Business Process Engineering for Transparent Workflow Weaving

This paper is a scholarly review of the article titled Implicit BPM: A Business Process Platform for Transparent Workflow Weaving. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of workflow weaving with regard to integration of business management processes into organization’s applications.   The paper will also look at the relevancy of the conclusion of the article under review, to the business process management, as well as drawing comparisons between the ideas of other articles within the context of the focus topic with ideas advocated by the main article being reviewed.   Integration of the business process or workflow into existing organization’s application can be a costly affair to implement due to the limited interoperability capabilities of the organizations applications. This is occasioned by isolated nature of applications development that is not considerate of integration of business activities into one seamless platform for greater efficiency and performance. The under review therefore, put fort or suggest a concept of reducing the cost of integrating business process or workflow with the existing applications. To look at how this is achieved, we review relevant aspects or framework of the concept that leads to achievement of the set objective of the article. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) The article opines that building business systems from scratch is no longer feasible and tenable considering the major business workflow overhaul required in order to implement an entirely new system. The integration process on the other hand requires combination of different innovations and designs that that again requires considerable amount of funds to implement. This assertion is true considering that any business activity implemented by an organization must first by affordable by the organization and secondly will improve the revenue bottom line of the implementing organization. For these reasons, many organizations tend to view business process integration project as a costly affair that may take time before the organization break even on the cost of the project. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014)   The article suggests a technique that will ease the process of integrating the business process with the organization’s applications. The Aspect oriented programming abbreviated as (AOP) technique suggested is viable option of resolving limitations due to generic nature of the integration process as well as the transparency limitations associated with the process of workflow and organizations integration. To further simplify the process of integration, the articles suggest a black-box approach to implement the Aspect Oriented Programming rather than a clear-box approach. The former approach indeed doesn’t require much detailed knowledge of the code internals of the program. It uses a wrapping technique that focus on simplest form of integration that is cost effective as opposed to detailed integration approach.   The authors of the article postulates that the workflow weaving technique they are proposing enables the integration of the business process in a transparent manner in that the technique does not require fundamental changes in the organizations applications and at the same time it can bring together a myriad of heterogeneous web applications into one platform as an integrated end product. Analyzing the concept it is easy to see that when an integration technique doesn’t require extensive changes, then the process is likely to be cost effective in manner that encourages business or organizations to adapt this technique when aiming to integrate their workflow or business processes. The article uses the example of two sample applications one of The Pet Store which is built on Java EE platform and a generic accounting application that manages the books and clients for an organization. The two applications which have been implemented using Model View Controller, MVC framework are i ntegrated together for seamless processing of the business workflow. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) The resultant outcome of the fusing is an innovation that combines purchasing and accounting process in one platform. For example, from the Pet Store MVC application home page the user can search fro an item he or she intends to purchase. If the item is found or located, the same is added to the shopping cart where the client can proceed to checkout.   Once the payment as been confirmed, the accounting application also running on MVC approach is triggered and the book balance for the company is updated accordingly. The accounting application will then adjust stock and register the client. On its home page the accountant can be able to see the updated processes in the system thus making work easier for him or her.   This is an example of how the business process has been integrated into one interrelated platform for seamless running of the organizations activities. (Trkman et al., 2015) In isolated applications say with different purchasing application as well as the accounting ap plication, each business activity would have been handled separately. For example, when the item was searched and purchased by the client or the customer the accountant would have to physically look for the sales report to know which items were sold and the prices. The accountant would then proceed to include or update his system on actual book balance and number of items remaining probably to ensure the same is replenished. This is a tedious process that is simplified by integrated business processes. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) The MVC approach utilized by this innovation allows black-box modeling approach that provide for codes injection at strategic points of the web application framework. Although the outcome is a generic model that lacks a distinct brand, it serves the purposes of integrating the organizations workflow. To provide better correspondence between the software i.e. the programs and the designs, the hardware material the innovation used in the example above uses the crosscutting interface. Analysis of this interface reveals a flexible approach that enables the integrated applications to work together while at the same time creating a contract between the intercepted system and the platform. This further make the process of integration easier and simple which can make business sense to organizations aiming to integrate their business processes.   