BPMN 2.0 Simulation Exectuive Briefing
- 1. Executive Briefing Simulation as a service to business process management (BPM) Preparing for BPMN 2.0: an integrated view of second generation simulation Abstract Definition of BPM The global economic meltdown of the late BPM is an all-encompassing term that covers 2000s exposed poor internal processes business automation and/or IT-based efficiency within many organisations around the world. strategies. Industry analyst Gartner defines Previously unshakeable institutions went to BPM as: ‘a management discipline that treats the wall and every indicator, from house prices processes as assets that directly contribute to Increasingly looking to the number of unemployed, was on a enterprise performance by driving operational for ways to reduce downward trend. excellence’. working capital by As companies begin their slow recovery, they In the words of analyst Forrester, the main improving operational are increasingly looking for ways to reduce power of SOA ‘is unleashed by BPM’. Used agility and by linking working capital by improving operational agility correctly, and within a strict governance silos of information with and by linking silos of information with modern model, BPM provides an environment in which modern web-based web-based services. They are also searching organisations can integrate processes and services. for ways to gain competitive edge through the services – but also transform their applications introduction of Internet-based collaborative in line with business change. processes including slicker sales channels, more efficient finance processes, tighter supply It is for this reason that BPM and SOA are such chains and better workflow management. hot topics currently. Economic recession brings enormous pressure to bear on organisations As a result, the market for business process that are trying to survive. It’s a time when costs management (BPM) is growing as the need for are cut dramatically, either directly or through operational savings and efficiencies drives the the introduction of more efficient processes. need to rework business processes. BPM has The combination of BPM and SOA helps to long been recognised as a toolset for designing achieve results with less risk and within a more processes. But it is now taking on a new role predictable timeframe – and the addition of as the lead component within broader SOA simulation software to the mix can only improve implementation projects. this situation. In this paper we examine the changing use of simulation as a service to BPM: how can simulation be used in the wider context of business improvement and agility? What are the implications of the introduction of BPM Notation (BPMN) 2.0 and how close are we to using simulation to intelligently optimise business processes? We also explain the role that Lanner’s simulation software will play in the development of next generation BPM.
- 2. Executive Briefing Simulation moves centre stage within users by providing a notation that is intuitive to design business users yet able to represent complex Traditionally, process simulation has most often process semantics. The BPMN specification been used within BPM as a design confirmation also provides a mapping between the graphics The introduction of BPMN or ‘pathology’ tool. This is largely for technical of the notation to the underlying constructs 2.0 will be a further reasons: quite simply it has not been either of execution languages, particularly Business sufficiently convenient to use or integrated Process Execution Language. stimulus to the growth and within a design toolset. adoption of simulation Much of the effort put into BPMN 2.0 has Process simulation therefore normally acts as an focused on making the diagrams executable optional standalone package that can be used on a process engine. With BPMN 2.0 it is adjacent to, rather than as a standard part of, now possible to have different perspectives BPM toolsets. on a design/redesign, from high level business oriented views to detailed technical views. However, organisations are beginning to recognise that the same principles that apply The importance of BPMN 2.0 is that there to simulation in physical design can now be is now standardisation and the opportunity applied to BPM. There is significant evidence to exchange information between tool sets, from other areas of design (such as product as well as between business analysts and IT development) that 80% of the costs are implementers. committed within the first 20% of the time spent in design or redesign. The introduction of BPMN 2.0 will be a further stimulus to the growth and adoption A corollary to this is that late changes in of simulation: the twin barriers of a difficult, design (especially after release) cost orders of technical user interface and a discrete tool set magnitude more to correct than making the that stands alone from programming tools will same changes early in the design/redesign both now be removed. process. Using simulation up front within design/redesign makes the assessment of Significance of L-SIM 2.0 alternatives viable and supports the early Lanner is a world leader in simulation software identification of issues - and hence fewer costly and is ahead of the market when it comes to late changes or sub-optimal designs. providing simulation as a service to BPM. L-SIM is already the most popular and functional One such case was recently presented by the native BPMN1.2 simulation on the market. German national railway Deutsche Bahn. It is supported by Lanner’s simulation savvy DB Netz manages and maintains the 34,000km development team and used by a range of of track on Germany’s railways. It used BPM leading toolset providers. combined with simulation to optimise the fault clearing process at regional division RB East L-SIM 2.0 is the latest version of Lanner’s and to increase train punctuality. performance proven BPMN simulation engine. L-SIM 2.0 is a BPMN 2.0 native and compliant In its presentation*1 it describes how simulation simulation engine. As such it can simulate of the current process identified the complex high level business oriented views and detailed interactions that were resulting in long waiting technical views. times. It then goes on to show how simulation provided a risk free environment in which to The Experimentation and Optimisation evaluate options, finding savings of 28%, 28% framework that is part of L-SIM 2.0 adds further and 37% in the first three critical steps of the value by automating the process of searching process chain. for the best solution within user-defined goals. For example, this may involve optimising a The impact of BPMN 2.0 process to make the most effective use of Another driver for simulation in BPM is the your most highly valued resources or selecting development of Business Process Modelling between processes to deliver the best customer Notation (BPMN) 2.0. Developed under the experience*2. guardianship of the Object Management Group (OMG), BPMN 2.0 is a standard for business L-SIM 2.0 is configured as a RESTful service. process modelling, and provides a graphical Representational State Transfer (REST) has notation for specifying business processes in a gained widespread acceptance across the business process diagram (BPD). Web as a simpler alternative to SOAP and Web Services Description Language (WSDL) BPMN 2.0 is based on a flowcharting technique based Web services. Mainstream Web 2.0 very similar to activity diagrams using Unified service providers, including Yahoo, Google, Modeling Language (UML). The objective of and Facebook, have now adopted REST as an BPMN overall is to support business process easier-to-use, resource-oriented model. management for both technical and business
- 3. Executive Briefing BPM/SOA toolset providers can now simply As such, it represents the most cost effective integrate the full functionality of BPMN and convenient way for BPM/SOA suppliers to simulation: all that’s needed is an http: call and deliver leading edge simulation as part of their a suitably configured BPMN 2.0 exchange file. toolsets. L-SIM 2.0 also supports the scalability and computing power of cloud computing. Summary L-SIM 2.0 can be considered as the first of The BPM market is growing quickly, and a second generation of BPM simulation. The is being driven by the business imperative first generation of BPM simulation focused for process improvement and the stimulus on the ‘stress testing’ of already designed to adoption provided by BPMN 2.0. Using processes. It has little capability to perform simulation up front in business process design/ the experimentation needed to compare and redesign will offer significant benefits to a broad optimise process alternatives. range of industry sectors - L-SIM 2.0 now makes that viable. L-SIM 2.0 can be considered as the first of L-SIM 2.0 differs from earlier forms of References: a second generation of simulation in two important aspects DB Netz presentation*1 available at BPM simulation. http://www.lanner.com/en/case-study. 1.It delivers a simulation experimentation cfm?theCaseStudyID=BC8A68E1-15C5-F4C0- framework in which to explore process 993950D4C05BE859 alternatives, manipulate and optimise variables to achieve improvements in high Questions attributed to Derek Miers level business goals. BPMFocus*2 2.It provides robust simulation capabilities that can be easily connected to the existing range of desktop tools and the new breed of lightweight web-based toolsets through its support of the BPMN 2.0 notation and RESTful services. This opens up the opportunity of simulation led process design to a broader range and size of organisations.