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Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM
vBulletin Book Store > vBulletin books beginning with B
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Business Process Management with JBoss jBPM |
Author: Matt Cumberlidge
Published: 2007-07-27 |
List price: $49.99
Our price: $44.99
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Usually ships in 24 hours
As of: September 06th, 2008 11:40:10 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Very good high level overview - a little lacking in depth
The book provides a very good overview of what business process management is, its benefits and how it can be done with jBPM. This relatively complex subject is helped alot by a clear and to the point writing style. A single case study is worked through the book which also assists the reader in understanding the context behind BPM. Unfortunately this book suffers by trying to be too general and not focusing in on the process management or programming aspects of jBPM. As a result if you are a programmer you will probably feel the code examples given are not deep enough, whilst in contrast those not used to JBoss/Java will probably feel overwhelmed when code samples are given. This is certainly not a bad read, but at the end of it you are left feeling there is a lot more to jBPM than what was briefly touched on...
 Nice Introduction to BPMS and jBPM
This book is a easy-to-read, nice, brief introduction to BPM and BPMS using jBPM tool.
 great book but example doesn't work
This book really helped me understand more about jBPM. However, I tried to implement the example and it only worked partially. After some time with help from folks on the jBPM user forum I was able to login using the accounts from the demo sql scripts, but have not been able to get the tasks forms to come up for that user.
The jbpm console is very different from the book even though the publication date is less than one year back. I've posted alot of questions to the publisher but have received no responses.
I think I will continue to try and get this to work but wish the author would publish some notes to the publisher web site to help people.
Excellent starting guide to jBPM
This book is described as A Practical Guide for Business Analysts and is intended for Business Analysts who are not familiar with, or who are new to the JBoss jBPM system.
The book takes an iterative approach to Business Process Management (BPM) and starts by describing why we might need BPM and what its benefits to an organization might be. The first chapter of the book continues to describe some scenarios where BPM is expected to be beneficial to a company (for example "Processes are carried out in disparate teams" and where BPM would not be used (for example where it would impose a disproportionate burden on a small business). Chapter 1 ends by introducing a suggested six-phase project lifecycle, which is described within the remaining chapters in the book.
The first stage of implementing BPM describes how to set up a BPM project and includes details on Project Initiation Documents, scoping the process, process analysis and scoping out the process workflow. Sample activity diagrams and project documentation (e.g. RACI matrices) are provided as examples.
After describing the business process, the book details how to model the process using JBoss jBPM including details of how to install the jBPM engine, the JBoss application Server and the jBPM designer. The jBPM designer is an Eclipse plugin, so some readers of the book may already be familiar with this application. It should be stated however that the target audience for this book is not software developers, but Business Analysts (although there are sections within the book on how to customise jBPM processes using Java code). This section on implementing a process using JBoss jBPM is one of the larger chapters in the book and covers details of jPDL (Process Definition Language). As with the rest of the book, this is described in a clear and easy to understand tutorial approach that should provide the readers with sufficient information to build their own processes after completing the book.
In order to deploy and test the business process on JBoss jBPM, a user interface is required which is the subject of the next chapter in the book. This chapter described how web based user interfaces can be automatically generated from within the process editor and then customised by a business analyst. The web based user interfaces are defined using Java Server Faces (JSF) with the Facelets view technology. The book does not go into great depth about either of these technologies, rather it assumes the Business Analyst will be making minor modifications to these pages.
The sample process within the book is developed and deployed onto a standalone JBoss workstation. Details are provided however on how to deploy the project onto a production server using a production ready database.
Sometimes within a business process it is necessary to invoke custom actions that can be developed using Java code. A brief description is provided showing how to develop a custom action to extract data from a process and insert it into a separate database. This is provided as an overview of how custom actions can be developed, however the focus of the book is on developing and deploying business processes in an iterative manner rather than on in depth analysis of the Java code required to develop custom actions.
Finally the book concludes with details of how process monitoring can be achieved using the SeeWhy business intelligence platform.
This book follows a tutorial style approach describing an iterative procedure for developing BPM applications deployed to the JBoss jBPM engine. The book takes the reader through the whole project lifecycle, from identifying target processes, building prototypes and finally getting project sign-off. The style of the book is easy to read whilst still remaining informative. This book is recommended for Business Analysts using or looking to use the JBoss jBPM suite of tools
Solid book For Getting Started With jBPM
A couple of interesting things happened to me recently. I have been designing a system with a workflow side to it and the thinking was that the JBoss jBPM workflow engine might be a good fit. So I was wading into the documentation to see if I could make some sense of the thing. Like a lot of large software products, jBPM comes complete a circus full of acrobat files, documentation that is detailed, in depth and kind of, well, incomprehensible. At least for the beginner. I'm sure once I get out of this initial spin up phase, I'll soon have all of my business processes humming along, but I have to admit that so far it has been rough going.
Which brings us to the second interesting event: out of the blue I got an email from the PackIt publishing company asking if I would like to review one of their books, Business Process Management With JBoss jBPM by Matt Cumberlidge. They would even send me a free copy. It is dangerous to ignore luck like that and so here we are.
Cumberlidge's book opens with an outline of what can only be described as the business process management philosophy: understand your business process, automate it (or a part of it) with a workflow engine and then iterate to improve. The book then launches into its single case study, the heart wrenching adventures of Bland Records in its quest to turn musical talent into profit. Thank goodness - if I have to sit through one more online pet store implementation I was going to get violent. After taking us through an analysis of the Bland workflow (aren't they all bland?) Mr. Cumberlidge, talks briefly about the architecture of jPBM and then jumps right into is main topic: the details of getting jPBM set up and flowing that work.
And I do mean the details - this book starts by explaining how to install Java and moves on to using the jPBM Eclipse plugin to build the workflow definition. From there we segway into creating jBPM based user interfaces and deploying the whole thing (in JBoss, naturally). We finish up by discussing such real world issues as monitoring your workflow, sending email alerts when your process starts to smell a bit fishy, and deciding if the whole effort was worthwhile.
There is a lot of detail in this book - many, many screenshots, lots of handholding through menus and dialogs. Perhaps a little too much for me, but I'll make allowances since Cumberlidge's focus is so squarely on helping the reader become productive with jBPM rapidly. The details are all very Windows oriented, but this Linux/Mac user had no trouble translating them into my OS as needed.
Aside from the technical content, there are a couple of things I really like about the book. The text is clearly written (if just a tiny bit wordy). Best of all, Mr. Cumberlidge writes in an easy, informal style. There is none of the "consider this" and "therefore it may be concluded that" nonsense that makes so many technical books read like 700 pages of stereo instructions. Be aware that this is a very focused book: it is less like "jPBM The Missing Manual" and more like "jPBM The Missing Quickstart Guide". Still, Business Process Management With JBoss jBPM is a competent book that fills a real gap.
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