IBM Digital Business Automation and Blue Prism Integration

By integrating IBM Business Automation Workflow and RPA, enterprises can address their business requirements by leveraging people, systems, content and bots in end-to-end workflows. IBM Business Automation Workflow (BAW) traditionally relies on APIs to integrate services and systems. However, applications are often not built for integration and therefore don’t have APIs or their source code […] Continue reading IBM Digital Business Automation and Blue Prism Integration

IBM Digital Business Automation and UiPath Integration

By integrating IBM Business Automation Workflow and RPA, enterprises can address their business requirements by leveraging people, systems, content and bots in end-to-end workflows. IBM Business Automation Workflow (BAW) traditionally relies on APIs to integrate services and systems. However, applications are often not built for integration and therefore don’t have APIs or their source code […] Continue reading IBM Digital Business Automation and UiPath Integration

A tutorial on decisions in process applications: action rules and decision tables

IBM Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1 offers decision tasks which can be implemented as action rules and decision tables. This scenario shows how to create and test action rules (Business Action Language (BAL)) and decision tables in a decision task. The scenario presents a sample business process that is used to correctly determine the value added […] Continue reading A tutorial on decisions in process applications: action rules and decision tables

Introduction to Macro Design, Part 1

Introduction There are different ways to do automation projects. The Macro Design phase, as the IBM Cloud Services team calls this approach, typically best fits for medium to large IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) projects. On the other hand, IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM) projects and smaller scale BPM projects could be executed under the […] Continue reading Introduction to Macro Design, Part 1

Combining IBM RPA and IBM Datacap to automate desktop tasks that require data extraction form documents

Combining IBM RPA and IBM Datacap to automate desktop tasks that require data extraction form documents How to use RPA and data capture technology together to automate data entry form documents Paul Pacholski, IBM Canada Lab (pacholsk@ca.ibm.com) Larissa Auberger, IBM Germany (larissa.auberger@de.ibm.com) Abstract To stay ahead in a highly competitive environment, businesses focus on speed, […] Continue reading Combining IBM RPA and IBM Datacap to automate desktop tasks that require data extraction form documents

Planning for ODM disaster recovery

By ODM performance architects: Pierre-Andre Paumelle and Nicolas Peulvast Introduction Operational Decision Manager (ODM) empowers business users and developers to collaborate when they automate an organization’s business policies. ODM automates the decision making process and governs future policy updates. Execution of the business rules (decision services at run time) scales out in clusters of servers […] Continue reading Planning for ODM disaster recovery

A checklist to improve the performance of Rule Execution Server

By ODM performance architects: Pierre-Andre Paumelle and Nicolas Peulvast There are significant performance gains to be had by tuning certain aspects of Rule Execution Server. The decision engine improvements made in 8.9 has much better performance compared to previous releases, and especially compared to the classic rule engine. If you switch to the decision engine […] Continue reading A checklist to improve the performance of Rule Execution Server

Use RPA to complete a BPM activity within an end-to-end business process

Use RPA to complete a BPM activity within an end-to-end business process Whether you are using RPA, BPM or both together, the business problem is essentially the same. There is always an end-to-end business process that comprises of a combination of system activities and human activities. The human activities can include repetitive tasks like extracting […] Continue reading Use RPA to complete a BPM activity within an end-to-end business process

IBM Robotic Process Automation with Automation Anywhere

IBM Robotic Process Automation with Automation Anywhere IBM Robotic Process Automation with Automation Anywhere is a relatively new offering from IBM Digital Business Automation (DBA). Robotic Process Automation (RPA) uses software robots (or bots) to automate activities that are performed by people, so that they can focus on higher value activities within your business. Typically, […] Continue reading IBM Robotic Process Automation with Automation Anywhere

Using extenders to make Boolean attributes easy for business users

By Gustavo Mendoza Gamez Boolean attributes often appear in business object models. They represent flags or indicators that business users check (conditions) or set (actions) in business rules. The default handling of Boolean attributes can result in clumsy phrasing of business rules. Using extenders, however, you can change how these attributes appear in rules, making […] Continue reading Using extenders to make Boolean attributes easy for business users

