboration), and based on these we determine where to go and what to do next; through numerous short iterations we produce new application/product versions so that each iteration gives a result that functionally agrees with the requests at the beginning of iteration, which can be demonstrated to stakeholders (construc-tion), and at the end, an application/product is prepared for production through complete user testing, refining documentation, user training and, finally, putting it into operation in the production infrastructure (transition). Throughout the entire project duration, we are adjusting to changes (because we have short iterations and we see results quickly) and we involve stakeholders in the development process so that we have information and an understanding on time. If we, in the execution of the RUP methodology, additionally add technological and organizational practices that in no way contradict RUP – practices like TDD (test driven development), CI (continuous integration) following the success in the realization of project tasks supported by Scrum board or daily, short status meetings by an entire team - we get a clearer picture which illustrates that RUP can, when applied in such a way, be a quality agile methodology. A prerequisite for this is that people change the way they think about the development process from a traditional way to an agile way and they understand that they have to adjust – regardless of whether the methodology is called RUP or something else.

deliver as soon as possible – clearly, this does not mean delivering a defective product. It is important to deliver the func-tional product without all functionalities in order to get feedback from clients as soon as possible so this new information can be used in the next iteration in development.

Empower the team – project managers should allow team members to do their work in their own way. At the same time, they should be given the ability to make certain key decisions.

Build integrity in – there are two dimensions of integrity: perceived, which refers to the user’s perception of the product’s quality, and conceptual, which indicates how well the system functions under the surface (when it is out of the user’s eye) in providing the services.

see the whole – no product is merely a sum of its parts; rather, the relationship between these parts is crucial as well as how they function together. For instance, a product as a whole can function below its optimal level even if a lot of attention was given to the optimization of each of its individual components.

Given the proven value of a global company like Toyota, many will question whether Lean can be used in combination with Scrum and XP. The picture on the pre-vious page illustrates the domains of each of these three methodologies, which in some way provides an affirmative answer.

PopularityScrum is an unrivaled number one in the world of agile methodologies. The research study The State of Agile Development, which is undergone by the company VersionOne in the second half of each year, showed in 2010 that pure Scrum is used in 58% of cases (picture on page 9).

Besides this, Scrum is quite often used in combination with Extreme Programming (XP). Since each of these two methodolo-gies places emphasis on a different domain in software development (Scrum is more oriented on project management while XP is oriented toward development tasks), they are in some way complementary and can be used together. This is similar with the Scrumban methodology as well, which com-bines Scrum with Kanban and is suitable for maintenance projects where tasks are unexpectedly repeated (for instance, in the event of a programming or system error).


However, one must be careful with these percentages. Namely, even if this is a rather comprehensive research study which involved nearly 5,000 participants worldwide, these individuals assessed themselves, in fact. Thus, it is quite common that someone claims to use Scrum, but in the end it is revealed that this individual actually used either a very narrow set of Scrum ideas or a set of ideas that this person wrongly considered Scrum. Consequently, the so-called Nokia test, which can verify how much a team actually uses Scrum, was devised over time.

The same study inquired about the most commonly used agile techniques. Here, one can see a little bit from every-thing, while the amount of representa-tion of techniques that are connected to XP is especially interesting: Unit Testing, Continuous Integration, Automated Builds, Test Driven Development, etc.

What is next?It is rather difficult to determine the extent to which agile methodologies are really accepted. The estimates begin with the most conservative 15% or less, where the waterfall methodology is still believed to be dominant. Somewhat more optimis-tic estimates speak of 35% (Forrester, 2009), where a large proportion is held by generally called ‘’iterative methods’’, while the waterfall is rather poorly represented. The most optimistic estimates speak of a representation that is over 60%, but they come from the camp of the foremost ad-vocates of agile methodologies and should thus be taken with reserve.

Some of the largest world companies embraced agile. For instance, in 2007 IBM published information about 25% of inter-nal software projects that are developed using some form of agile methodologies. A shift in IBM from the classic waterfall model was also evident in the new methodology that emerged from there – Disciplined Agile Delivery. This method came from Scott W. Ambler, Chief Methodologist for Agile and Lean at IBM Rational, and it is basically an upgrade to Scrum, introducing phases, project initiation, and activities related to issuing the product, etc. Scrum undoubtedly branched into a dominant methodology, even if the other agile methodologies bring certain values. It is certain that agile meth-odologies are here to stay.


IBM Rational Disciplined Agile Delivery | technologies and trends

We present IBM Rational Disciplined Agile DeliveryThe use of agile methodologies during development of programming products is not news to us. More and more organizations worldwide are deciding to introduce agile principles into their work. scrum (a method you can read more about in this issue) stands out amongst numerous other methodologies and is probably the most popular and widespread agile method used today. however, this kind of methodology has its drawbacks and areas for improvement; thus, bringing disciplined Agile delivery (dAd) onto the scene.

Author: Mihael sedmak

During agile’s 10-year move-ment, many methodologies, techniques, and practices have surfaced which help organiza-

tions and development teams around the world to ensure timely quality delivery within defined budgets. Scrum is absolutely the leader with regard to methodologies. It is widely accepted and

has clear although strict rules, as well as a long tradition and history of successful implementation. However, it has been noticed that numerous organizations lack one crucial setting which is not a part of Scrum, and these are the explicit phases (we could say seasons) during the life cy-cle of a project. Scott Ambler, IBM’s Chief Agile Methodologist, drew this conclusion

(our interview with Scott Ambler will be presented within this text). While working with various clients, he noticed that many of them began with implementing Scrum as well as many other agile techniques and principles, but in reality, they adapted these methodologies to their teams and to themselves while working on projects. This customization has led to the forma-tion of different hybrid methodologies such as DAD.

dAd – A look from afarDAD is an evolutionary (iterative and incre-mental) approach to development which is aimed at regularly producing high quality solutions within the defined budget and timeframe throughout the life cycle and also promoting early detection of problems, risk elimination, and delivery of business values to the user. Development according to DAD is characterized by a high level of

dAd process through phases


technologies and trends| IBM Rational Disciplined Agile Delivery

interaction between all participants in the process; by a self-organized and disciplined teams within the project management framework, and intensive cooperation amongst all stakeholders. Together, these factors are aimed at developing a team in which its members (and all stakeholders) understand and can respond to changes to requests and circumstances (which are a reality and occur naturally) within a project and to maximize the business value of the application, the product and the project. DAD is a hybrid methodology which draws on and combines ideas from different agile methodologies and techniques in addi-tion to using good ideas from the Unified Process (UP) family of methodologies (RUP, OpenUP). First of all, what must be emphasized are the UP project phases, which provide outlines of the complete life cycle of DAD methodology, as well as the typical Scrum sprint (in DAD referred to as iteration) which constitutes the heart of the DAD life cycle. In further text, we will take a look at the DAD’s details.

What is new here?In order to answer the question posed in the subtitle, we must take a look at the snapshot that shows the life cycle of DAD methodology. At first glance, it is clear that according to DAD, development begins with the Inception phase which we are familiar with in RUP. That phase serves to prepare the project, organize the project team, initial business modeling, and creating a vision for the system’s archi-tecture - all of this through several short iterations which result in the initial list of desired functionalities. The Inception phase penetrates the project’s cooperative spirit foundation, creates communication channels between stakeholders and devel-opment team and through this decreases initial project risks.

The initial list of functionalities which have already been mentioned is the basis for further work and planning of the first ‘’real’’ iteration and it is necessary for stakeholders to reach a consensus about the mentioned functionalities and priori-ties of their implementation. Reaching a consensus is the key moment which marks the beginning of the construction phase, with respect to several short itera-tions during which confirmation of initial

architecture vision is looked for through implementation of key functionalities (those with greatest priority) and presen-tation of results to the stakeholders.

The confirmed architecture is a starting point for the continuation of the construc-tion phase during which the development team produces new functionalities (from and into iterations) through numerous iterations (which can be longer than the initial ones and until the suggested one month timeframe) and presents them to stakeholders. Each iteration begins with reviewing and defining related details at the most critical moment of functional-ity as well as selecting functionalities for implementation by the development team side, and finishing with a demonstration of implemented functionalities. Those kinds of steps are typical for Scrum itera-tion (sprint) and we will not give their de-tailed descriptions (however, at the end of this article, you can find information that will help expand your knowledge of agile methodologies in DAD) – it is important to point out that DAD has embraced this effective practice because it fits into the philosophy of maximum communication within a project team.

After construction (the part of DAD is clearly the most similar to the Scrum process), the typical UP transition follows with several shorter iterations dur-ing which implemented functionalities prepare for production, are put into a test phase or, for instance, are tested from the user. What follows is the production phase of the application, which is worth noting because development teams are often unaware that the production work results in errors logging that occurs while working or that it results in requests for new func-tionalities. The existence of the explicit phase demonstrates the need for planning the already mentioned instances in the wider plan of application/product develop-ment or in planning of new projects.

Through combining project phases that are common in the UP family of method-ologies and typical Scrum iterations, DAD uses good ideas from other methodologies such as Agile Modeling methodology, Agile Data methodology and a good practices incorporated under the name Extreme Programming (CI – continuous integration, TDD – test driven development). As you

can see, with this rather complex combina-tion, DAD provides some of its own ideas which are new and which are characterized by additional quality of the methodol-ogy. Namely, this refers to solutions for typical problems caused by the use of agile development like distributed teams, large teams, exceptionally complex business domains, technically complex systems and other similar issues. DAD deals with these issues as factors of scaling agile develop-ment and there are variants of DAD that address these factors.

