About This File
The Business Activity Monitoring Accelerator models processes using a no-coding template configuration approach. At runtime the accelerator uses a decision table and the template configuration to create processes instances. Processes need not be automated using any sort of BPM system, and indeed it is particularly useful in distributed environments where there is no overall system of control. The accelerator allows for real-time tracking of process performance to determine if SLAs are being met, giving businesses the opportunity to take proactive action to correct exception situations before they escalate. In addition, a repository of current process state along with a running log of activity events when combined with a sophisticated BI tool can be used to determine opportunities for business process improvement.
Business Scenario
Most businesses are a collection of business processes. These processes often interact with one another and often times there is little visibility of the execution of these processes. This is particularly so in cases where there is little automation or minimal overall control of process execution. Tracking processes is the key to monitoring the overall business performance and the lack of oversight is a missed opportunity for business process improvement.
Concepts
The Business Activity Monitoring Accelerator models processes using design-time entities called Templates and Workflows. At runtime, the Event Manager will convert the Template and Workflow into a Process instance which then contains a series of actions or Activities. These Activities have Milestones which are points of interest during the action. They also have Sections which represent the period of time between adjacent Milestones. Activities can be grouped together logically into Tasks. Dependencies between Activities are modelled using Transitions. Finally, SLAs measure performance between two milestones.
Benefits and Business Value
The Business Activity Monitoring Accelerator can be used to model processes whether or not they are automated using a BPM system. It allows for real-time tracking of process performance to determine if SLAs are being met, giving businesses the opportunity to take proactive action to correct exception situations before they escalate. In addition, a repository of current process state along with a running log of activity events when combined with a sophisticated BI tool can be used to determine opportunities for business process improvement.
Some of the challenges that businesses face when monitoring processes:
- Diverse set of systems, each producing their own output
- Existing tracking systems that are rigid and inflexible
- Historical-based reporting, minimal real-time view
- Lacking predictive capability
Technical Scenario
The accelerator includes demos showing various types of processes and illustrates both milestone-based and transition-based addressing for process reports.
At the heart of the accelerator is the Event Manager which is implemented using BusinessEvents. It receives messages from the systems doing the business process work in the form of Process Reports. It puts the report in context of the associated template and workflow, and monitors execution of the process instance. The Event Manager also produces outbound messages called Notifications which are then used to store data in the Repository, trigger alerts, enforce business rules, etc.
The Real Time Dashboard is implemented using Live Datamart and it captures the current state of the network from the Event Manager notifications. It displays this information on a fully-interactive, HTML5 application. This displays a summary dashboard as well as detailed information about workflows and processes.
Underlying all the components is a service bus, implemented using Enterprise Message Service and StreamBase. This provides the connectivity between components, and with other systems.
Components