High Availability for ODM Rule Execution Server Console using VIPA

or most customers, having high availability (HA) for the RES console is not critical. This is because users who notice an absence of the console could ask a system administrator restart it. Furthermore, the RES console is not required for rules to run, so the rules will still execute even if the RES console is down. Also, the deployed rules won’t change, because the console could not have been used to update them; therefore, XUs will not miss any important rule updates. However, because there may be a high cost associated with a delay to rule updates, some business environments require reliable live changes. The configuration described in the following sections can help ensure high availability. Continue reading High Availability for ODM Rule Execution Server Console using VIPA

Good-practice resource – Learn how to best use the Process Portal search index

A one-stop shop to answer your IBM Process Portal search index questions, Seth Merris’s article “Process Portal Search Index Comprehensive” discusses the Process Portal search index, teaching you the following information and skills: how the search indexing process works behind the scenes where the search index is used in Process Portal how to maintain a […] Continue reading Good-practice resource – Learn how to best use the Process Portal search index

Tutorial: Implementing IBM Operational Decision Manager RES console for high availability

By Laurent Grateau and Pierre Feillet Introduction IBM® Operational Decision Manager (ODM) empowers business users and developers to collaborate when modeling, authoring, testing, and deploying business rules to automate their business policies. Customers use ODM to automate their decision making while providing governance and agility in their decision change management. Rule execution components are usually […] Continue reading Tutorial: Implementing IBM Operational Decision Manager RES console for high availability

Build Scala Apps that Combine IBM ODM Decisions, Big Data and Machine Learning

What this article is about This article explains how to integrate IBM Operational Decision Manager rule execution services in a Scala application. IBM Operational Decision Manager is IBM’s Business Rule Management System. Said differently, it is software you use to expose operational decisions, such as the price a product will be proposed to a given […] Continue reading Build Scala Apps that Combine IBM ODM Decisions, Big Data and Machine Learning

ODM and API Connect

ODM decisions are frequently invoked using REST. ODM on Cloud has recently added OpenAPI support to make it simpler to invoke ODM decisions as APIs from cloud applications and processes in December 2016 OpenAPI or Swagger support also makes it easier to use with in IBM API Connect Essentials which is part of ODM Standard, […] Continue reading ODM and API Connect

Capabilities & Architecture

This section is designed to provide information to complement what is in IBM Business Automation Workflow and BPM Knowledge Centers. This can be added under Architecture, Process or Case sections. Case section was added in May 2018 as its a key capability in Business Automation Workflow Continue reading Capabilities & Architecture

ODM on Cloud

   Operational Decision Manager on Cloud Introducing ODM on Cloud 12 minutes Test Rule Execution on Cloud Using SoapUI 5 minutes Source: pretradechecks-source.zip 350 KB Continue reading ODM on Cloud

A developerWorks article guide to using BPM in Cognitive Business Operations solutions

Infusing cognitive capabilities provides new actionable insights with business processes. Improving advice to knowledge workers, process automation or making better decisions within a process are fundamental parts of Cognitive Business Operations. Here are some new articles that describe some of the use cases where we can see benefit and guidance on this topic. Infusing processes […] Continue reading A developerWorks article guide to using BPM in Cognitive Business Operations solutions

A developerWorks article guide to using ODM with Watson Cognitive services

You can infuse cognitive capabilities to provide new actionable insights with rule based decisions to improve decision accuracy. Automation is a fundamental part of Cognitive solutions. Here are some new articles that describe some of the use cases where we can see benefit and guidance on this topic. Infuse cognitive applications using Watson Developer Services […] Continue reading A developerWorks article guide to using ODM with Watson Cognitive services

How to expose the API of an executable decision service in ODM with a Swagger description