The agile story continuedGiven all of the information we have cov-ered, it is without question that DAD is a complex methodology that can and must adjust to the current needs of a project and its team. However, one of DAD’s advantages is the fact that it evolved from experience and it is already adjusted to reality and typical situations. Based on what we have said thus far, it is clear that much more can be written about DAD. Whilst our limited space prevents us from sharing more with you about DAD, we will provide you with a list of interesting links (some of which have been mentioned in the interview) with the hope that you will find some useful information that will encourage you to implement agile principles using DAD. To start, take a look at www.scrum.org for more information on Scrum and http://xprogramming.com/index.php for more information on XP usage and then engage in research of DAD (along with DAD’s related meth-odologies) on https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/ambler/?lang=en_us. Several CROZ teams have begun researching and utilizing agile practices based on DAD methodology in their projects. To date, the results are interesting – not only in the context of the problem we were faced with (and success-fully resolved) but also in the context of a new way of looking at the development process provided by DAD. Together with our enthusiasm about using DAD, we are always keen on sharing our experiences with agile projects in order to help you to apply agile principles to your projects. Do not hesitate to ask your favorite CROZ partner or the author of this article for advice – you will not go wrong.


For starters, could you introduce yourself to our readers in your own words?

My name is Scott Ambler, I’m the Chief Methodologist for Agile and Lean at IBM Rational. My job is to help organizations around the world to understand, and hopefully adopt effectively, agile/lean strategies at scale. I’m also the person behind the Agile Modeling, Agile Data, and Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) methods. My Agility@Scale blog is https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/ambler/?lang=en_us.

Agile practices and methodologies have a growing support amongst our customers and also in CROZ internally. This support ranges between full blown Agile adoption with excel-lent feedback from all those involved to “only” implementing TDD, CI and daily stand-ups in the development process. However, we have found that there are typical pain points to adopting agile – the biggest one being lack of understanding of the product owner role and responsibilities. What do you believe to be the biggest challenges when adopting agile and what did you encounter most when helping customers implement agile?

The primary challenges prove to be people oriented, typically cultural. Are you willing to work together? Are you willing to share information? Are you willing to share success? And failure? Adopting the technical practices is quite easy. Having said that, when adopting agile you need to focus on what I call the 5Ps (https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/ambler/entry/5pofit) – People, philosophies, practices, products, and processes. I’ve listed them in priority order, although you will need to address all five if you want to be successful.

Many organizations also struggle with adopting agile approaches at scale. This is often my focus,

and I’ve done a fair bit of work helping people understand the implications of scaling agile in my work with the Agile Scaling Model (ASM) (ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/sa/wh/n/raw14204usen/RAW14204USEN.PDF)

We found that there are a lot of benefits in adopting agile even when you start small (adopting TDD, CI, self organizing teams) – people get a sense of responsibility and ownership over tasks and functionalities and a fast turnaround and feedback on what they have implemented. What would you say to be the biggest benefits of agile adoption?

One of the things that I do is run IT industry sur-veys (http://www.ambysoft.com/surveys/) so that I can determine what is actually happening in industry as opposed to some of the rhetoric that gets thrown around. In the 2008 IT Project Success Survey (http://www.ambysoft.com/surveys/success2008.html) we found that agile approaches had statistically higher success rates than traditional approaches. They also produced better return on investment (ROI), better time to market, better stakeholder satisfaction, and higher levels of quality on average. Those seem to be pretty good benefits to me.

In our experience, we found agile practices and methodologies to work best in banking IT projects (banking IT seems to be most recep-tive for such ideas). From your point of view, what environments (or better yet, what kind of environments) will agile be most successful in?

I’ve seen agile approaches applied successfully in all sectors, including government, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, and even aerospace. The surveys also show successful agile adoption across all sectors. As I said, the real challenge with agile adop-tion is around people and culture, not industry sector.

Now, a question or two about Disciplined Agile Delivery, the youngest among agile method-ologies. What was the motivation behind the creation of DAD? Was there any or is DAD a new natural step in the agile methodologies evolution?

We created DAD based on what we’ve observed work in practice. I get to visit dozens of organizations every year and see what they’re doing, and many of them were doing something very similar to DAD. DAD is a hybrid process framework which focuses on the full delivery lifecycle, is people focused, enterprise aware, and goal oriented. Time and again I’ve seen

organizations claiming to be doing Scrum, only to find out that they’re also doing some practices from XP, some from Agile Modeling, some from Unified Process (UP), and many more. Yet they’ll often claim that they’re just doing Scrum, not realizing that Scrum was only a very small portion of their overall effort. Sadly, these organizations had spent a lot of time and effort figuring all this stuff out, so one goal of DAD is to help eliminate some of this waste and get teams started with agile a bit faster.

Also, DAD provides an important foundation for scaling agile development, something that the ASM makes clear. You can read more about DAD in my blog and in an IBM whitepaper from March 2011.

DAD resembles RUP (actually the Unified Process family of methodologies) in the inception and transition phases as well as Scrum in the construction phase. Would or-ganizations that already implement RUP and have been doing projects according to RUP for a few years find it easier to make the agile transition by using DAD practices? Is a “clean slate” approach better?

The UP was one of several sources of ideas for DAD, as I indicated earlier. It includes explicit phases as that reflects what agile teams actually do in practice. Instead of counting backwards in Scrum and adding a “Sprint 0” to initiate the project and one or more “hardening sprints” to release the system into production, DAD includes explicit phases to take the guess work out of the process. We find that organizations like this increased level of explicitness.

What are your current experiences with DAD adoption?

It’s hard to say as this is the early stages. Like I said, many organizations have done things that are similar to DAD in their effort to develop their own methods. Also, the book isn’t finished yet which is when methods tend to take off. Luckily there is training available if you want it in the form of IBM’s Advanced Disciplined Agile Delivery workshop (http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en?pageType=course_description&courseCode=RP252).

What is, in your opinion, the future of Agile and the future of Disciplined Agile Delivery?

Agile is definitely here to stay. My hope is that Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) takes off. Time will tell.

Interview with Scott Ambler

IBM Rational,Scott W. Ambler(Chief Methodologist for Agile/Lean)

IBM Rational Disciplined Agile Delivery | technologies and trends


Author: davor Čengija

What is Enterprise Architecture? It is not difficult to imagine a scenario in which IT Director of a seemingly serious telecommunications company is pulling out his hair, that is, if he even has any left, because an implementation project has just been launched; for instance, let’s consider a new billing system. The decision was made without his influence – because it is in the business domain – and he is responsible for implementation. How this project will be implemented and what effect it will have on the rest of the infrastructure is not on the daily agenda of the business strategy sector which be-gan the entire initiative. On one hand, this

Enterprise ArchitectureThe role of iT in everyday business has for a long time been irreplaceable; however, the complexity of connections between these two units presents obstacles. Enterprise Architecture aims to align iT with the business life cycle, while at the same time using it for improving business.

manner is understandable and business challenges must be reacted to quickly and decisively. The problem involves insufficient communication between the business and technical sectors. Enterprise Architecture is missing.

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an idea that began surfacing in the late 1980s; however, still today it lacks a clear defini-tion and boundaries. You can read about how similar these different definitions actually are in the separate text box, but we can say that the EA discipline in one which seeks to reconcile the business strategy, key processes in an organization and technology by connecting them into a

harmonious unit while at the same time enabling their work without interfer-ence and prompting continued business development.

Business, processes and peopleAccepting Enterprise Architecture requests, in the first line, organizational changes, and not only establishing a de-partment for EA but also for appropriately connecting business sectors, through EA, and informatics. It can be logically concluded that implementing EA is, in any case, not an easy task and that it requires serious consideration, development and quality implementation.

Enterprise Architecture in relation to the concrete implemented systems architectures (source: Wikipedia)

technologies and trends | How to Reconcile Business and IT?


How to Reconcile Business and IT? | technologies and trends

Despite that EA can be accepted and implemented by exclusively using one’s own efforts, experience and knowledge, there is a presumption that we are not the first ones to go the EA way and that advice, best practices and other materials from that domain already exist, or rather, that Enterprise frameworks which lead through the implementation process exist and are followed by maintenance, or in other words, retention of EA. As with the definitions, several EA frameworks have been accepted in the industry. The most popular is surely TOGAF, which is de-scribed in more detail in the separate text box on the following page.

If nothing more than for historical purposes, Zachman’s Framework for EA should be mentioned. Namely, in 1987 John A. Zachman published an article in IBM Systems Journal titled ’’A Framework for Information Systems Architecture’’ in which he laid out the foundation for Enterprise Architecture as we see it today - which is an all-encompassing bond between business and technology. Although Zachman’s Framework is, in principle, more or less a taxonomy for

organizing architecture artifacts (docu-ments, specifications and models) which takes into account for whom the specific artifact is intended (for instance, owner of the business process) and which problem is covered, and it can serve as a sort of a list of all of the things that should be considered for EA development.

