Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL: From Business Process Modeling to Orchestration and Service Oriented Architecture

Modeling business processes for SOA and developing end-to-end IT support has become one of the top IT priorities. The SOA approach is based on services and on processes. Processes are focused on composition of services and in that sense services become process activities.

Experience has shown that the implementation and optimization of processes are the most important factors in the success of SOA projects. SOA is so valuable to businesses because it enables process optimization. In order to optimize processes, we need to know which processes are relevant and we have to understand them – something that cannot be done without business process modeling. There is a major problem with this approach – a semantic gap between the process model and the applications.

This book will show you how to fill this gap. It describes a pragmatic approach to business process modeling using the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and the automatic mapping of BPMN to the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), which is the de-facto standard for executing business processes in SOA. The book will also cover related technologies like Business Rules Management and Business Activity Monitoring which play a pivotal role in achieving closed loop Business Process Management.

What you will learn from this book

• Modeling business processes in an SOA-compliant way
• A detailed understanding of BPMN standard for business process modeling and analysis
• Automatically translating BPMN into BPEL
• Executing business processes on SOA platforms
• Overcome the semantic gap between process models and their execution, and follow the closed-loop business process management life cycle
• Understand technologies complementary to BPM and SOA such as Business Rules Management and Business Activity monitoring

Approach

The book provides a well-balanced mixture of theoretical discussion and real-world examples. It explains the concepts and approaches, and describes methodology and notation. It demonstrates these concepts on real-world examples and provides a step-by-step example tutorial that guides readers from business process modeling in BPMN through transformation into BPEL to execution on the SOA process server. It also discusses some key concepts using practical examples and business scenarios around Business Rules Management and Business Activity Monitoring with BPM and SOA.

Who this book is written for

This book is for CIOs, executives, SOA project managers, business process analysts, BPM and SOA architects, who are responsible for improving the efficiency of business processes through IT, or for designing SOA. It provides a high-level coverage of business process modeling, but it also gives practical development examples on how to move from model to execution. We expect the readers to be familiar with the basics of SOA.

About the Authors

Matjaz B. Juric holds a Ph.D. in computer and information science. He is Associate Professor at the University of Maribor and the director of Science Park project. In addition to this book, he has authored or coauthored SOA Approach to Integration, Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (English and Firench editions), BPEL Cookbook: Best Practices for SOA-based integration and composite applications development, Professional J2EE EAI, Professional EJB, J2EE Design Patterns Applied, and .NET Serialization Handbook. He has published chapters in More Java Gems (Cambridge University Press) and in Technology Supporting Business Solutions (Nova Science Publishers). He has also published articles in journals and magazines, such as SOA World Journal, Web Services Journal, Java Developer's Journal, Java Report, Java World, eai Journal, theserverside.com, OTN, ACM journals, and has presented at conferences such as OOPSLA, Java Development, XML Europe, OOW, SCI, and others. He is a reviewer, program committee member, and conference organizer.

Matjaz has been involved in several large-scale projects. He has been a consultant for several large companies on SOA projects. In cooperation with the IBM Java Technology Centre, he worked on performance analysis and optimization of RMI-IIOP, an integral part of the Java platform. Matjaz is also a member of the BPEL Advisory Board.

Matjaz is the chair of SOA Competency Centre, and the author of courses and consultant for the BPEL and SOA consulting company BPELmentor.com.

Kapil Pant is an accomplished BPM consultant and Public speaker with extensive experience in Products and Professional Services consulting. He currently manages Wipro Technologies' BPM/SOA practice in Europe, and leads consulting engagements including Business Process Improvement workshops, BPMS and SOA Tools Study and Recommendations, and BPM Architecture, Implementation and Governance.

Over the years, Kapil has been extensively involved in conducting successful workshops on Process Improvement, Requirements Analysis, BPM/SOA and Enterprise Architecture for clients in Telecom, Banking, Securities and Insurance industry verticals. He has also worked closely with leading System Integrators such as Wipro, Tata Consulting, HCL and Satyam to conduct technology enablement programs for client projects across industry verticals.

As a recognized Public Speaker, Kapil is known for his well-researched programs delivered in his high-energy, enthusiastic, and down-to-earth style. He has presented keynote speeches, workshops, seminars, and over 40 road-shows across the Asia Pacifc, Europe and the USA. He was also nominated by the Government of India to lead seminars as a part of a 25-member working committee for E-Governance Enterprise Architecture and Standards Taxonomy.

He has a Masters Degree in Computer Applications, a Bachelors Degree in Business Studies, and a TOGAF Certifcation.