SYSTEMS AND/OR METHODS FOR END-TO-END BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS EVENT MANAGEMENT, AND/OR BUSINESS ACTIVITY MONITORING

• US 20120185877A1
• Filed: 03/28/2012
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Software AG
• Original Assignee: Software AG
• Inventors: MCGUIRE, Steve, GLÄSER, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,662 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/317
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The example embodiments disclosed herein relate to application integration techniques built around the publish-and-subscribe model (or one of its variants). In certain example embodiments, application integration techniques for managing and/or monitoring a business process comprising a plurality of activities, events, and/or objects located in at least one resource external to the application integration system and a process engine thereof are provided. During design time, by introspecting the business object types involved in the activities, events, and/or objects of the at least one resource, potential state changes may be identified, and an integrative linkage may be established, with the integrative linkage being managed and maintained by a process monitoring agent (PMA). During runtime, the PMA may “listen” to the business object state changes in the at least one external resource and notify the local process engine accordingly.

Claims

1. In an application integration system for managing and/or monitoring a business process comprising a plurality of activities, events, and/or objects located in one or more resources external to the application integration system and a process engine thereof, a method comprising:

during design time, in connection with a processor;

introspecting business object types involved in the activities, events, and/or objects of the at least one resource,

identifying potential state changes for the business object types, and

establishing business object type state change to receiver couplings via a process monitoring agent in communication with the at least one resource and the process engine; and

during runtime, in connection with a or the processor;

causing the process monitoring agent to listen to the business object state changes in the at least one resource through an adapter;

when a business object state change is detected by the process monitoring agent, causing the process monitoring agent to notify the local process engine of the detected business object state change by producing a document processable by the process engine in accordance with an appropriate coupling.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of activities, events, and/or objects are located in a plurality of resources external to the process engine, and

wherein each said resource has one process monitoring agent or process monitoring agent instance associated therewith.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising at runtime, associating a correlation id with each detected business object state change.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising enabling the process engine to manage and/or monitor a sequence or message flow among and/or between activities, events, and/or objects in the resources and in the application integration system and the one or more resources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein no alterations are made to any existing application logic the at least one resource.

7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly storing instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method according to claim 1.

6. A method of operating an application integration system for end-to-end business process management, business event management, and/or business activity monitoring, comprising:

configuring the application integration system;

receiving an indication of a state change of a business object at the process monitoring agent in accordance with a pre-defined coupling;

analyzing an event container of the indication and selecting a corresponding adapter notification;

transforming the event container into a document of a document type processable by a process engine; and

forwarding the document to the process engine in managing and/or monitoring the business process,

wherein the configuring of the application integration system includes;

establishing a connection between the process engine and at least one resource external to the process engine, the at least one resource including at least one activity, event, or object useful in modeling a business process being representable as an event at the process engine;

identifying at least one business object type of one said activity, event, or object;

selecting a business object type for further introspection;

introspecting the selected business object type to identify a state change thereof;

introspecting a selected state change of the selected business object type to identify business object state change properties;

creating a matching local document type suitable for processing by the process engine corresponding to the selected state change of the selected business object type;

establishing a coupling for the selected state change of the selected business object type via the process monitoring agent;

assigning a receiver for the coupling, the receiver being connected to the process monitoring agent such that the receiver is configured to trigger a notification according to the matching local document type in the application integration system;

generating a matching adapter notification;

enabling the matching adapter notification;

adding the adapter notification as an event in the process model; and

deploying the process model to the process engine such that the process engine is configured to listen to state changes from the at least one remote resource in managing and/or monitoring the business process.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly storing instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method according to claim 6.

14. An application integration system for end-to-end business process management, business event management, and/or business activity monitoring, comprising at least one processor configured to operate the system in accordance with claim 6.

9. An application integration system for managing and/or monitoring a business process comprising a plurality of activities, events, and/or objects located in one or more resources external to the application integration system and a process engine thereof, the system comprising:

at least one processor configured to perform tasks at design time and at run time, the tasks including;

during design time;

introspecting business object types involved in the activities, events, and/or objects of the at least one resource,

identifying potential state changes for the business object types, and

establishing business object type state change to receiver couplings via a process monitoring agent in communication with the at least one resource and the process engine; and

during runtime;

causing the process monitoring agent to listen to the business object state changes in the at least one resource through an adapter;

when a business object state change is detected by the process monitoring agent, causing the process monitoring agent to notify the local process engine of the detected business object state change by producing a document processable by the process engine in accordance with an appropriate coupling.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of activities, events, and/or objects are located in a plurality of resources external to the process engine, and

wherein each said resource has one process monitoring agent or process monitoring agent instance associated therewith.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the tasks further include at runtime, associating a correlation id with each detected business object state change,

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the tasks further include enabling the process engine to manage and/or monitor a sequence or message flow among and/or between activities, events, and/or objects in the resources and in the application integration system and the one or more resources.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein no alterations are made to any existing application logic the at least one resource.