Today, Active Endpoints announced that Australian telecom AAPT has gone into production with ActiveVOS to support the launch of many of its updated services.
Details of how AAPT has used BPM to change the way it develops applications are in the press release attached to this post.
Australian Telecom AAPT goes live with ActiveVOS applications: Download (334)Our topic tomorrow is “Using REST with business processes.”
REST (for “representational state transfer“) has become a popular style of creating applications in a services-oriented environment. But many development teams are less familiar with REST than they could be. On CTO Tuesdays for April 13, 2010, Active Endpoints CTO Michael Rowley will provide an easy-to-understand overview of REST and show examples of its use. Register at http://www.activevos.com/ctot to join for this exciting look at REST. CTO Tuesdays is presented live at noon ET, 9am PT, 16:00 GMT.
CTO Tuesdays is a weekly podcast about the technology of BPM. Each week CTO Tuesdays tackles a single technical topic and delivers the education development teams want to learn how to create a new generation of process applications. Register for the next episode of CTO Tuesdays here.”
The topic for CTO Tuesdays, the BPMS podcast, for Tuesday, March 30, 2010 is “Email-based approvals in a BPMS.”
One of the most common tasks in business processes is to request that something be approved or denied. In some cases, it is appropriate to request approvals by email rather than require that the approver log into a task management system. This talk will show how to include such approval tasks in business processes.
Register to join us live at http://www.activevos.com/ctot.
What is CTO Tuesdays?
CTO Tuesdays is about the technology of BPM. Because Active Endpoints believes that people need to change the way they do things, it’s up to us to help them understand what they need to in order to have them welcome that change. BPM technology is a new thing for many people…and we have an obligation to educate users about this new way of thinking and doing. So, each week we tackle a single topic in some depth – but limit the technical discussion to 30 minutes or so. The idea is to give people enough to tickle their curiosity and allow them to explore more on their own. 30 minutes is about right because, once you strip away the novelty, BPM concepts are just not that hard. The BPM technical talk is followed by a lively panel Q&A. CTO Tuesdays is not an ActiveVOS commercial – though when we illustrate a concept in the podcast, we obviously use ActiveVOS.
Episode 17 of CTO Tuesdays covers BPMS support for long-running business transactions and compensation. Michael Rowley compares and contrasts BPMS support for transactions with that of transaction managers and describes how compensation can be applied to business transactions.
This episode is the second of two on persistence and compensation. If you haven’t seen the previous episode, you might find it interesting to review before watching this one.
Four files are attached to this post. Three are video recordings of the podcast in different formats; the fourth is a PDF of the slides Rowley presented.
Please be sure to sign up for our next CTO Tuesdays, scheduled for March 30, 2010 at noon ET. The topic will be “Handling approvals by email in business processes.”
CTO Tuesdays #17: How BPMSs support long-running business transactions: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (292)
CTO Tuesdays #17: How BPMSs support long-running business transactions [48:32m]: Download (461)
CTO Tuesdays #17: How BPMSs support long-running business transactions [48:29m]: Download (427) CTO Tuesdays #17: How BPMSs support long-running business transactions: Download (172)Attached to this post is a replay of a webinar we recently presented with our UK partner, T-Impact. T-Impact has deep expertise in BPM in industries like telecom. In this webinar, they detail their approach to BPM and how they use ActiveVOS to deliver process applications for their clients.
There are three formats attached to this post. First, an iPod touch/iPhone-formatted .m4v. We also have a Flash file that can be streamed from the blog and a Windows Media 9-encoded .wmv.
VOSibilities podcast #45: An introduction to T-Impact [65:25m]: Download (397) VOSibilities podcast #45: An introduction to T-Impact [65:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (354) VOSibilities podcast #45: An introduction to T-Impact [65:30m]: Download (104)OK, I know…the title “preventing problems through static analysis” doesn’t exactly make you want to spend 40 minutes watching the replay of episode #14 of our weekly tech talk on BPMS technology.
But you’d be missing a really interesting and, dare I say it, fun topic. Trust me.