In order to eliminate the need of having Aspect Oriented Program (AOP) expert at the IT department, the article proposed use of Domain Specific Language (DSL) in the integration process that inhibit the inherent complexities associated with AOP approach or technology. With DSL technology the organization will avoid dealing with underlying AOP framework. The use of DSL therefore reduces the amount of resources needed for implementation of this integrated business processes model. The fact that the organizations will have this advantage makes this innovation appealing to the business. (Seethamraju, 2012) The cost associated with employing different experts for the integrated innovation coupled by the benefits it brings to the organization is likely to make business sense to the management of the organizations. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) The article has also implemented the business process management approach in order to realize the proposed innovation. The innovation has two separate parts the front –end and the back-end parts which are connected via web mechanism that not only makes the combination flexible but also scalable. With the front-end having interception and reflection components among other features, the innovation is capable of drawing up various relationships such as when a client initiates a search of a particular item the integrated system can be able to provide him or her with other similar items to the one being searched by the client. In effect what this means is that the client will have various options of similar product. (Seethamraju, 2012) This is a striking feature for any business which can make the idea of business process integration a worthwhile venture to invest on when you analyze it from business perspective. The back-end part of the innovation is the support part where the who le innovation gets various interpretations of command, coordination, and repository among other support features. To repository feature of this innovation is another plus for the innovation in businesswise as well as the general functioning of the innovation. This feature allows the innovation to keep memory of the actions or commands in the system for easier retrieval when the same action pattern is repeated. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) One important feature of any innovation is the scalability option. With the web standard approach connection between the front-end and back-end that gives this innovation its scalability or extensibility feature, the innovation would be easier to be adopted by a growing organization. Growth and development is part of every organization. It will not be commercially viable to invest in an innovation that will require major changes when the organization expands or grows. At the back of every business decision is the financial benefit an investment has on business either directly or indirectly. This innovation sufficiently answers this question in that apart form streamlining the business process it can be scaled without major financial implications should the implementing organization expand. It worth noting that this is one of the challenges associated with the integration of the business workflow. With this feature it will be easier for the organization to buy into this innovation. (M ondà ©jar et al., 2014)   In its conclusion the article reiterate the importance of integrating business processes with the existing organization application into one system as well as acknowledging the cost implication of the process. This is relevant observation in business process management in that there is no evidence of an existence of business entity that is interested in making loses. The cost implication is always a fundamental question in every business decision and business processes integration is not an exception. The web platform of this innovation which enables it to enjoy various platforms such as cloud computing which comes with web applications platforms will further underline the issue of cost factor in this innovation. Comparing the ideas of this article with ideas of other similar article within the context of the topic under discussion; business processes management, a number of similarities and differences are noted. The book by Radelf Peterson titled â€Å"Using BPEL processes in Web Sphere Business Integration Server Foundation† postulates the same idea as the main article under review in that, they both focus on utilizing web based approaches that enables the innovation utilize the cloud computing. (Petrson, 2004) On the other El-Halwagi in his article have a solution which is not web based. This involves developing a BPM program from the scratch that overhauls the business process and applications. (El-Halwagi, 2006) It is suitable for startups which do not have existing application in place yet. As noted before in this review the cost-benefit analysis is always an important question to any business entity. The solutions with such wholesale changes would the make business case for new entities looking to launch operations for the first time. Systemic process improvement advocated by Mutafelija and Stromberg, is also in tandem with the ideas of the article under review. According to this book business process management should always have capabilities fo r continuous improvement. (Mutafelija and Stromberg, 2003) The web design of the innovation proposed by the main article under review and the fact that it uses black-box approach where only strategic interceptions are made, enable this innovation to be open to continuous improvement and scalability as noted by Mustafelija and Stromberg. (Mondà ©jar et al., 2014) In conclusion, that the use of web designs in this innovation among other features enables it to have desirable capabilities that will make organizations consider integrating their business processes without finding it challenging with the cost of the implementation of the program. The scalability feature of the proposed innovation is also on of the important aspect that breaths live to its implementation.   Al-Mashari, M. (2011). Business process management ? major challenges. Business Process Management Journal, 8(5). El-Halwagi, M. (2006). Process Integration. Burlington: Elsevier. Harmon, P. (2009). Business Process Change. New York: Elsevier. 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