FEA (Federal Enterprise Architecture) is also worth noting, which was an attempt to organize all government agencies, ministries and similar organizations in the U.S.A. in the same way. There are five reference models which are held by the FEA: business, service, component, technical and data reference model, and within these frames they attempt to create a balance and enable a sustainable

development. It will be interesting to see how much it will succeed in this.

Expected profitThe ways that information technology is applied in the business develops. Those days when IT presented us with more expenses than actual use are behind us. Today, IT is regarded as support in everyday work, which is not quite so bad, however, it still does not use the greatest technology potential. The aim is to achieve a synergy of business with IT so that it can become the driving force of business. This goal can only be achieved if business and technol-ogy fully understand and permeate one another, which is precisely where Enterprise Architecture finds itself.


It can be expected that a complex unit like Enterprise Architecture is looked at in a different way depending on the observer’s perspective, but regardless of this it is surprising how many Enterprise Architecture definitions exist, each which makes sense it its own way. Several of these interesting definitions follow; however, they do not have to be learned by heart

The ArchiMate Foundation: “A coherent whole of principles, methods, and models that are used in the design and realization of an enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems, and infrastructure.” (http://archimate.nl/en/about_archimate/)

Gartner Group: “Enterprise Architecture (EA) is the process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating, and improving the key principles and models that describe the enterprise’s future state and enable its evolution.”

ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000: “The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution.” (http://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/1471-2000.html)

Cap Gemini: “Enterprise Architecture is the description and visualization of the structure of a given area of contemplation, its elements and their collaborations and interrelations links vision, strategy and feasibility, focusing on usability durability and effectiveness. Architecture enables construction, defining principles, rules, standards and guidelines, expressing and communicating a vision.”

Forrester, Gene Leganza, 2001: “Enterprise Architecture consists of the vision, prin-ciples and standards that guide the purchase and deployment of technology within an enterprise.”

Gartner Group, Philip Allega: “En-terprise Architecture is the process that interweaves business and IT together.”

Institute for Enterprise Architec-ture Development: “Enterprise Architec-ture is about understanding all of the different elements that go to make up the enterprise and how those elements interrelate.” (http://www.enterprise-architecture.info)

MIT Center for Information Systems Research: “Enterprise Architecture is the organizing logic for key business processes and IT capabilities reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of the firm’s operat-ing model.” (http://mitsloan.mit.edu/cisr)

Based on a very limited number of subjects, the closest to the truth are Gartner and ArchiMate, which are organizationally quite similar to The Open Group. Everyone agrees on one thing: EA represents a link between business requirements and technical implementation, which is the mutual satisfaction of both sides.

(Source: http://www.ariscommunity.com)

Definition of Enterprise Architecture TOGAF – The Open Group Architecture Framework

TOGAF is likely the most popular, if not also the most widely used EA framework, or rather architectural framework, which emerged under the auspices of the organization The Open Group (TOG). It was developed based on TAFIM (Technical Architecture Framework for Information Manage-ment), which the American Ministry of Defense publicly released, precisely to TOG, in 1995 as a base for the entire EA life cycle.

TogAF AdM

TOGAF, in its current version 9, is based on four core units – architectural domains:• Businessarchitecture,inwhichbusinessstrategy,

management, organization and key business proc-esses in the organization/company are defined.

• Applicationsarchitecture,inwhichbasicguidelines and outlines that should be followed in application systems, their relationships and connections are defined.

APIS IT,Dubravko Šamec(Information Systems Architect)

How does APIS IT look at EA within its everyday work?

APIS IT is a so-called multi-enterprise system, which assumes the use of concepts, ideas that are closely related to Enterprise Architecture. Despite that there is no formal ‘’department for EA’’, there is a formal team. The need for systematic access to technology and business has been recognized, and use of EA principles has already begun in some systems. In the beginning, we mainly focused on technical aspects of system implementation according to EA principles, but later we expanded also to the business dimension. These experiences are being applied in parallel to other systems, from infrastructure unification to using common elements for the implementation.

What are the advantages of EA from the per-spective of APIS?

For the implementation of EA, it is crucial for man-agement to have an interest in improving business, thus, end services that we offer, which are recognized by us, and management provides support for the de-velopment of IT infrastructure based on EA principles and best practices. By introducing EA, we expect an improvement in managing resources, knowledge, infrastructure, project plans, primarily through defining and use of standard forms of ‘’behaviour’’, i.e. designing of projects.

Which EA framework is most closely related to APIS’s approach to EA?

It is difficult for me to answer this question because until now we have not used a single formal EA methodology. Our methods of thinking are in the direction of TOGAF for many reasons. TOGAF evolved based on IT architecture and is thus close to a wider variety of people in APIS IT. This methodology is easily accessible (it does not require additional investment), and it is present in this region.



Enterprise continuum

• Dataarchitecture,inwhichlogicalandphysicaldata structures in the organization are defined, as well as their procedures and data management techniques.

• Technical/technologicalarchitecture,inwhichhardware, software, and network infrastructure needed for the implementation of key applica-tions, without interference, are defined.

The development of the architectural domain is clear and pictured and helps in understanding the entire relationship between business and technology, which brings us to the part of TOGAF that is likely the most widely used: ADM (Architecture Development Method).

Although TOG praises itself on the fact that TOGAF is an all-encompassing framework for EA, it should thank ADM for its wide acceptance. People like the processes and ADM is precisely that: an iterative and cyclical process of defining Enterprise Architecture, from an architectural vision, across business, system and technological architecture, to managing of changes in EA. Each of the eight steps is subsequently worked out into smaller steps, which, when superficially presented, represent the cookbook for implementing EA. It should be noted, however, that the deliveries are in that con-text, rather documents that describe the selected unit in sufficient detail. Furthermore, ADM does not prescribe anything; instead, it suggests units and their order.

The third unit in TOGAF is Enterprise Continuum, rather, a virtual repository of all architectural artifacts in the organization. Under artifacts in this context, we

are referring to architectural models, forms, best practices, and all of the other elements that define Enterprise Architecture in the organization.

Despite good elaboration, TOGAF is a very complex architectural framework: the TOGAF 9 Edition book has 778 pages and reading it in its entirety is quite a feat. Nonetheless, the amount of material that is available on TOGAF probably exceeds the amount of material available for all other frameworks put together, de facto making it a standard for EA.

IBM Rational System Architect – a tool for EAWith the Telelogica merger in 2008, System Architect, which is likely the best tool for Enterprise Architecture, found its way into IBM’s portfolio of tools. Even though using this tool alone cannot ensure substantial gain in introducing EA, System Architect is without a doubt an excellent support tool. Built as an entire environment with the support of numerous EA frameworks, including TOGAF, Zachman, and FEA, amongst others, System

Architect will carry on and provide support for BPMN, also including the ability to simulate processes, UML, modeling network architecture, service orientated architecture, object-related mapping and other concepts and technologies – the list of functionalities is surely impres-sive. This kind of tool, despite its complexity, can significantly help in accepting Enterprise Architecture by guiding architects and keeping them focused on concrete problems and an order for resolving them.

Vlasta Marinović (Head of Department)Given the line of work of the Tax Administration, IT is a key element. How do you see the role of EA in continued work expansion and widening of the Tax Administration’s business scope?

IT is a strategic factor in business, while the Tax Admin-istration attempts to develop the system in that direction, in terms of the limited capacities it is dealt with. Business goals, which evolved from the company’s business strategy, need to have a direct effect on defining IT goals, which subsequently leads to an influence on the IT system’s architecture – the Tax Administration does not need to be an exception here. I see EA primarily as a methodology whose use in large organizations can greatly simplify the harmonization of complex (read: expensive) IT systems with business needs.

What gains from EA do you see as key for an organiza-tion like the Tax Administration?

The Tax Administration has an information system that is maintained and developed to a great extent by one of its strategic partners, but also by numerous other IT service providers. Prevent-ing the system from becoming so complex that it is too expensive to maintain is the key. Besides this, we have an obligation to enable quick system adjustments in response to changes needed for doing business. Expenses related to IT, and those related to the business of the organization which is increasingly more reliant on the information system, demands a framework for the development of the information system. EA can help with regard to establishing a suitable development framework.

Which EA approach is optimal for an organization like the Tax Administration?

When deciding upon implementation of methodologies related to IT, whether with regard to project management, service management or the EA area, the maturity of the organization in which the methodology would be applied must be taken into consideration. Selection of the EA methodology that is most commonly used in the environment has its advantages with regard to development and in-house use of the methodology, mainly because of a high level of outsourcing by the Tax Administration. Generally, we leave EA methodology (for instance, Zachman Framework, TOGAF, FEA, and Gartner Methodology) and reconsideration of the EA related approach in the Tax Administration to a theory level for now. Nonetheless, I anticipate that the initiative that will deal with this area will be achieved in the near future, and following this, a step forward from the area of theory towards the practical application of EA at the Tax Administration.

Tax Administration – Central Office, Sector for Information Systems

How to Reconcile Business and IT? | technologies and trends


When addressing Enterprise Architecture, connecting the business and technology domains is always mentioned. How did T-HT used EA in this context?

