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Are We There Yet?
The short answer to this question is "not completely," but we are getting rather close. Even though the industry has make much progress in foundational areas, it is still a highly dynamic market. Here are just a few of the areas that are in flux:

• Standards for managing person-to-person processes
• Ongoing revisions of message security and reliability for system-to-system processes
• Transaction propagation
• Business activity monitoring
• Integration of multiple process engines

There is currently a lack of strong support for a standard way of working with processes that involve human-interactions, even though there are recommendations to address them. BPEL currently does not handle person-to-person processes, so an extension has been proposed called "BPEL4People." Similar capabilities can also be found in XPDL.

The security issues are about message integrity, confidentiality and authentication. In SOAP-based communication, XML extensions are created to support the use of multiple security tokens (such as username, certificates, SAML) within the message. The example of such effort comes from the WS-Security specification.

Communication standards are a priority given the need to handle communication problems gracefully between any two systems (due to, say, a network or application outage). In SOAP-based Web-service integration, the two competing standards, backed by different vendors, are WS-RM and WS-R. They are both XML-based protocols that attempt to ensure that the sender of the message gets a reliable acknowledgement when the receiver has received the message (and preferably ignored any duplicate messages). Currently WS-RM seems to have broader vendor support, but reconciliation between the two standards is necessary.

One other area in flux involves how transactions are managed during system-to-system interactions with Web services. BPEL and WS-* extensions are becoming widely supported in this type of back-office BPMS. BPEL workflow transactions, for example, can be short or long running. WS-Transaction and WS-Coordination services are ways of supporting transactional Web services. While another standard, BTP (Business Transaction Protocol) supports similar needs, currently BPEL and WS-* extensions are getting more visibility.

On the BAM front, BPM vendors are determining how to best collect and present information from the customer's BAM tool of choice. While most BPM products provide operational metrics on dashboards, it's not easy to use BAM and BPM products from different vendors. Creating historical reports from BPM data and analyzing KPIs using existing reporting tools requires customization effort.

When disparate process engines (XPDL- or BPEL-compliant) from different vendors need to be integrated, it may be hard to reconcile different levels of standards, vendor-specific features and proprietary interfaces. For example, to start a process in one process engine and hand it off to another, you need proper communication. The WfXML initiative is an effort to address issues specific to this scenario.

Before You Buy
The selection of a BPMS demands unique analyses you won't find on a typical software evaluation checklist. Here are 6 things to look for in determining the BPMS that's right for your organization:

1. BPM systems aren't meant for all application needs. BPM systems are especially good for processes in which all activities are predetermined in order. Validate the business value of taking a BPM approach by developing a deep understanding of both the business problem and the capabilities of the BPMS. Document the detailed activities of your process and be sure the BPMS addresses core needs before committing to a product.

2. Next, consider the type of BPM solution needed: front-office-oriented BPM, for human-centric processes, or back-office-oriented BPM, for integration centric processes. It's possible that your environment may benefit from both types of BPM. If so, focus on products from either the same vendor or from vendors that have partnered to minimize integration efforts. If you use solutions from multiple vendors, keep in mind that you could end up with multiple process modeling and monitoring tools as well as server platforms.

3. Once you decide on the type of BPMS you're after, refer to the BPM lifecycle activities and architectural components covered earlier and analyze how your requirements are supported, in detail, by the prospective products. Make your product selection based on the total value of the BPMS rather than just standards support, particularly if you're considering front-office BPMS (an area in which standards aren't settled).

4. For front-office-oriented BPMS, ease of customization and out-of-box support for integration (such as with a content management or imaging systems) should be high on your list. If the same vendor provides content-management and collaboration modules as well, then confirm that their repositories, business modeling tools and administration consoles are integrated with all these components.

5. Among back-office-oriented BPM suites, you will notice that BPEL and WS-* support are widely implemented. Therefore, it's important to pay more close attention to the vendor's direction. Consider the vendor's support message transformation, routing and multiple-transport protocols. While most front-office-oriented BPM systems can be deployed on application servers, BO-BPM server requirements can vary. They may require installation of messaging-oriented middleware (MOM), application servers, subsets of application servers (such as a Web container) or some combination. Make sure you understand how the vendor solution is architected in order to wisely plan for its technology fit and impact on infrastructure.

6. Another issue you may want to consider is how rule engines are used in the BPMS. Rule engines are typically an optional component in most BPM suites, but you may find that certain vendors requires everything to run under a rule engine that needs a proprietary language. Determine whether the benefits of using that rule engine for the entire application are conclusive while also considering potential hiring and training needs tied to that environment and language.

BPM solutions bundle a lot of capabilities, so you should expect a learning curve to before you can take full advantage of a suite. Focus on proper training and establish best-practices and guidelines to create manageable deployments. Remember that matching the right type of BPMS to the processes considered is the most important decision you will need to make early on.

Tulu Tanrikorur is a corporate vice president, enterprise architecture at New York Life. He has written numerous articles including Who Are You? and Great Expectations. Write him at wtmtrk@yahoo.com

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