Oracle Magazine - May/June 2011

Architects and Database Developers
BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT BY LUCAS JELLEMA

Build Process-Oriented
Applications
Model, implement, and execute a business process for
requesting, approving, and applying salary raises.
ORACLE JDEVELOPER 11g and ORACLE SOA SUITE 11g

Today’s applications are not necessarily data-centric. Many of today’s sophisticated applications are better described as multifaceted implementations of real-world business processes. These business processes represent sets of logically organized activities spanning multiple I T systems, departments, and roles. Some activities are automated and performed by machines, whereas others are manual and performed by people.

Organizations that adopt a process-driven approach need to have both a methodology and supporting tools to analyze and model business processes in a nontechnical, business-friendly manner. They also need technology for implementing, executing, and monitoring end-to-end processes as well as their individual steps. The combination of Oracle Unified Business Process Management Suite 11 g (Oracle Unified BPM Suite 11g) and Oracle SOA Suite 11g provides everything organizations need. The products are based on industry standards and provide “design time at runtime” support to allow for dynamic, business-driven, on-the-fly reconfiguration and restructuring of business processes.

LINDY GROENING

This article demonstrates the design of a very simple business process for requesting, approving or rejecting, and implementing a salary raise, using Oracle Unified BPM Suite 11 g in conjunction with other Oracle SOA Suite components. Instead of designing the database and creating a create, read, update, delete (CRUD)–style user interface as a one-size-fits-all approach, this example shows how to implement these requirements by leading with a business process view. Data services support both automated and manual activities, and user interfaces handle specific manual tasks.

SETUP

To follow along with the example in this article, you will need Oracle JDeveloper 11 g Release 11. 1. 1. 3 (Patch Set 2) or later, with the Oracle SOA Composite Editor and Oracle BPM Studio 11 g extensions. To deploy and run the application, you will need the Oracle SOA Suite 11 g and Oracle Unified BPM Suite 11 g runtime environment that also includes Oracle WebLogic Server 11 g and Oracle Database 10g Release 2 or higher with the HR sample schema. A quick, easy way to set up the required environment is to use the Oracle VM VirtualBox appliance, along with a preinstalled, preconfigured, ready-to-run BPM and SOA environment. Downloads and installation instructions are available at bit.ly/eabCsj.

Once the environment is set up, you can find the supporting resource pack for this column at bit.ly/hrir1G. The starter application for this column, SalaryRaiseBPM.jws, contains a bare-bones SalaryRaiseBPM project, along with a straightforward Model project with an application module that provides the HRService Web service on top of the EMPLOYEES table in the HR schema. This service is developed according to the process described in Steve Muench’s column “Services with a Smile” ( bit.ly/eNznzJ).

Note that the steps in this article focus primarily on the modeling of business pro-

cesses with Oracle Unified BPM Suite 11 g. The supporting resource pack also contains an Oracle JDeveloper application that shows the end-state project, with full implementations for every process activity.

ANALYZING THE BUSINESS PROCESS

As you work through this article, imagine your role to be that of a business analyst without much technical knowledge of SOA, Web services, or XML. You will model the process for requesting, approving, and applying a salary increase. Your primary focus will be on defining the logical structure and sequence of the process itself, rather than its underlying implementation.

In Oracle JDeveloper, launch the SalaryRaiseBPM.jws starter application. Navigate to the SalaryRaiseBPM project, and open the composite.xml file. The Oracle SOA Composite Editor will appear for this file.

Drag a BPMN Process (BPMN stands for Business Process Modeling Notation) component from the Component Palette and drop it in the Components area of the editor. The BPMN Process wizard appears. Select From Pattern, and select Asynchronous Service as the pattern. Click Next.

On the next screen, specify SalaryRaiseApprovalProcess as the process name. Provide a description, and enter any text for the process definition author.