EA is undoubtedly a support tool for aligning the business and IT strategy, and we increase the level of communication within the company. Most of our applications es-sentially manipulate with some data, whether its data about users, services that we offer, their usage, etc., while at the same time business-related data appear in various different applications. Examining the entire IT infrastructure, from the perspective of implemented systems, presents a problem because, ultimately, which applications are doing the work is irrelevant as long as the job is completed quickly, correctly, and on time.

Here, we decided to reverse our IT approach: using EA principles, we recognized functionalities that we are implementing, for instance, management of user data, and we found business owners for those recognized units who are responsible for correctness of the business functionalities, its supplements, and upgrades according to the business strategy.

The next step was mapping business functionalities on for technical elements, in other words, systems and applications, which are entirely in the IT domain. At the same time, we recognized implemented technical elements many times which we are now consolidating.

Using this kind of approach, we were able to get the business sector to think in terms of business needs, for instance, ‘’A supplement to the CRM functionality is needed,’’ rather than ‘’We are requesting upgrade of application X’’, which makes implementation, planning and migration of the application easier for us.

How do you see EA’s role in telecom given this type of industry which is quite active and dynamic?

The EA process in the telecom industry is crucial because of a large number and the complexity of business processes and their constant external influences (changes) on the business strategy. The role of IT is to provide support to business processes. In this regard, the question ‘’How?’’ is always posed. Precisely the use of EA methodology and reference architectures offers the answer and surely leads in the desired direction without wandering and experimentation. EA – thus, planning - ensures the best long-term solutions for building a modern IT landscape.

How does T-HT position itself toward EA, especially from the perspective of expanding its services in telecom?

T-HT recognized the value of IT planning at the Enterprise level. Carefully selected and connected systems can, with their flexibility, respond to quick and frequent changes in business decision-making and implementation of new products and technologies. Close cooperation between the IT and business sectors is certainly necessary, as are the previously mentioned and agreed upon inter-domain processes (so-called E2E). The EA function, like EA Governance, is established.

Which EA framework are you implementing and what are the key reasons for your selection? How do some professional organizations, but primarily we are thinking of the TMForum, influence EA acceptance in the industry?

There are many EA frameworks. For every level of architecture, at least one must be selected.

T-HT uses:· Business architecture: eTOM - Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (TMForum)· Logical architecture:

º Functional level: GDM – Group Domain Model (DTAG), NGSSM - Next Generation Service and System Management (DTAG), NGSRL - Next Generation Service & Resource Lifecycle (DTAG),º Data level: GDM (DTAG) i SID - TM Forum Information Framework (TMForum)

· Application architecture: TAM - Telecom Applications Map (TMForum)· Technological architecture: TNA - Technology Neutral Architecture (TMForum)· Supplemental: Development of architecture solutions (Target architecture): ADM – Architecture Development Method (TOGAF)

Some frameworks are used in everyday work (GDM, eTOM, ADM), some we use on an as-needed basis (SID, TAM, TNA), and some are just now being applied (NGSSM, NGSRL).

A key reason for our selection is experience and a recommendation of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG-a).

T-HT, Marija Šoša (Director of the Office for Information System Planning and Architecture)Boris Paljak (Enterprise Architect)



Business processes are the foundation of every organization and they represent all the activities that

unfold in them. The processes can be quite complex (for instance, production of computer hardware components) or simple (for instance, parking payment), but their main feature is the need for repetition of the same sequence of operations or events. The automatized process enables consistency with regard to making decisions that are aligned with the organization’s goals, which provides maximum profit with minimal costs.

Business Process Management (hereinafter referred to as BPM) helps users to define and manage processes in order for them to achieve their desired

Author: Aleksander radovan

Business Process Management at IBM’s WayThe dynamics of the business scene requires from every organization readiness for all possible challenges. Use of Business Process Management solution enables organizations to have direct control of business processes. Examine what kind of aces iBM has at its disposal in this field.

Unifying iBM products into iBM BPM brand

IBM BPM | technologies and trends


technologies and trends | IBM BPM

Process designer display interface

goals more quickly and easily. Using BPM enables faster and better decision-making and proactively improves the very processes that contribute to even better business results for the organization.

how do we begin with BPM?At the beginning, it is necessary to evaluate the needs of the organization and examine its strategy and main business goals in order to capture the processes within it. Those processes whose changes will result in the greatest return of investment, so-called low-hanging fruits, should have the highest priority at the start of BPM’s implementation. These are usually processes that cause the greatest problems and whose optimization will result in the most concrete improvements. Following selection of these kinds of processes, it is necessary to find out in which segment improvements can be achieved as well as selecting the means for achieving this. Key performance indicators (KPI) can be defined for each process by which it is possible to measure the

efficiency of implementation of some of these operations and events within the process. Besides this, iterative improvement of the very process is made possible in the event that there is still room left for improvement.

For instance, an organization which approves credits to its customers

can encounter problems with certain business processes if the interest for a service rapidly increases. In time of very unstable currencies, if there is an unexpected increase in the number of customers’ requests to change the currency (by reprogramming) of the credit, problems may occur in regards to time required to process these requests. These problems can result in an overload in the credit department as well as customer dissatisfaction due to slow processing. With the help of a well-defined KPI, it is possible to quickly determine the ‘’bottleneck’’ of the process that is causing the delay for processing the requests (which results in slower collection of credit processing fees) and determine the measures for resolving this problem. The measures can relate to an increase in the number of employees in the credit department or they can involve simplifying the credit reprogramming process, which would result in an improvement of that department’s efficiency. Following this, with additional measurements using various KPIs it is possible with additional iterations to achieve even

Business Process Manage-ment (hereinafter referred to as BPM) helps users to de-fine and manage processes in order for them to achieve their desired goals more qu-ickly and easily. Using BPM enables faster and better decision-making and proac-tively improves the very processes that contribute to even better business results for the organization.


‘’inbox’’ with tasks

Why is PBZ implementing the BPM solution?Currently, there are many great tools for

managing business processes on the market, and clearly prerequisites have been established to take full advantage of this potential.

As a result, a PoC for covering the evaluation of the BPM solution is underway. PoC covers evaluations of several BPM platforms, including IBM WebSphere Lombardi Edition, amongst others.

The evaluation should indicate which platform is acceptable and applicable for certain business processes.

What are the key reasons for your decision to implement the IBM BPM system?

The main reasons we decided to head in the direction of implementing BPM (Business Process Management) are:– Orientation toward our clients and their needs.

Ultimately, BPM brings back the focus on what is essential in every job – the job itself

– A continuous need for improving the effectiveness of the business processes, and the above-men-tioned BPM tools provide sufficient support for the automatization of activities, which includes people and application systems

– A need for integration of the existing applications developed in-house into complex applications, rather than uncontrolled development from the beginning

– Processing of business events in real time through management consoles as well as earlier detection of problems in processes

– Measuring the KPI of processes, especially for sensitive processes of great value

– More agile process of development because it decreases much of the manual work and wasted effort

In which areas of business do you intend to implement the IBM BPM solution?

Implementation is carried out through a typical example in the banking business which is credit process management.

PBZ,Ilica Brnadić(Director of the Directorate for the Application of Distributive Channels in the Sector for Application Support)

greater efficiency in performing certain operations within the process, if the need arises.

one product: iBM BPM In 2011, the company IBM decided to unify various solutions in the field of BPM into a new product. From WebSphere Process Server, WebSphere Lombardi Edition and IBM Case Manager/FileNet BPM, the ‘’best’’ was taken and used in one unified product called IBM Business Process Manager. This new product has been expanded using a module called Process Designer,

which enables a modeling and process debugging, a snapshot management process, adding external resources (like ‘’external’’ Java classes that define services included in the very process), connecting with external web services, implementation of a graphical interface (display) and data models that are used

in the process, etc. The current version of the IBM Business Process Manager product is v7.5, which is available in three editions: Express, Standard and an Advanced Edition. The Express edition includes a full functionality of Process Designer, and it is optimized for simpler environments with one server


The IBM BPM Standard edition is most similar to WebSphere Lombardi Edition BPMS and it maximally simplifies the migration of Lombardi users to that edition of IBM BPM.


(it does not support clustering), thus it is not intended for use in mission-critical applications. The IBM BPM Standard edition is most similar to WebSphere Lombardi Edition BPMS and it maximally simplifies the migration of Lombardi users to that edition of IBM BPM. The Advanced version comes with an Integration Designer module which enables an SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) layer for orchestrating the BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) services and processes that can be invoked by the BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) process or that can be implemented on their own.

designing process When designing a process in Process Designer it is necessary to separate tasks into several roles in the system, which are assigned as either human tasks or system tasks. Human tasks are assigned based on tasks and employees’ rights, for instance, assistants, business managers and support. System tasks include those steps of the process that the system can carry out without requiring intervention from human resources, like verifying the calculation of credit scoring, checking if the user is on a ‘’black list’’, etc. Within Process Designer, roles are defined as horizontal ‘’paths’’ called lanes. Besides that, it is also possible to define vertical segments, which represent individual phases within the process that can help to define the steps that need

technologies and trends | IBM BPM

to be implemented in order to finish the specified process phase. These can be separated, for instance, at the initialization, data collecting, verification of data, etc. Data is transferred between process steps with the support of defined variables, which requires programming knowledge at process implementation. However, this is maximally simplified and adjusted to effective development method. Modeling the screens which constitute the graphical interface, through which users participate in the implementation, is reduced to drag and drop actions. The display screens are in the context of IBM BPM called coaches, which is inherited from the IBM Lombardi product named after the famous American football coach Vince Lombardi.