Introduction IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM) V8.8 provides the ability to adapt decision logic of applications at the speed of business. Its dedicated rule authoring and validation environments for business stakeholders gives visibility into, control over, and automation of point-in-time business decisions. ODM on Cloud provides the same capabilities and benefits, through a Cloud based […] Continue reading How to expose the API of an executable decision service in ODM with a Swagger description

Using ODM Decision Connect to expose Managed Decision API’s to Cloud Applications

When should Decision Connect be used to expose managed API’s ? As described in the Decision Connect article there are strong use cases when a business wants a central list or catalog of decisions it wants to manage across the enterprise a business has cloud based systems of engagement or cognitive applications or Processes that […] Continue reading Using ODM Decision Connect to expose Managed Decision API’s to Cloud Applications

Permission Management with IBM Operational Decision Manager on Cloud

This article by Rachel Orti and Melanie Shilpa Rao is for Operational Decision Manager (ODM) users who want to manage the access and permissions when authoring decision services with ODM on Cloud. Introduction When implementing decisions with ODM on Cloud, decision services are stored and accessed in Decision Center, which is the shared platform used […] Continue reading Permission Management with IBM Operational Decision Manager on Cloud

Process Connect

The Process Connect capability for IBM BPM is part of the IBM Business Operations Connect concept which includes IBM BPM and ODM. It provides support and guidance to create decision based Swagger API’s and both provide and consume Managed APIs. It also provides entitlement to use IBM API Connect V5 Essentials as a supporting program […] Continue reading Process Connect

Decision Connect

The Decision Connect capability for IBM ODM is part of the IBM Business Operations Connect concept which includes IBM BPM and ODM. It provides support and guidance to create decision based Swagger API’s and both provide and consume Managed APIs. It also provides entitlement to use IBM API Connect V5 Essentials as a supporting program […] Continue reading Decision Connect

Business Operations Connect

Business Operations Connect is part of a new IBM “Connect” series of capabilities to provide a unified consistent and productive way of leveraging an API and micro-services across the business. Its a new way unlock your existing processes and decisions to be re-used as managed API’s by new Hybrid Cloud applications and also enable Processes […] Continue reading Business Operations Connect

Effects of Event Distribution on Performance in Solution Design

How events are distributed among the entities in an ODM Decision Server Insights solution can impact performance in several — sometimes surprising — ways. Some people refer to this as having a “hot entity”, but that term more often obscures, rather than clarifies, the various circumstances under which performance can be adversely affected by patterns […] Continue reading Effects of Event Distribution on Performance in Solution Design

Toolkit Tips

A toolkit is not just a container where artifacts can be stored for reuse by process applications or other toolkits, although that’s the official definition. Toolkits require more thought so they don’t become just a place you throw things into. Using toolkits in that way could lead to an unsearchable dumping ground. For better approaches, […] Continue reading Toolkit Tips

Business Operations Connect

This article is created jointly by Brian Petrini and Andy Ritchie Business Operations Connect is a new capability for IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) and IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM) to provide a new approach for Developers to consume enterprise business processes and decisions in their solutions via the API Economy. It also enables Process […] Continue reading Business Operations Connect

Hiring tutorial: Complete the flow for the Create Position Request CSHS human service

Hiring tutorial > Create the user interface > In this lesson, you enable the hiring manager to return to the editable job requisition form by adding the flows for the two Back buttons. In the Create Position Request CSHS human service, there are three coaches. When you connected the coaches in the human service flow, […] Continue reading Hiring tutorial: Complete the flow for the Create Position Request CSHS human service

Hiring tutorial: Create the coaches for the Create Position Request CSHS client-side human service

Hiring tutorial > Create the user interface > In this lesson, you create the user interface that the hiring manager uses to create a position request. In the Standard HR Open New Position process, the hiring manager completes the submit position request activity. To enable the hiring manager to complete the activity, you create the […] Continue reading Hiring tutorial: Create the coaches for the Create Position Request CSHS client-side human service

Hiring tutorial: Create the Create Position Request CSHS client-side human service