This week Michael Rowley tackles bugs in BPMSs. Bugs are just a part of life when creating business applications. But what about when you are creating process applications using a model-based BPMS? What happens then? How does the BPMS help you identify — even prevent and eliminate — bugs? Watch this episode to find out how standards like BPMN 2.0 and BPEL work together to help make designing and executing process applications more error-free.
As always, we have three formats of the podcast posted. There’s an iPod touch/iPhone .m4v; a Flash file that can be streamed from the blog and a Windows Media 9 .wmv.
CTO Tuesdays #14: Preventing problems through static analysis of business processes [37:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (402) CTO Tuesdays #14: Preventing problems through static analysis of business processes [37:17m]: Download (161) CTO Tuesdays #14: Preventing problems through static analysis of business processes [37:12m]: Download (470)BPMN 2.0 is a hot topic. From documenting processes to creating executable process models that combine system and human tasks, BPMN is on everyone’s lips.
But what is the state of BPMN 2.0 usage in the real world? This webinar, originally broadcast on February 18, 2010, offers some answers.
The bottom line? BPMN 2.0 usage is gaining traction — it’s becoming the modeling notation of choice for everything from documentation to creating executable process applications. If you are interested in what BPMN can do for you, you will want to watch this webinar replay to learn more about BPMN and how people are using it today. Watch Sandy Kemsley show you how not to create BPMN models as she parades models from the “BPMN modeling hall of shame.” And you can also watch as Michael Rowley shows you how to make BPMN executable with BPEL. At the end of the webinar is a very stimulating Q&A in which Kemsley and Rowley discuss the future of the BPMN specification and answer attendees’ questions.
A variety of formats are attached to this post, including a Flash format that can be streamed from the blog. Also, the slides Sandy and Michael presented are available in PDF form.
VOSibilities podcast #44: The state of BPMN: an update from the real world [87:30m]: Download (556) VOSibilities podcast #44: The state of BPMN: an update from the real world [87:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (703) VOSibilities podcast #44: The state of BPMN: an update from the real world [87:36m]: Download (236) VOSibilities podcast #44: The state of BPMN: an update from the real world: Download (323)There’s peanut butter and jelly. Noodles and chopsticks. Ducks and water. All perfect together…even made for each other.
That’s how we feel about business process management systems (BPMS) and enterprise content management systems (ECM). These two important technologies are made for each other.
If you have an important business process you want to automate, it’s likely to have people, processes and documents that all need to work together. And, you are likely to want everything to work together based on open, industry-wide standards. We’d go so far as to say, it’s an absolute requirement that the BPMS and ECM be totally based on standards.
That’s what Alfresco and ActiveVOS offer together. The best capabilities; the most openness.
Watch the replay of this webinar — and the absolutely brilliant demo of ActiveVOS BPMS and Alfresco ECM working together — to see how you can quickly, easily and compatibly produce better process applications for your organization.
There are three formats attached to this post, along with a PDF of the slides presented in the webinar. First is an iPod touch/iPhone-formatted .m4v. Second, a Flash .flv file that can be downloaded or played from the blog. Third, a Windows Media 9-encoded .wmv is available.
We hope you enjoy this introduction to combining BPM and ECM technologies.
VOSibilities podcast #43: Combining BPMS and ECM for better process applications [62:55m]: Download (751) VOSibilities podcast #43: Combining BPMS and ECM for better process applications [62:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (944) VOSibilities podcast #43: Combining BPMS and ECM for better process applications [62:55m]: Download (872) VOSibilities podcast #43: Combining BPMS and ECM for better process applications: Download (299)Sandy Kemsley commented on the XPDL 2.2 effort to support the interchange of BPMN 2.0 model. I agree with her that it is a good thing. It will be a while before the BPMN 2.0 interchange formats are completed and even longer (if ever) before enough vendors support import and export of the format for it to be the lingua-franca of process models.
XPDL 2.1 is already supported by many tools, including ActiveVOS, so extending XPDL to support the new constructs in BPMN 2.0 will provide the fastest path for most vendors to achieve some level of interoperability of their BPMN 2.0 models.