The principle of “inbox”After the completion of implementation phase of the process model, every user uses their login and password to register into the Process Portal module, where they can view and manage their ‘’own’’ tasks. When this process reaches a state which requires certain action from a certain user (i.e. only the manager of the bank’s branch can approve a credit realization), it becomes visible in their ‘’inbox‘’, which by its design resembles to the e-mail mailbox. Using defined screens in the process model, the user can carry out all of the necessary actions and tasks in order for a process instance from one state to be completed in

the next state, until the end of the process. Besides this, the Process Portal offers the option of generating different reports by which it is possible to measure the effectiveness of a process or individuals who participate in the process. Reports can be generated according to assigned parameters and key performance indicators (KPI), and in this way maximally customize and accommodate various needs.

Expansion capabilitiesTo further facilitate the inclusion of BPM in organizations’ business conducting and for best practice from experience to be used maximally, IBM developed three additions called Industry Packs. They include prepared models of processes, services, data and capabilities, and vocabulary and mutual components for three key industries: banking, telecommunications, and the healthcare industry. Using these completed models and components, which include summaries of best practice concepts from experience on completed projects, it is also possible to reduce the time needed to implement the same models and, in advance, avoid some of the most common problems that can occur during implementation. For example, in the healthcare industry processes are prepared for introducing new members and groups, which are compliant with standards like HL7, ASC X12 EDI (HIPAA) etc. In the telecommunications industry, processes


ZPIZ – Pension and Disability Insurance Institute of the Republic of Slovenia ,Mr. Edmond Pajk(Director of the IT sector)

ZPIZ is in the process of updating its ICT systems. Can you tell us something more about this?

The Pension and Disability Insurance Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (Zavod za pokojninsko in invalidsko zavarovanje Slovenije - ZPIZ) is conduct-ing a comprehensive update of the ICT system, from upgrading its infrastructure, to exchanging old busi-ness applications with new ones, along with taking into account the SOA concepts and at the same time updating business processes. At the beginning of applications upgrade in ZPIZ, we did not have an implemented Business Process Management (BPM) system. We developed new business applications according to our own SMIIS methodology, which is a somewhat customized RUP. The applications were developed in IBM Rational Business Developer (EGL/Java), with business logic in web services on the application server IBM WebSphere Application Server and with portlets in the IBM WebSphere Portal Server as a user interface. The main bus (ESB) is implemented using IBM WebSphere Message Broker – WMB i IBM MQ, and the database is IBM DB2. With regard to upgrade the application, at the first larger business process we perceived a need to focus more on business processes rather than single functionalities. Updating the business processes is a prerequisite for suitable, effective upgrade of their application support. Introducing BPM is a logical next step for implementation and effective use of SOA, whose strategic orientation is confirmed in main strategic documents of the Institute from the area of ICT.

Which criteria did you use when selecting the BPM solution?

When preparing Enterprise Architecture in 2010, we assessed the various options while taking into account any remaining open questions for the targeted information architecture, where BPM was one of the main open areas. We decided on IBM BPM (Lombardi) after examining IBM BPM (then Lombardi) and some competitive products after implementing PoC – which confirmed integration in a demanding information environment of the Institute – due to numerous factors, most notably because of the simplifying implementation, devel-opment and management as well as applicability of business processes which are conceived by user interaction.

How do you use IBM BPM (Lombardi) in ZPIZ and what do you think are its core benefits?

After including BPM in the targeted infrastruc-ture, we used it in the implementation of business applications upgrade projects, including the largest current project, UDG (our own case management and document management system). Immediately, we began taking advantage of its benefits which, amongst others, enabled a high focus on a business process and its effectiveness (establishing KPI) and interactive collaboration between the user and IT parts of the working project team, as much in the Blueworks environment as later in IBM BPM (Lom-bardi). This resulted in less focus on the preparation of documents and, for users, models that are often difficult to understand, while increasing focus on teamwork during the implementation of business processes. Another great advantage of IBM BPM (Lombardi) is its capability for quick preparation of user-generated interfaces, coaches, as early as the process planning phase. All of these advantages provide a significant increase in speed and more flexible development. Thus, early in development, we can offer users the business process with all user interfaces and user roles, which means that they can test the process and prospective application in a very realistic way even before the implementation of detailed business logic started (web services, business rules, progresses of mes-sages on ESB...).

ZPIZ, as one of Slovenia’s few public administra-tion institutions, has the ISO 9001 certificate, which means that it is focused on quality management and management of business processes. The use of BPM when renewing business processes and business applications provides an opportunity for increasing the level of modeling, managing, implementing and improving the business processes in a way that will be completely data-supported, effective, and customizable. BPM is a tool that can significantly help achieve excellence in an organization.

and models for payment collection and interaction with users are prepared, based on the standards eTOM, SID and NGOSS. Within the Industry Pack, the banking industry has support for core banking, payments, risk management, and customer care, based on the standards ISO 20022, IFW, SEPA and NACHA.

iBM Blueworks liveBlueworks Live represents IBM’s most recent SaaS (Software as a Service) solution in the area of BPM, which is based on the cloud environment and which offers users an easier introduction of BPM into its organization. Using Blueworks Live, it is possible to draw up drafts of the processes and automatize them, which eases the collaboration of all process participants as well as simplifying access to the social BPM community, which can take part in improving these very processes.

Versatile iBM BPMIBM initiated a sort of new brand by unifying multiple individual products, whereby further strengthening the position of BPM solutions provider. Many companies around the world like the telecommunication company Mobitel from Slovenia, the health institution Medizinische Hoch-schule Hannover from Germany, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings from New York, which provides various services to airline companies, and the financial institution Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG from Germany – successfully implemented the IBM BPM solution into their business. Improvements in business were evident quickly in terms of reduced expenses, increased profits, and productivity improvements and an increase in customer service satisfaction, which makes implementation of IBM BPM worthwhile for a short timeframe. Tailored for all types and sizes of organizations, the pallet of IBM BPM products covers most organizations’ needs and is customized for simplifying integration with existing systems within the organization.



Two years have passed since the adoption of the Strategy, so we asked the State Secretary of the Central State Administrative

Office for e-Croatia, Mr. Igor Lučić, if he could comment and give us some information related to the implementation of the Strategy. We also spoke with representatives of two institutions, CROZ’s customers, who separately, but also through mutual cooperation, are working on the implementation of actual services. Mr. Zdravko Dragičević, who is an APIS’s Board Assistant for Software

and Hardware Support, spoke about the infrastructural OIB project and its current and future results. Mr. Miroslav Perinčić, Head of the Department for e-Business Politics Management, familiarizes us with FINA’s plans for upgrading the process for issuing digital certificates and other credentials where the integration with the OIB system is recognized as one of the key opportunities.

Our presence on the Serbian market gave us the opportunity to speak to Mr. Damir Baralić, Director of the State Institute for Informatics and the Internet, who shared with us interesting projects next door.

Strategy for the Development of Electronic Government two years laterJanuary 2011 marked two years since the government of the republic of croatia adopted a strategy for the development of e-government, which aims to network individual sectors into a unified administration office. Find out more from our interviewees first-hand about the steps that have been made and which ones are anticipated in this area. Author: Tomislav Jukić

Central State Administrative Office for e-Croatia, Igor Lučić (State Secretary)

Over 300 various project activities related to infor-matization, for which 4.5 billion kuna has been allocated from the State budget in the last 5 years, are being carried out today in State administrative offices. This kind of investment has led to highly informationalized sectors of administration which have enabled continued improve-ment of internal organizational capabilities as well as providing electronic public services. However, despite the high informationalization, these sectors are insufficiently connected today.

In order to improve and enable the networking of these individual sectors, the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted a Strategy for the Development of e-Government in January 2009. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to network the administration sectors and building user-oriented administration offices. The net-worked administration office we are building represents a different generation of electronic administration in which political, legal, organizational, semantic and technical interoperability are established. Along with user orienta-tion, it provides a visible rationalization and savings through the use of standard modular development, shar-ing and multiple use of information and resources at the entire system level and through standardized networking with other systems. Furthermore, it enables administra-tion bodies to proactively offer ready-made solutions to users, thus putting users in the center of their attention.

In the advanced version, the mutual system and its components constitute a private ‘’public administration cloud’’ of the Republic of Croatia. One of the system’s tasks is to create conditions, support and to stimulate the public and legal authorities to allocate their systems into the integral system that is governed with and for which enforcement support to stakeholders is provided in one place. In doing so, due to various roles, content and pro-cedures between institutions typically differ, but despite this they should be compatible in all situations where

technologies and trends | eGovernment

In order to improve and enable the networking of these individual sec-tors, the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted a Strategy for the Development of e-Government in January 2009. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to network the administration sectors and building user-oriented administration offices.