Hiring tutorial > Create the user interface > In this lesson, you create the client-side human service that contains the user interface that the hiring manager uses to create and submit the position request. This lesson uses the following concepts: Concept Description human service A service flow that provides user interfaces for managing process and […] Continue reading Hiring tutorial: Create the Create Position Request CSHS client-side human service

Hiring Tutorial: Playback Three

In this lesson, you test the validation path. Then you take a snapshot of the process. Open the Create Position Request CSHS client-side human service on the Diagram page. Take a snapshot of the process application: In Process Designer, click the icon in the main toolbar. Name the snapshot Playback Three. For the description, type […] Continue reading Hiring Tutorial: Playback Three

Hiring tutorial: Implement gateways

Hiring tutorial > Implement the process > In this lesson, you implement the exclusive gateways, new position and GM approved, that you modeled in the Standard HR Open New Position process. When you specify the implementation for a gateway, you define conditions that control whether a path is followed during the running process. Procedure Make […] Continue reading Hiring tutorial: Implement gateways

Hiring Tutorial: Model teams

Hiring tutorial > Model the process In this lesson, you model the teams that participate in the Standard HR Open New Position process. Teams that are assigned to activities and lanes determine which users can work on tasks in Process Portal. If a team is assigned to a lane, members of that team can work […] Continue reading Hiring Tutorial: Model teams

Hiring tutorial: Model the process

Hiring tutorial > You follow the process requirements to model the Standard HR Open New Position process and then test the current state of the process in Playback Zero. During Playback Zero, you discover new requirements and review the process with the business stakeholders. Learning objectives After you complete the lessons in this part of […] Continue reading Hiring tutorial: Model the process

Hiring Tutorial

In this tutorial, you use the tools in IBM® Process Designer to re-create the Hiring Sample process application that is in IBM Process Center. The Hiring Sample process application that you create using the tutorial is similar to the Hiring Sample process application that is already in Process Center. Most of the differences are minor, […] Continue reading Hiring Tutorial

ODM Software Updates

This document section provides information on software updates. IBM ODM on Cloud service updates which will happen multiple times per year. The ODM on Cloud service documented linked to this section will summarize when the updates are made and what new content is available, as well as pointing to the Knowledge Center documentation For IBM […] Continue reading ODM Software Updates

ODM Version 8.5

IBM Operational Decision Manager Version: 8.5   Overview ODM V8.5 Overview 11 minutes ODM V8.5.1 Enhancements 20 minutes   Decision Server What’s New in Decision Server 15 minutes Lab: ODM Worklight Integration 2.6 MB   Decision Center Introducing Decision Governance Framework 37 minutes Decision Governance Framework Workflow 4 minutes What’s New in Business Console 14 minutes   z/OS What’s […] Continue reading ODM Version 8.5

ODM Version 8.6

IBM Operational Decision Manager Version: 8.6   Overview Enhancements Overview 13 minutes Introducing Decision Service 17 minutes   Installation and Migration Installation Enhancements 9 minutes Migrate a Classic Rule Project to a Decision Service 2 minutes   Decision Server Rules Create a Decision Service in Rule Designer 7 minutes Deploy a Decision Service from Rule Designer 4 minutes […] Continue reading ODM Version 8.6

ODM Version 8.7

IBM Operational Decision Manager Advanced Version: 8.7   Overview ODM Advanced V8.7 Enhancements Overview 19 minutes Introducing Decision Server Insights 17 minutes Decision Server Insights Architecture Overview 17 minutes   Installation and Configuration Install and Configure Decision Server Insights 14 minutes Silent Installation 7 minutes Learning About Software Requirements 3 minutes   Decision Server Insights Connectivity 18 minutes […] Continue reading ODM Version 8.7

ODM Version 8.8

IBM Operational Decision Manager Advanced Version: 8.8    Overview ODM Standard V8.8 Enhancements Overview 17 minutes Decision Server Insights V8.8 Enhancements Overview 16 minutes For a complete list of new features in ODM V8.8.0, visit What’s new topic on IBM Knowledge Center.   Decision Center <td nowrap="nowrap" Lab: User and Group Administration in Business Console 1.3 MB […] Continue reading ODM Version 8.8

