Using BPM software to govern a collaboration process used to define software services

1. SOA for Egov PilotMichael Lang, Vitria Technologies,IncDave McPherson, Vitria Technologies, IncBrooke Stevenson, Spry Technologies, Inc Using BPM software to govern a collaboration process used to define software services April 30, 2008

2. Pilot Goal • Show how COTS BPM tools can be used in SOA to help effect transformation • Collaboration is essential in SOA for • Mapping the SOA to existing POR Architectures and Enterprise Architectures • Decomposing a system into a collection of capabilities/services • Defining the precise meaning of services that are exposed • BPM is essential in • Implementing the collaboration process • Governing the collaboration • Monitoring and analyzing the collaboration process

3. Plan A • Use business process models developed by BTA to show how BPM tools can be used wire up (software) services to effect transformation • The models were classified • Not enough services were available • We “talk the talk” but we do not “walk the walk” • The broad availability of proven BPM tools should be reason enough for the federal government to make better progress in transitioning to SOA • BPM tools deliver ROI on the investment in SOA

4. Plan B • Apply the BPM tool to manage the process of collaboration used to define a target service architecture to enable transformation • We worked with a pilot that is being managed out of the Army CIO/G-6 AAIC • They are working on several challenges • What are the capabilities buried in various POR’s • Which of these capabilities should/can be exposed as services • How do these capabilities map to various architectures, ie DODAF • Describe the services in a way that promotes dynamic discovery and execution • They have been collaborating via a semantic wiki to build vocabularies that define the semantics of the Core Enterprise Services (CES) domain and the semantics of the Acquisition Lifecycle

5. Army Pilot: Enabling Transformation • The Transitional Plan • Transition from monolithic systems engineering to SOA • Build highly interoperable services by collaborating on domain vocabularies • Orchestrate services in new ways to achieve rapid integration and support new capabilities • Transformational Technologies • Standards: WSDL, WS-Policy, OWL-S, etc. • Semantic Wiki • Model-driven BPM – Back to Plan A!

6. Army Pilot Tenets: Collaboration, Semantics, & Governance • The wider the community collaborating over the vocabulary, the wider the domain over which the vocabulary operates • Bottom-up vocabulary development • Facilitates the widest possible domain • Interoperation, reuse & integration can only be achieved if the precise (machine readable) meaning of all terms is known • Meaning is only established by attaching properties and relationships to nodes • Near term, BPM can enable management of a repeatable, scalable collaboration process requiring governance

7. The Collaboration ProcessDemo Storyboard Oversight – aggregate and individual process level M3O Wiki Master process = document instance lifecycle Sub Process = document section lifecycle Other Sub Processes to support the document lifecycle but not related to the document. For e.g. Voting, Objection Resolution & Document Access control Document instance = service specification Document Contents / Structure

8. Governing CollaborationDemo Storyboard - Roles Governing Board – owner of multiple service definition communities M3O Wiki Secretariat – owner of individual service definition communities Facilitator – Leader of a particular community. Also a contributor and resolver Authoring committee – specific sections & voters Community – specific sections

9. Collaboration Event ManagementWiki-BPM Integration Subscribe to RSS feeds that reflect particular changes / additions. Might need to key off specific text entries like “Ready for review” to indicate major events Wiki M3O RSS Event Source Connector (aka File Source) RSS Parse out events based on tags Populate event header…service name, wiki page url… Service call for population of data into wiki (e.g. voting results, other validated data entry) TBD

10. Technology Solution • M3O • BPM Suite • Enterprise Elements • Enterprise Architecture repository • MatchIT • Semantic mapping tool • Knoodl • Collaborative Vocabulary Editing • Analytics • Triple Store

11. Collaboration • Collaboration is critical to engaging the widest community possible • Collaboration is a process requiring governance • Collaboration can occur at multiple levels • Within communities • Within domains • Across communities • Collaboration requires: • the ability to negotiate in an unstructured way & • the ability to capture the results of the negotiation in a formal way

12. Pilot Lessons Learned • Collaboration is a process and must be governed • The following are key to enabling collaboration: • Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between community members • Governing bodies to approve changes & make decisions • Automation & enforcement of the negotiation process • Assurance that decisions are made • Assurance that decisions result in an update to the structured information • Auditing the negotiation • Visibility via reporting into the status and progress of a collaboration activity • Dynamic access to contextual information • Dynamic notification of change within the environment • Funding resources to participate in the community

13. Demonstration Dave McPherson Vitria, Inc

14. Army Pilot Approach:Architecture and Analysis • Transition from one-off integration of siloed program systems architecture to federated services-based architecture • Federation allows programs to independently design/engineer to achieve mission goals, while also aligning with enterprise objectives • Transition from acquisition of systems to acquisition of capabilities via services • No need to change overall DoD acquisition policy & procedure • Architecture data need to rapidly support decision needs of business stakeholders • Think Business Intelligence (BI) - Query, not Search!

15. Entry - Setup

16. Entry - Setup • Power of Web 2.0 for collaboration of business process models • Process models that directly execute and through • What are the three challenges we are solving - • How do we bring structure / rigor to the intended collaboration methodology – the process that drives the collaborative efforts to the desired end goal. • How can we measure progress – quantity and quality • How can we provide insight into performance across many simultaneous topics • Introduce to the audience what they are seeing. • Web 2.0 based business process management solution that (spin the cube) • Collaboratively model processes using the BPMN • Manage runtime environments that directly execute • Monitor running processes • Using powerful Analytics to provide insight into operations • Pilot – collaborated on processes that bring automated oversight and governance to the process of collaborating on service definitions – answer the 3 questions

17. Process Modeling – Collaborative Development BPMN Support

18. Process Modeling - Oversight

19. Process Modeling Oversight • Ease of use • Layering of information • Responsiveness and power of web 2.0 • Navigation and flow • Drill into the Process Workspace • Introduce the Service Definition Oversight Process • How started – RSS event feed • Flow through collaboration, voting , objection handling through budgeting ad assignment • Expand the Service Specification step • Encapsulate complexity into sub-processes • Use of Workflow to bring controlled event management to key tasks like access control and voting • Close, and drill into the Collaboration cycle step

20. Process Modeling- Monitoring Activity

21. Process Modeling – Collaborative Development BPMN Support • Navigation and flow • Iterative models that monitor the collaboration phases of definition of a service • Automatically brings in RSS update feeds to measure collaboration rates in each cycle – like daily. • Working on publishing the feeds to other policy driven process to act accordingly. For example; validation of entries • Use of workflow and associated notifications to bring attention to key indicators that effect negatively effect performance • Hover over the master model and navigate back • Spin through the Manage, Monitor cubes • Execute the models • Spin through to the Optimize workspace • Cover flow view organize dashboards that provide insight into operational processes • Open the process activity monitor

22. Process Activity Monitoring

23. Process Activity Monitoring • Navigation and flow • Navigate through widgets to explain what they are seeing • Process activity status • Drill down into an individual process model • (allow time for it to load) • Expand to full size • Note • Visualize the current status • The audit log of steps • Play how you got here • Open up the collaboration cycle (replay again – if the arrows come up)..perhaps should drill in • Go back to the cover flow viewer and select individual performance

24. Oversight Visualization

25. Oversight Visualization • Navigation and flow • Click on a service category • Visualize performance across key roles • Secretariat • Collaboration activity • Voting Activity • Drill down onto a particular service name

26. Managed Workflow – Access Control

27. Managed Workflow - Voting