Architecture of networked administration office system

Use of electronic identity in networked administration office system

system for communication and data exchange between public and legal entities


eGovernment | technologies and trends

there is a mutual provision of basic services. Because of this, imperative standardized functions and models are built into these components. However, this does not interfere with the basic tasks and the basic registers which the public and legal govern in compliance with the law and other regulations, but instead it enables their connection to a common business and ICT infrastructure for inter-networking. This is, in fact, an achievement of the vision for a networked administration office in such a way that, on one hand, every public body is given full autonomy for carrying out its basic tasks and, on the other hand, it supports systemized, agreed upon or contracted delegation of all of the other activities of competent and specialized systems.

The pictures displayed here show components of the aforementioned public administration ‘’cloud’’, which altogether constitute the system that enables modular building of public services compatible with the adopted model for pan European interoperable services. Two com-ponents are shown in a bit more detail: NIAAS, which is a secure assumption that guarantees unambiguous deter-mination of one’s identity and the systems that access the common system and enables them to access services and content; and GSB, responsible for the exchange of data, messages, documents, and events between stakeholders of the system through established processes and system services. This system envisages continuous adaptation to user needs and strategic goals of the public administra-tion office.

In conclusion, building a networked administration office is a long and complex process which never really ends because it assumes continuous upgrade of the public administration office’s processes and integration at all levels with the goal of offering user-oriented and customized services. Namely, by participating in the implementation of the Digital Agenda for Europe, the Republic of Croatia took on the responsibility of ensuring the integration of Croatian public administration into a single European administration space which erases the borders between national systems and citizens are able to use cross-border services. Because of this, the networked administration office is one step forward towards Croatia’s inclusion into European environment and towards an equal participation on the single European market.

technologies and trends | eGovernment


APIS IT,Zdravko Dragičević(Board Assistant for Software and Hardware Support)

OIB: from identifier to the basic infrastructureAPIS IT is responsible for the technological implementation of the OIB project. What did this project do for us?

As a result of the OIB project, three functions that are critical for national infrastructure of interoperability were introduced: OIB as a personal identifier, OIB as a register which simplifies and speeds up the interoperable services in the public administration office system, and OIB as a system which serves as a starting point for creating the GBS

FINA,Miroslav Perinčić(Head of the Department for Managing the Politics of e-Business)

User registration and certificate issuingSince when has FINA been offering a service for issuing digital certificates?

Since 2003, with a special emphasis on issuing qualified certificates. Certificates are issued to business individuals, employees of the State administration bodies, citizens and for servers and applications. They are used for authentication onto electronic services as well as for advanced electronic signatures, which has the same legal implications and replaces handwritten signatures. Because of that, all subsystems must satisfy the prescribed safety standards. Examples of these electronic services are: e-Tax, e-Regos (Central Register of Pension Funds Insurers), e-Healthcare, e-Pension Insurance, e-RGFI (Annual Financial Reports), WEB Bon (Creditworthiness and Solvency Data), the Conces-sions Register, and other listed electronic services are designed for businesses where personnel act on behalf of the business entities using these certificates. An in-creased interest for using electronic business conducting

building component of the Croatian Interoperability Framework.

A personal identification number (OIB) is a perma-nent identifier for physical and legal persons residing in the Republic of Croatia. The OIB represents a single identifier for unified user data, offering a secure and simplified data and information exchange between public authoritative bodies and in such a way creating an important prerequisite for integration.

The informatics job of the OIB implementation project was establishing interoperability of relevant government bodies based on the principles of a networked administration.

In order to make this technologically possible, we applied the concept of event driven architecture, as an upgrade to SOA architecture, for building a central ap-plication infrastructure at APIS IT. The selected architec-ture gives added business value to processes which are carried out within and between public administration bodies in real time. It is a service oriented architecture that represents an ideal solution that offers flexibility and openness of information systems. Namely, SOA enables all bodies that participate in the procedure to keep their software and technology solutions and to re-

main completely independent, and in doing so allowing mutual communication on the principle of service.

The first phase of the project was functional from the 1st of January 2009 and enabled allowed regis-tered bodies (The Ministry of Finance – Tax Admin-istration, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Administration, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics) to interchange information about new individuals and change information in real time. In this way, the goal of the project is achieved; interoper-ability between State administration bodies based on the principle of networked administration offices with the OIB as a single identifier is established.

Is an upgrade of the system being carried out?Full application of the OIB is realized throughout

the second phase of the project, which in the OIB sys-tem enables networking of everyone who is a legally registered user of the OIB system.

As a result of its conceptual openness, the informa-tion system is ideal for upgrade to become a Govern-ment Service Bus (GBS) of the National Interoperability System, or rather, one of the building components of the Croatian Interoperability Framework.

has been evident since the beginning of 2010 and this is reflected by an increased interest in using certificates.

What is the procedure for issuing certificates? In order to issue a digital certificate, it is necessary to

comply with the prescribed procedure of user registration. The process for issuing certificates begins with a user request for certificate issuance. The registration, with mandatory user identification, is carried out in registra-tion offices (RA offices) at branches of FINA, but it can also be done at other specified places, for instance, bank tellers. Entering user data into the RA system is carried out individually or through mass entry of signed and encrypted XML files, which are sent from the external RA to FINA through secure communication channels. The cor-rect files are entered in the RA system and in case of errors new processes aimed at their elimination are initiated.

After user registration in the RA system is completed, the data is forwarded into the system for

issuing certificates and into the Card Management System (CMS). Generation of keys on the smart card or USB token is initiated for every user through CMS. CMS then initiates a digital request for issuing a certificate for a certain user that is directed to the system for issuing certificates. After its creation, the certificate is received using the smart card/USB token that is given to the user. At the same time, the certificate is published in the public directory. Remote renewal, rather certificate reissuance, is possible using CMS based on the registration of the certificate that is still valid. This allows a certificate to be issued to the user without having to return to the RA office.

Are you working on improvement of the system?FINA is currently working on establishing a con-

nection between the RA system and the OIB system so that the entire process of registration and control of entry data can be optimized. Based on the prospec-tive user’s OIB, defined data sets needed for his or her registration and certificate issuance will be retrieved from the OIB system through FINA’s OIB gateway and secure communication channels. As a result, automatic data verification of the user and elimination of possible errors due to manual recording of personal data from certificate issuance requests is established.

FINA issues digital certificates on smart cards and USB tokens using the positive experience of European countries. We are also working on introducing new, financially competitive credentials (i.e. software certificates, various types of tokens...). Their security level is somewhat lower, but nonetheless, it is accept-able for using many electronic services so users will be provided secure access to the virtual world.

Due to acceleration and greater automation of the registration process, integration with the OIB system is planned, which will enable retrieval of necessary data through secure communication channels.

The State Institute for Informatics and Internet, Damir Baralić(Director)

eGovernment in Serbia

Modern electronic government is being built on individual IT solutions as much as on infrastructure solutions that represent the

platform being used by all institutions and which enables coordinated and harmonized development. In the elapsed time, the State Institute for Informatics and Internet worked on several electronic government development projects.

At the end of 2008, we carried out an analysis of the situation at ICT at local governments (municipalities) in order to gain information about their developmental state and which problems and needs exist in terms of informatics. One of the projects that we did was drawing up Recommendations for creating Internet presenta-tions of State institutions that are rather concrete and comprehensive and that direct State authorities how to make quality presentations, including everything it needs to contain from the technical side as well as content and information availability. Government adopted a conclu-sion by which all State administration bodies must, within 6 months, harmonize their Internet presentations with the Recommendations and which authorized the State Institute to conduct audits periodically.

The central project in which we invested the most work and effort over the last two years was improv-ing the national eGovernment Portal. The Republic of Serbia’s eGovernment Portal represents a central place for electronic services for all citizens, businesses and employees of Government administrative offices and it is published on the website www.euprava.gov.rs. The Portal makes communication with State institutions and the entire public administrations simpler for citizens in terms of more easily finding information and relevant forms as well as simplifying requests and re-ceipt of solutions and other documents. Namely, today the eGovernment Portal enables certain procedures of the public administration offices, which were until now

carried out on the counters, to be taken care of from home, without physically going to the counter.

The eGovernment portal is a result of a project by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society and the State Institute for Informatics and Inter-net as holders of this project, but also the result of the work of many state institutions and local governments that published their electronic services and information related to the services that they offer citizens and busi-nesses. Furthermore, in cooperation with the Treasury Directorate, the Postal Savings Bank, and the Serbian National Bank, a system that enables electronic tax payment was also implemented. An important part of this system is the Time Stamp Authority which is imple-mented and given for use to all public State institutions. On the Portal, a functionality of electronic identification and signature by all valid qualified electronic certificates was also implemented. In cooperation with the Business Registers Agency, legal entities are enabled automatic registration on the Portal.

The services have a part that gives information and an electronic service that has a form which can be filled out, information about taxes which must be paid, and the capability to electronically sign and submit a request.

The functionality My eGovernment enables registered users to personalize their contents and information that they use as well as following the status of realization of requests that they submitted using the Portal. In this way, citizens and businesses can custom-ize content and information to their own needs.

Currently, 93 State institutions are publishing their services on the Portal, 35 of which are national institu-tions and 58 local governments.

eParticipation is a part of the Portal that enables active participation from citizens, businesses and the public in creating laws and other strategic documen-tation. On the Portal a publication of public discus-sions based on drawing up laws and other strategic documentation is also enabled. In addition to that, the Portal also has a Forum.