ODM Online Education

Operational Decision Manager Online Education (previously known as IBM Education Assistant), is a collection of multimedia educational modules designed to help you gain a better understanding of ODM components and their new features, and use them more effectively to meet your business requirements.   Continue reading ODM Online Education

Decision Server Insights – Operational Monitoring

Introduction In this document I will outline best-practices for monitoring and managing your ODM Decision Server Insights (DSI) solutions in production. I will present the product’s capabilities for software architects and engineers working in operations support. Note that the focus of this document is on monitoring for operations support, not business KPI monitoring, such as […] Continue reading Decision Server Insights – Operational Monitoring

Good practice resource – Implementing Disaster Recovery

Many organizations today are performing highly visible and important business processes on IBM BPM. These processes often need a robust IT infrastructure that his highly available and can recover from disaster situations. IBM BPM supports a variety of replication and recovery approaches which can help customer architects design a Disaster Recovery strategy. Disaster recovery guidance […] Continue reading Good practice resource – Implementing Disaster Recovery

Making IBM ODM Decision Services portable across z/OS and distributed platforms

This article has been authored by Pierre Feillet, one of the lead IBM ODM Product architects. The article is designed for Rule Architects and Developers. Introduction IBM Operational Decision Manager (IBM ODM) is a rule based decision management platform with capability to provide decision services for applications and processes to improve solution agility, governance, re-use […] Continue reading Making IBM ODM Decision Services portable across z/OS and distributed platforms

Good practice – Monitor the Process Federation Server embedded Elasticsearch service by using the Head utility

You can use the open source Head utility to browse your Elasticsearch cluster, view the status and topology of the Elasticsearch cluster, and perform index- and node-level operations. You can also use the Head utility to call the Elasticsearch RESTful API. The Head utility has been tested successfully on Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers in this […] Continue reading Good practice – Monitor the Process Federation Server embedded Elasticsearch service by using the Head utility

Tutorials

We have a number of tutorials available to get you started with IBM Business Automation Workflow or the previous IBM BPM offering. Hiring tutorial In this tutorial, depending upon whether you have IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation workflow you use the tools in IBM® Process Designer or IBM Workflow Designer to re-create the Hiring […] Continue reading Tutorials

Solutions

Solutions is where we document some of the joint integrations and use cases between Operational Decision Manager with other IBM products to demonstrate what can be achieved Continue reading Solutions

Good-practice resource – Use the IBM Business Process Manager Interactive Installation and Configuration Guide or the Interactive Migration Guide

By Dave Hay The IBM Business Process Manager Interactive Installation and Configuration Guide takes you through the steps for installing and configuring IBM Business Process Manager (IBM BPM) by using installation and configuration rules and considerations that are described in other topics in the documentation. If you are migrating business data and applications from a […] Continue reading Good-practice resource – Use the IBM Business Process Manager Interactive Installation and Configuration Guide or the Interactive Migration Guide

Good-practice resource – Use the IBM BPM Center of Excellence and Program to Project Redbooks

By Phil Coulthard To succeed with IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) beyond your first project, ensure that you are prepared and organized for success. For example, do you have the proper buy-in and participation from the organization? The following timeless resources will help you expand your first project into an ongoing program: Scaling BPM Adoption: From Project to Program with IBM Business Process Manager (SG24-7973-01) Creating a […] Continue reading Good-practice resource – Use the IBM BPM Center of Excellence and Program to Project Redbooks

Good-practice resource – Read the coaches IBM Redbooks publication

By Phil Coulthard If you use IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) next-generation coaches, which were introduced in IBM BPM V8.0, read the Leveraging the IBM BPM Coach Framework in Your Organization IBM Redbooks (SG24-8210-00) publication that focuses on this subject to learn about how to develop coaches and find out about the various tips and good practices. Applicable editions: Express, Standard, and Advanced Applicable releases: V8.0 and […] Continue reading Good-practice resource – Read the coaches IBM Redbooks publication