Nonetheless, I’ve found that most people who have asked Active Endpoints about model import/export formats have been people who have the wrong idea of how to work with a BPMS. These are people who are trying to hold on to their old waterfall methodology for building software, where there are separate tools for building process models during analysis from the development tools that are later used to create the software. In that world, there is a constant need to translate back and forth between the tools as changes may occur on either side.
And there’s the rub. The roundtrip translation always loses so much information that the effort to keep the separate representations in sync and accurate outweighs the value of using the automatic export / import functionality. Eventually, changes made on the analysis side get redone on the implementation side by hand, and vice versa.
The right way to work is to let the BPMS own the model. Yes, you may want to allow early requirements gathering to use simpler modeling tools, but those tend to be fairly informal flow charts anyway. Once you get involved in real modeling you should use the modeling capabilities of your BPMS. By “real modeling”, I mean that you are at the stage where the precise semantics of the notation used is important, since it is going to drive the actual semantics of the resulting software.
In the early phases, the process models are diagrams where the labels on the diagram are what really matter. For example, the arrows coming out of an activity might formally imply that both directions can be followed at once, but the labels on the arrows have labels that imply that one one of them will happen. This is OK during the early stages of modeling, since it is another human who is going to be reading the model and they can guess what was really meant (or they can ask, if they aren’t sure).
Once you are ready to do real modeling, it is time to get the BPMS involved. That way the process model you create will go the rest of the way through the lifecycle of the project without need for translation, much less round-trip translation. How you get from the informal stage to the formal stage of process modeling isn’t really all that important. Yes, you can use XPDL 2.1, but it doesn’t really even matter if you have to redraw it from scratch. Drawing it is very fast in a capable designer like ActiveVOS, and the person doing the modeling is already going to have to be carefully considering each jot and tiddle of the original diagram to determine how to correctly model what the user really wanted to begin with.
This episode of CTO Tuesdays features our first guest CTO. John Newton, CTO and chairman of Alfresco Software, joins Michael Rowley to discuss how enterprise content management systems (ECM) can be combined with business process management systems (BPMS) to create compelling end-to-end business applications. ActiveVOS and Alfresco implement the new Content Management Interoperability Standard (CMIS), enabling these two important technologies to work together to produce a new generation of business process applications.
Attached to this post are three versions of the webinar. First is an iPod-formatted .m4v file. Second, a Flash .flv. Third, we have attached a Windows Media 9-encoded .wmv. Finally, we have also attached a PDF of the presentation John delivered.
We hope you enjoy this episode of CTO Tuesdays. We hope, over time, to have additional guest CTOs on the podcast to talk about complementary technologies. And we’d love to hear your suggestions for topics as well as your comments and feedback.
CTO Tuesdays #12: ECM and BPMS Working Together: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (414) CTO Tuesdays #12: ECM and BPMS Working Together [47:28m]: Download (208) CTO Tuesdays #12: ECM and BPMS Working Together [47:22m]: Download (453) CTO Tuesdays #12: ECM and BPMS Working Together: Download (239)On this episode of CTO Tuesdays, we explore an important concept in software modeling: structured vs. unstructured modelers. Examples of both types are compared and contrasted. Also, the ActiveVOS BPMN 2.0 modeler, which blends the best of both types of modelers is demonstrated.
Three versions of the webinar are attached to this post: an iPod-formatted .m4v file, a Flash .flv file and a Windows Media 9-formatted .wmv.
CTO Tuesdays #11: Structured and unstructured BPMN modeling [46:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (465) CTO Tuesdays #11: Structured and unstructured BPMN modeling [46:14m]: Download (228) CTO Tuesdays #11: Structured and unstructured BPMN modeling [46:13m]: Download (496)We are pleased to make available a recording of a webinar originally presented on January 13, 2010 with Andy Berner of IBM and Michael Rowley of Active Endpoints. This webinar shows how business process modeling suites (BPMS) can be used with requirements gathering tools to support the entire lifecycle of a business process.