The Portal’s multilingualism applies to all content and services in five languages of the national minori-ties. There is also an English version of the Portal with content and services intended for foreign residents.

The eGovernment Portal represents a significant step forward in the development of eGovernment in Serbia. This is recognized from domestic and foreign IT organizations; thus, the project has been given many

domestic and international awards: the European IT Excellence Award, the ‘’E-market AWARD 2011’’ for its contribution to the development of e-market and e-business in the Republic of Serbia as well as a plaque for exceptional achievement in informatics in 2011.

The Portal improvement project is underway and, at the same time, continuous promotion and motivation of State administration bodies to establish electronic services in their domain on the Portal. The implementa-tion of SMS notifications and electronic delivery of processed requests is also planned. eScheduling, whose implementation is underway, is a new functionality that will enable full integration into the existing functionali-ties, defining a calendar, work time, intervals, breaks, etc. providing the user with a high level of security, preventing abuse. At the same time, this functionality provides reminders for scheduled appointments and communication between the users who are scheduling them and the relevant State administration bodies. Furthermore, we will expand the personalized part of the Portal My eGovernment with various content which will make the Portal more interesting and useful for its users. Improvements also involve the implementation of electronic documents archive which enables storage of documents that are frequently needed. Furthermore, we will implement calendars with which each user will be able to see when she/he has an appointment, deadlines for paying some taxes, the expiration of the processing of her/his requests etc. The user will be able to pose questions about anything that is unclear and receive an answer from a State body.

The Portal is implemented in compliance with W3C standards, while the improvement in plan also includes the realization of a system for text-to-speech conver-sion which will enable citizens with disabilities to use electronic services.

Currently, preparations for the realization of the following projects within eGovernment are carried out: Document Management System (DMS), an Access Management system, a system for connecting eGovernment services, eProcurement. We must also make a campaign to promote the Portal to citizens and companies because this is something completely new and was not accessible earlier, so potential users are not familiar with everything that it offers and what all they can do electronically.

All projects that we implement are financed by the Ministry for Telecommunications and the Information Society (MTID). The Institute does not have enough resources for financing projects and without coopera-tion with MTID it would not be in a position to make these projects happen. Furthermore, implementation of eGovernment’s new solutions assumes changes to legal regulations and MTID played a significant role to ensure this on time. Promotion of the eGovernment Portal was carried out with the participation of the Prime Minister, which also demonstrated support from the Government.

Currently, preparations for the realization of the following projects within eGovernment are carried out: Document Management System (DMS), an Access Management system, a system for connecting eGovernment services, eProcurement.


eGovernment | technologies and trends


Have you by any chance seen the film Margin Call in which Kevin Spacey plays the main role?

The reason I am interested in this film is definitely not because I am a movie enthusiast (the reviews for this film were not all that brilliant). The film attempts to answer the question of how the banking society, which can conclusively be characterized as intelligent and disciplined, was not able to foresee and prevent the financial crisis which came about relatively quickly and on a global scale.

Whichever the answer was, the fact is that the banking sector still remains as one of the greatest influences in all aspects of society and trends that affect

it is a fact that the banking sector most directly influences all social segments, but the trends that affect banking operation cannot be ignored. This article will deal with what banks are currently doing in iT both short-term and long-term and it will also address croZ’s position in banking.

CROZ in banking

Author: Mario Mustapić

banking operation cannot be ignored. While preparing to write this article, I attempted to analyze the nature of IT projects currently being implemented or whose implementation is planned in banks located across areas of ex-Yugoslavia and I discovered that it was impossible to functionally categorize them. What was, however, possible to categorize were business drivers that influence IT projects and they can be broken down into short-term and long-term.

short-term business driversAs short-term business drivers of IT projects, decreasing costs and various ‘’mother’’ bank or Croatian National

Bank (HNB) directives are emphasized. You do not have to be an economic expert to understand that cutting expenses is the first thing that is done during financially unstable times. The answer for how this is accomplished varies from bank to bank. As an employee of a company whose staff grows daily, I will not even draw on, much less suggest, the unpopular approach of reducing personnel. However, one trend that is definitely quite interesting is smart business outsourcing. Some banks conduct offload of their core business parts outside the bank into external sales channels. More specifically, some dedicated loan products can be suitably contracted directly in a real estate

technologies and trends | Banking & IT


Banking & IT | technologies and trends

What CROZ has to offer

Short-term business drivers

Business outsourcing

Hosting

‘’Out of the box’’ solutions

Document management

Credit rating

Online securities trading

ApPello – small banking system

Oracle Flexcube Univ. Banking

Risk management

Vendor platforms

IBM Banking Framework

Banking Blueprints

Lombardi

Unica

Websphere Portal & WCM

Project Portfolio Mgmt

Financial Performance Mgmt

Open source

Alfresco - document management & BPM

Liferay - open source portal

Sugar CRM

JasperReports

Services

Custom Software Development

Consulting

Project management

Business analysis

Service Oriented Architecture

Enterprise Architecture

Testing center

Learn@CROZ

Feasibility analysis of projects

Selection of open source technologies

Client analysis

Individualized banking

Complete rebranding

Reorganization of IT architecture

’’From products to solutions’’

Decreasing costsClients’ reciprocation

of trust‘’Big Shift’’

Long-term business drivers

agency, auto dealer shops, electronics store, etc. without even going to a bank. This saves bank tellers from facing long lines and ultimately saves clients’ time as well. From an IT perspective, in order to achieve such type of business conducting, a custom made web-based application used by a real estate agent or an electronics store salesman, which can lean on the core system in a controlled manner and have the capability to generate and store various types of documents is needed. CROZ makes precisely these kinds of custom made enterprise applications which you can learn more about in the following text.

With the goal of reducing banks’ operational expenses, some activities that are occasionally needed by a bank are outsourced to suppliers. For instance, application testing or project management are activities that are occasionally needed, depending on the phase and intensity of the project, and it is more cost-effective to engage

Trends in banking

Margin call – a scene from the movie

a specialized supplier instead of continuously having one’s own testing or project management team.

During times of recession, IT projects are also run by the directives of foreign

owners and according to the legal regulations of the Croatian National Bank. The directives of foreign owners usually have a ‘’higher’’ goal, which is often incomprehensible or unaligned with the

technologies and trends | Banking & IT

iBM Banking industry Framework

In banking, CROZ positions itself as an IT company that produces custom made satellite banking applications that give an added value to current transaction core-systems based on modern and reliable technologies.

local strategy. This generally results in projects that change their priorities often and have undefined project scope making them difficult to manage.

On the other hand, the legal regulations of the Croatian National Bank simplify launching IT projects. These kinds of projects are usually of the highest priority with strictly defined deadlines and they tend to put other projects on hold. This fact can be substantiated by an example of the implementation of a new law on payments and a law on distraint which were, towards the end of 2010, the only topics of discussion between suppliers and banks.

long-term business driversLong-term business drivers are completely different in nature. They do not require direct result in ‘’this quarter’’ and are thus of greater quality with more mature strategic goals. They examine the core of banking, and seek the causes and affect the consequences. The first and most important long-term driver in banks is clients’ reciprocation of trust. Clients believe that banks do business primarily for their own interest instead of their clients’ interest and surprisingly, many banks agree with this. In order to make this trust reciprocal, banks had to analyze the behavior and wishes of their

clients and orient banking toward the individual. Clients are becoming more powerful, better informed, and they want to have individual banking.

Besides this, banks are beginning to understand that their existing procedures and business practices will not set them apart from the rest on the market and that they should, as a result, make a ‘’Big Shift’’. While some banks are entering into a complete rebranding, others are making drastic yet absolutely necessary turnarounds in their own IT architecture.

how is croZ positioned in banking?All the previously mentioned trends are widespread in banks throughout this region, so the logical question arises: how CROZ positions its services in banking industry and how it can help banks to implement their short-term and long-term strategic goals?

In short, CROZ has positioned itself in banking as an IT company, a producer of custom made satellite banking applications that give an added value to current transaction core-systems based on modern and reliable technologies.

Furthermore, outsourcing of testing applications and project management was mentioned in terms of reducing expenses. In 2010, CROZ opened a testing center which offers functional, performance and penetration testing services of applications as well as



Banking & IT | technologies and trends

security testing of IT systems. Also, CROZ has a separate department dedicated to project management whose main goal is ensuring that bank projects reach their goals within specified financial and scheduled timeframes and within a determined functionality scope.

CROZ also tirelessly researches different open source technologies on the market and is contrasting them with strict banking requests. For instance, Alfresco is an open source technology imposed as a mature technology, which an increasing number of banks are placing into their first plan as a solution for document and process management instead of using expensive vendor technologies. CROZ recently became a regional Alfresco partner and our product cDocs represents an excellent solution for document management and is adjusted to the specificities of this region. This solution includes various processes ranging from those of incoming and outgoing invoices processing to contracts or the credit process.

In long-term strategic steps of banks, CROZ was ahead of everyone on

the market in recognizing the need for establishing client trust. With regards to this, we mean using a technology that is one step ahead of the standard CRM tools. UNICA is a recent acquisition of IBM and it represents an end-to-end solution which is capable of analyzing the behavior and practices of clients in full detail, segmenting them based on different characteristics and needs, and offering targeted groups specific, personalized products through different channels. In this way, it leaves an impressionable value for the client which, in the long-term, results in a trusting client who does not intend on switching to another bank.