Good-practice resource – Secure your IBM BPM environment

By Jens Engelke It is important to secure your IBM® Business Process Manager environment. If you are on IBM BPM V7.5.1, consult the IBM Redbooks® publication IBM Business Process Manager Security: Concepts and Guidance, which provides information about security that concerns an organization’s business process management (BPM) program, common security holes that often occur in this field, and techniques for rectifying these […] Continue reading Good-practice resource – Secure your IBM BPM environment

Good-practice resource – Implement the appropriate IBM BPM production topology

By Karri Carlson-Neumann Are you an IT architect or IT specialist who wants to understand, select, and implement the appropriate production topologies for an environment? If so, follow the step-by-step instructions to build those topologies in the appropriate information: IBM Business Process Manager Version 8.0 Production Topologies – This IBM® Redbook® describes how to build production topologies for IBM Business Process Manager […] Continue reading Good-practice resource – Implement the appropriate IBM BPM production topology

Good-practice resource – Learn about troubleshooting IBM Business Process Manager

Troubleshooting IBM® BPM issues can be complex without the correct tools and techniques. Troubleshooting IBM Business Process Manager describes a set of tools and techniques that the IBM BPM team suggests to help you with problem determination. Applicable editions: Express, Standard, Advanced Applicable releases: All Source:  IBM Continue reading Good-practice resource – Learn about troubleshooting IBM Business Process Manager

Good-practice resource – Tune your IBM BPM performance

It is imperative to your success that you read and follow the advice in the appropriate IBM Redpaper™ for your release: IBM Business Process Manager V8.5 Performance Tuning and Best Practices IBM Business Process Manager V8.0 Performance Tuning and Best Practices IBM Business Process Manager V7.5 Performance Tuning and Best Practices Also see 5 Things to Know […] Continue reading Good-practice resource – Tune your IBM BPM performance

Good practice – Use the facade pattern for Advanced Integration services

By Paul Pacholski When you use Advanced Integration services in IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) Advanced, a copy of the EAR file for the implementation of each Advanced Integration service is created for each process app that uses it. For large implementations, these EAR file copies take a lot of space. To avoid wasting space, […] Continue reading Good practice – Use the facade pattern for Advanced Integration services

Good practice – Use query tables for BPEL processes

By Phil Coulthard For BPEL process list and human task queries in IBM WebSphere® Process Server and IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) Advanced, use composite query tables to achieve excellent response times for high-volume task and process list queries. Particularly in production scenarios, use composite query tables instead of the standard Business Process Choreographer query […] Continue reading Good practice – Use query tables for BPEL processes

Good practice – Use the sync-over-async invocation pattern with caution

By Phil Coulthard When you develop advanced IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) applications using IBM Integration Designer, use caution when you invoke an asynchronous component or import using a synchronous invocation style. Invoking an asynchronous component or import using a synchronous invocation style causes the infrastructure underneath to switch from synchronous to asynchronous, often with […] Continue reading Good practice – Use the sync-over-async invocation pattern with caution

Good practice – Mark system tasks for deletion when you create them

By Phil Coulthard For system tasks in your business process definitions (BPDs), select the Delete task on completion check box on the Implementation tab of the properties in IBM Process Designer. With this option selected, tasks are automatically deleted when they complete, which can save a significant amount of data from being persisted. Note that the […] Continue reading Good practice – Mark system tasks for deletion when you create them

Good practice – Ensure business processes have a business owner

By Phil Coulthard Business process management can only succeed when there is a close partnership between IT and business. This collaboration is most critical when it comes to designing the processes themselves, both capturing today’s as-is information and tomorrow’s to-be information. Ensure that all business processes have a business owner who is the subject matter […] Continue reading Good practice – Ensure business processes have a business owner

Good practice – Plan for and perform non-functional testing

By Phil Coulthard Before going into production, ensure that you planned for and tested non-functional aspects of your process, including response time of the user interface, throughput, and scalability. Allot adequate time for this phase before going to production. The test environment should match the target production system as closely as possible, and the use […] Continue reading Good practice – Plan for and perform non-functional testing