There are three formats available. First, an iPod-formatted .m4v. Second, a Flash .flv file which can be streamed directly from the blog or downloaded. Third, a Windows Media 9-encoded .wmv. The .wmv file is about 55MB in size; the other two are about 96MB.
Please feel free to request an evaluation of ActiveVOS to begin to apply what you see and learn in this webinar to your business processes.
VOSibilities podcast #41: ActiveVOS 7 and IBM Rational Requirements Composer [75:46m]: Download (398) VOSibilities podcast #41: ActiveVOS 7 and IBM Rational Requirements Composer: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (318) VOSibilities podcast #41: ActiveVOS 7 and IBM Rational Requirements Composer [75:46m]: Download (223)Every Wednesday at noon ET, 17:00 UTC, we present a live webinar followed by a Q&A with our product manager, Mike Moniz, that takes a look at the features of ActiveVOS BPMS. You can always register for the upcoming webinar here.
However, we realize that this is a very inconvenient time for people in Asia-Pacific and some other time zones. So, we occasionally record the most recent webinar and post it to the blog. Attached to this post are three versions of the same recording. One, a .m4v file, is intended for iPod touch/iPhone users and is also available in our podcast feed. Second is a Flash .flv file (which can also be played directly on the blog). Finally, there’s an Windows Media 9-encoded .wmv. These files are large, because the webinar lasted over an hour. But the content is worth the download time.
VOSibilities podcast #40: ActiveVOS 7 demonstration [77:31m]: Download (734) VOSibilities podcast #40: ActiveVOS 7 demonstration: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (938) VOSibilities podcast #40: ActiveVOS 7 demonstration [75:07m]: Download (305)This week, Michael Rowley presented “Using requirements gathering tools with a BPMS,” an interesting look at the relationship — and the possibilities — of using model-based BPMSs with requirements gathering tools.
We have posted three formats of the webinar replay. First is an iPod-formatted .m4v file. Also, a Flash file that can be played from the blog and/or downloaded. Finally, we have included a Windows Media 9-encoded .wmv file.
Please join us every week at noon ET, 9am PT and 17:00 GMT for CTO Tuesdays.
CTO Tuesday #10 Using requirements gathering tools with a BPMS [41:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (344) CTO Tuesday #10 Using requirements gathering tools with a BPMS [41:01m]: Download (1421) CTO Tuesday #10 Using requirements gathering tools with a BPMS [40:59m]: Download (401)CTO Tuesdays is back for 2010!
In our first episode of the new year, Active Endpoints CTO Michael Rowley covers some basic theory of how complex event processing (CEP) works and makes the case for integrating a CEP engine directly into the BPM engine. Topics covered include the Event Processing Language (EPL), time windows as a method of correlating disparate events and event streams. In short, a fascinating — and accessible — introduction to a hot technical topic.
We have attached several formats of the webinar replay to this post. First, for iTunes subscribers, we have a .m4v file, perfect for taking along on your iPod. RSS feed subscribers will automatically receive this file. Also, there’s a .flv file which can be played directly on the blog (click where it says “click here” to play it). Also, we have attached a Windows Media 9-encoded .wmv file. Finally, the slides Michael presented are attached as a .pdf.
Be sure to join us live every Tuesday at noon ET, 9am PT, 17:00 UTC for a new topic. You can always register for the upcoming CTO Tuesdays webinar at http://www.activevos.com/ctot. Replays are usually posted here on our blog within 48 hours.
We have an exciting agenda of upcoming episodes, and later in the first part of Q1, we hope to guest CTOs join us for their perspectives on technical topics. We hope you will join us live each week.
CTO Tuesdays #9: BPM as an event source for CEP [43:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1) CTO Tuesdays #9: BPM as an event source for CEP [43:15m]: Download (225) CTO Tuesdays #9: BPM as an event source for CEP [42:59m]: Download (451) CTO Tuesdays #9: BPM as an event source for CEP: Download (232)