In IBM’s portfolio, UNICA belongs to the larger segment that is called Customer Care & Insight, which is part of four components of the large IBM technological novelty called Banking Industry Framework. Just as banks need a more significant change in IT architecture, large IT vendors committed themselves to offering solutions customized to a specific industry instead of offering products. The IBM Banking

Industry Framework is the basis for integrated solutions that mutually connect four main banking domains of the new age: Customer Care & Insight, Core Banking Transformation, Integrated Risk Management and Payments & Securities.

Some time ago, CROZ realized the necessity to transfer its focus from the product to the solution and it is one of the first thirty companies in the world that have attained the certificate for IBM Banking Industry Framework. We recently held a workshop under the name Big Shift for Smarter Banking, in which the head of IBM’s Software Department for Banking, Paul Davis, showed a brief overview of the Banking Industry Framework.

With this article we hope we have succeeded in presenting the extensive topic of trends in banking and CROZ’s position in relation to these trends. Answers to question from the movie mentioned at the beginning of this article, Margin Call, perhaps you will read in the following articles.


Yes, we must admit, we’re guilty. We eliminated one more item on our list of “things to do first” in Croatia. Again, it deals

with a historical achievement in the are-as of asset management in Croatia. Are you interested in how we succeeded and who is at ‘’fault’’ for this story? Let’s start from the beginning...

Asset managementIn line with flourishing IT opportunities, ‘’managing’’ assets and satisfying defined client needs has not been sufficient enough over the last few years for service providers in the area of physical asset management; it has become necessary, for physical asset management, to position oneself as an information system that is directly accessible to the end user. In providing a wider range of information related to physical assets, end users are

iBM Maximo Asset Management finally in Croatia

Author: luka gauta

“Extra, extra! read all about it! croZ involved in first iBM Maximo implementation in croatia!”

technologies and trends | IBM Maximo Asset Management

able to monitor their business in real time with regard to assets they transferred to someone ‘’in confidence’’, whereby allowing for optimal management of their own financial resources. The goal of every service provider is to recognize and implement a single IT solution which supports facility management (FM) at the highest level in terms of the business and technical aspects.

Owning a CAFM (Computer Aided Facility Management) system is a must-have for any FM service provider in the world today, and expectations of Croatian companies are developing in the same direction, anticipating a big step forward in relation to the existing state on the market. IBM Maximo® Asset Management (IBM Maximo) is doing just this.

IBM Maximo is a system that is developed on a single software platform


process of attaining the certificate for EN 16001:2009 Energy Management. Besides these, Adria Grupa is now an IBM Maximo Asset Management user!

Who was holding the rod? smartis!The first implementation of this system in Croatia, is also the first implementation for CROZ. Given this, we decided to join the forces of the experienced IBM Premier Business Partner in our ‘’neighborhood’’, SmartIS in an effort to reduce project risks.

SmartIS is a Slovenian IT company that exists since 2009 and today has seventeen employees. All of them are highly qualified employees, with many years of work experience in providing system integration services and mana-

IBM Maximo Asset Management | technologies and trends

which, through a comprehensive and complete review of assets, offers the ability to detect unused potential within assets and enables asset management to be optimized by analysis of inventory, assets, procurement and analysis and work planning. For everything listed, IBM Maximo offers six key manage-ment solutions: Assets, Work, Services, Contracts, Materials, and Procurement. These solutions cover everything that is needed for optimization and asset management and their services.

The fourth issue of FYI provides more detail about the IBM Maximo system, while this issue gives central focus to interesting parties participating in its implementation. Let’s meet them.

Adria grupa is an iBM Maximo user!Adria Grupa, as the largest provider of services from the facility management domain in the Republic of Croatia, recognized that the modern and proven through experience CAFM system, like IBM Maximo, offers transparent management of all management and maintenance processes that are key to successful business operations of all company’s clients. This is precisely the solution that offers high standards that Adria Grupa wishes to ensure its clients using this approach.

Over the last 12 years of its existence, Adria Grupa has reached an envious number of around 1,100 employees. In its portfolio, it covers services such as: horticulture, technical facility maintenance, hygiene maintenance, fire safety and environment maintenance, catering, hospitality disinfection, fumigation and pest control. In the previous period, it participated in fifteen outsourcing projects through which it took on over six-hundred workers. Adria Grupa can be praised for its continuous investment in education and employee development, informatization of all work processes, technical and technological equipment, and complete implementation of adopted quality standards. With regard to this, Adria Grupa owns the following certificates: ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004, HACCP and OHSAS 18001:2007, and it is in the

iBM Maximo on iPhone, iPod, iPad or Android device without additional installation

In line with flourishing IT opportunities, ‘’managing’’ assets and satisfying defined client needs has not been sufficient enough over the last few years for service providers in the area of physical asset management; positioning oneself as an information system that is directly accessible to the end user has become necessary for physical asset management.

SmartIS,Marko Prapotnik(IT Services Director)

How do you see the Croatian market in terms of facility manage-ment and poten-tial IBM Maximo implementation?

There are many opportunities for IBM Maximo projects

in Croatia. Together with CROZ, we are planning to organize workshops/presentations during which we will present the advantages, possibilities, experience and references from this area.

What motivated you to participate in CROZ’s IBM Maximo system implementation project in Croatia?

Due to its current technical capabilities and conditions, CROZ proved itself as a quality and reliable partner, and on such projects an immediate presence and expertise not only during but also after production, in terms of offering client support, is certainly an advantage. CROZ and SmartIS have complementary portfolios of services and therefore will continue to develop their strategic cooperation because we believe this is a good combination that will have a lot of success even in the future.

ging IT and non-IT services and resources. SmartIS is an IBM Premier Business Partner and is the most accredited Tivoli and Maximo partner in Europe. Managing IT services, IT resources,


Adria Grupa,Robert Markuš(Head of IS/IT)Why did you decide on implementing the IBM Maximo system?

By implementing this complex solution into our business, we hope to offer our clients knowledge and the best practices that are offered by the popular CAFM system. The goal of Adria Grupa is to raise the asset management level in Croatia to a higher bar by offering our clients measurability and transparency in business operations thereby increasing our competitiveness on the market. With the implementation of the CAFM system, we expect not only the purchase of the application solution but also the process, experience and knowledge that is composed in one complex system that has over 30,000 users around the world. By using the

well-known CAFM system, in practice, we want to offer our employees an additional chance for inno-vation in their business conducting, offering them all necessary information in one system, which they have not had until now.

By the end of May this year, we are planning to have completely implemented and integrated the IBM Maximo system with the ERP (enterprise resource planning) system that we use because we believe that we can only fulfill our expectations of the CAFM system with full integration of the system that we wish to offer to all of our clients.

We are sure that all of our existing and potential clients will recognize the IBM Maximo system features that we offer. We are fully oriented on the needs of our clients and our services came about from listening and taking into account their needs.

Do you know that this is the first implementa-tion of the IBM Maximo system in Croatia?

We are aware that this is the first implemen-tation of the IBM Maximo system in Croatia and we are proud of this fact. Because this is the first im-plementation, we feel additional responsibility for successful implementation towards such a popular CAFM solution. We are certain that with CROZ’s help and with our years of experience in FM, the IBM Maximo system will be a part of the exceptional CAFM system not only in Croatia but also beyond.

product resources, facilities and equipment are only some of the areas in which SmartIS has plentiful experi-ence in implementing the IBM Maximo system.

let’s bring it on!Successful implementation of the IBM Maximo® Asset Management system in Adria Grupa by CROZ and SmartIS is definitely an excellent example of successfully reaching seemingly unattainable goals for this area and synergizing clearly defined needs, knowledge and experience. All parties involved, which are typically visionaries,

customized interface

With successful implementation of the IBM Maximo® Asset Management system in Adria Grupa, CROZ opened the door to new challenges in the area of asset management, which we can say has proven to be a strong and secure move.

technologies and trends | IBM Maximo Asset Management


Work order tracking

widened their horizons and made a great team for all possible challenges in the future, whether on individual or mutual projects in this business domain.

Thankfully, IBM Maximo® Asset Management, with IBM’s great research investment amongst others, is currently a world leader in the area of Enterprise Asset Management that supports and integrates with a large number of ERP solutions and it generally reached an extremely high level of endurance with existing users as well as accessibility to future users at a global level. IBM Maximo is, according to the last Gartner research conducted at the end of 2010, the leading system in the area of Delivery Utility Enterprise Asset Management and Power Generation Enterprise Asset Management Software, and it is left competitors like SAP, Ventyx, Oracle E-Business Suite, Invensys Operation Management and the Mincom system far behind. With successful implementation of the IBM Maximo® Asset Management system in Adria Grupa, CROZ opened the door to new challenges in the area of asset management, which we can say has proven to be a strong and secure move. With hope for new challenges to prove ourselves, we say: We are ready, let’s bring it on!

IBM Maximo Asset Management | technologies and trends

Documents

Enterprise Architecture Business Process Management … · Enterprise Architecture Business Process Management at IBM’s Way ... waterfall model was later called the sashimi model,