Bernd Ruecker explores how to achieve a better Business-IT alignment when developing BPM solutions. He describes a methodology which uses BPMN-based process model as center for collaboration where users can discuss and link requirements, business rules or other artifacts, visualize development status, specify business driven test scenarios and much more.
OSWorkflow by Diego Adrian Naya Lazo discusses the open-source OSWorkflow, a Java-based workflow engine. The book's publisher, Packt Publishing, also provided InfoQ with an excerpt from Chapter 4 of the book, entitled Using OSWorkflow in your Application. InfoQ spoke with Naya Lazo about the areas that the book covers and about OSWorkflow in general.
Red Hat's JBoss division recently announced the latest release of their Business Process Management System jBPM 5.0. It includes a completely revamped API, and adds a number of key features including support for the BPMN 2.0 specification, Eclipse tooling for developers, and web-based tooling for business users. InfoQ spoke to Kris Verlaenen, jBPM project lead, to find out more about the release.
Alfresco has just released version 5.0 GA of the Activiti engine, an Apache2 licensed BPMN 2.0 implementation. InfoQ talked with project lead Tom Baeyens on the new release. Tom is also the creator and former project lead for the jBPM project.
A new discussion in the blogosphere is bringing up the question of whether business rules should be used to dynamically guide business process execution.
The latest version of Drools, an open source business logic integration platform, supports workflow and event processing. Drools development team recently announced the release of Drools 5.0 final version. The major shift is that Drools 5.0 focus is on a knowledge oriented system rather than just a rules oriented system. The new version has four modules called Guvnor, Expert, Fusion and Flow.
Paul Haley, rule technology visionary, discusses criteria for choosing rule engines versus procedural code in business process solutions, as well as examining the current state of BPM/BRM integration.
JBoss Drools, an open-source business rules engine, recently reached version 4.0. InfoQ took the opportunity to learn more about JBoss Drools and its current and future capabilities.