Good practice – Ensure the health of your BPMN processes by using the JavaScript loop detector and process monitor

By Phil Coulthard There are tools in IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) that help you ensure the health of your Business process Modeling Notation (BPMN) processes: JavaScript loop detector: This tool is in IBM BPM V8.5.5 and available as an interim fix (see APAR JR48395) for V8.0.1.1, V8.0.1.2, and V8.5.0.1. With this tool installed and enabled, the engine […] Continue reading Good practice – Ensure the health of your BPMN processes by using the JavaScript loop detector and process monitor

Good practice – Use IBM BPM Advanced, an enterprise service bus, or both to expose services to your business processes that use BPMN

By Phil Coulthard Business processes orchestrate services and people. Most business processes require services, such as web services or REST services, to perform their business functions. However, because IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) Standard is intended for the business developer more so than the integration developer, there is limited support in IBM BPM Standard for accessing […] Continue reading Good practice – Use IBM BPM Advanced, an enterprise service bus, or both to expose services to your business processes that use BPMN

Good practice – Use an offline process server for production

By Phil Coulthard In IBM® Process Center, you can register online process servers and offline process servers. Online process servers are convenient for easily deploying snapshots to them by interactively using the Process Center user interface. However, for security reasons, it is a good practice to register the process server cell that runs your processes […] Continue reading Good practice – Use an offline process server for production

Good practice – Diligently deal with faults when invoking external services

By Phil Coulthard Well-designed external and Advanced Integration services have modeled faults for business exceptions such as “insufficient funds” and often have unmodeled faults for technical exceptions such as “network failure” issues. When you are invoking services from a process, design your process to deal with both types of faults. Typically, a business exception can […] Continue reading Good practice – Diligently deal with faults when invoking external services

Good practice – Have a plan for regularly upgrading IBM BPM

By Phil Coulthard Like all software, IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) is constantly improving. Every so often IBM “rolls up” (consolidates) all fixes into a new fourth digit fix pack or third digit modification release. These releases typically contain many critical fixes. To avoid experiencing a serious issue that a fix was made available for in […] Continue reading Good practice – Have a plan for regularly upgrading IBM BPM

Good practice – Use the rolling upgrade option when you update IBM BPM

By Allen Chan If you install IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) fix packs V7.5.1.2, V8.0.1.2, V8.5.0.1, or upgrade to V8.5.5 or V8.5.6 from V8.5.0.1 or V8.5.5, you can use the rolling upgrade option. By using the rolling upgrade approach, you can incrementally upgrade one process server at a time, starting with test, then staging, and […] Continue reading Good practice – Use the rolling upgrade option when you update IBM BPM

Good practice – Specify configuration values in 100Custom.xml

By Phil Coulthard There are a number of XML-based configuration files for IBM™ Business Process Manager that you should never directly edit: 99Local.xml. 00Static.xml 50AppServer.xml 60Database.xml 80EventManager.xml 98Database.xml To ensure that you do not lose changes when you migrate to a new release, always edit the configuration values in 100Custom.xml instead of editing the configuration […] Continue reading Good practice – Specify configuration values in 100Custom.xml

Good practice – Avoid excessive use of server-side JavaScript

By Phil Coulthard Avoid large server-side JavaScript blocks within BPDs and services, because JavaScript is interpreted and therefore is slower to process than other compiled mechanisms, such as Java™ code. Furthermore, large JavaScript scripts often indicate that too much integration logic is being placed in the business process layer instead of having that logic encapsulated […] Continue reading Good practice – Avoid excessive use of server-side JavaScript

Good practice – Turn off auto-tracking in BPDs if it is not required

By Phil Coulthard Auto-tracking in IBM® WebSphere Lombardi Edition and IBM Business Process Manager is important for many business process definitions (BPDs) because it helps you gather, track, and report key business metrics. However, an additional cost comes with auto-tracking because these events are processed by the Performance Data Warehouse and persisted in the database. […] Continue reading Good practice – Turn off auto-tracking in BPDs if it is not required

Good practice – Place Process Center near where your Process Designer users are physically located

By Phil Coulthard If you have a geographically disperse business process management (BPM) development team, it is better to have regional IBM® Process Centers than to have a single shared Process Center that is accessed by remote Process Designer authoring clients. The Process Designer interacts frequently with the Process Center for authoring tasks. For this […] Continue reading Good practice – Place Process Center near where your Process Designer users are physically located

Good practice – Avoid multiple sequential system lane activities

By Phil Coulthard In IBM® Business Process Manager, minimize the extra resources that are needed for multiple system lane transitions. Each system lane activity is considered a new Event Manager task, which adds a task transition in IBM Process Server. These task transitions are expensive. If your business process definition (BPD) contains multiple system lane […] Continue reading Good practice – Avoid multiple sequential system lane activities

Integration Designer Terminology

Business Process: A set of related activities that produces an output that no activity would produce individually. Module: A project used for development, version management, organizing resources, and deployment to the IBM BPM runtime environment. A “business” Module (labeled as just “Module” in the development tooling) may contain business processes, human tasks, business rules, mediation […] Continue reading Integration Designer Terminology

ODM Tech Notes

We regularly release technical notes to keep developers, analysts, and other users well informed. The following technical notes lead to key information about IBM ODM. We have grouped them in 2 sections on Information and Planning and Product Fixes Information and Planning Technical Note IBM ODM Detailed System Requirements IBM ODM Download documents Featured documents […] Continue reading ODM Tech Notes

IBM Redbooks

Depending upon your needs to gain more information on Operational Decision Manager one of more of the following IBM Redbooks may be of value Newly updated – Governing Operational Decisions in an Enterprise Scalable Way For Rule Analysts when Architecting Decisions with processes and applications here is a selection General use for ODM Discovering the […] Continue reading IBM Redbooks

Support

Join Operational Decision Manager (ODM) users community and get your answers here using dwAnswers. You can also access via the “Forum” heading on the Developer Center. Using the ibmodm tag you will find all information related to Operational Decision Management. If the answer you are looking for is not there, ask your question. If you […] Continue reading Support

Good Practices

These good practices, representing the collective wisdom from IBM® Business Process Manager (BPM) development, practitioners, business partners, and other IBMers, apply to all IBM BPM editions. Most are relevant to use with the new Business Automation Workflow offering. Good practice Category Editions Applies to IBM BPM on cloud, BAW on Cloud Y/N Avoid excessive use […] Continue reading Good Practices

Migrating In-Flight BPM Instances

Authored by: Zachary Fieroh Migrating instances can prove to be very useful for users that want to transfer instances from one snapshot to another. This prevents the user from having to re-enter the data that already exists in the existing instances. There are two ways to migrate instances while in flight: – Migrate instances programmatically: […] Continue reading Migrating In-Flight BPM Instances

What you can find in the Workflow Technical Articles section of the Community

Overview The section on the community focuses on Business Automation Workflow articles. Many of the articles have been migrated from the IBM BPM Developer Center and over time will also have Case articles added. It is designed to supplement the official documentation for IBM Business Automation Workflow Knowledge Center IBM BPM Knowledge Center. What you […] Continue reading What you can find in the Workflow Technical Articles section of the Community

Recommended Reading on ODM

Recommended reading is designed to point Rule Developers, Rule Architects and other IT users who use IBM Operational Decision Manager to an appropriate set of additional reading. The two main sources of content are Redbooks and Developerworks articles are a great source of information Continue reading Recommended Reading on ODM

What you can find here

Overview The docs section on the ODM Developer Center is a supplement to the official documentation for IBM ODM. This has been updated in April 2018 for the v8.9.2 software release which is in the Knowledge Center for IBM Operational Decision Manager Knowledge Center for IBM Operational Decision Manager on Cloud If you are a […] Continue reading What you can find here