Glossary of terms

Open-source project providing foundational technologies for Business Automation applications. Contains technologies like Drools, jBPM, and Kogito.

A Java application embedding Business Models, such as Workflows (BPMN), Decisions (DMN), Rules (DRL), or spreadsheet Decision Tables (XLS or XLSX). A Business Service also contains BAMOE libraries that power the execution of those Business models, making REST and/or GraphQL API endpoints available for system-to-system integration. A Business Service is a microservice built on top of Quarkus or Spring Boot.

A Java project that is modelled as an Apache Maven project, and that contains all the artifacts needed to build a Business Service using the BAMOE components. It may include any or all of the following artifacts: BPMN, DMN, DRL rules, DRL decision tables, SCESIM test scenarios, as well as Java Data models. It can be stored in any of the supported source code controls systems such as Git and built into a Business Service.

A definition of a business process workflow based on the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) specification. BPMN is a standard established by the Object Management Group (OMG) for describing and modeling business processes. BPMN defines an XML schema that enables BPMN models to be shared between BPMN-compliant platforms and across organizations so that business analysts and business process developers can collaborate in designing and implementing BPMN process services. The BPMN standard is similar to and can be used together with the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard for designing and modeling business decisions.

An API that your business develops and implements within business applications that contain Business Services.

The collection of BPMN process models, DMN decision models, DRL rules, spreadsheet Decision Tables, and any other assets that define the business logic for a Business Service.

A specification for describing event data in a common way. IBM BAMOE runtime events for messages, processes, tasks, and other application activities are published in CloudEvents format so that they can be consumed efficiently by other entities.

is a way to enable a process to run everything in an integrated way within the same Business Service deployment in BAMOE. In this architecture the communication with required and/or optional subsystems is done via internal VM communication.

A licensing option that enables users to use the BAMOE components to develop and deploy Business Services that utilize DMN, DRL and spreadsheet Decision Tables.

A set of business rules defined in a tabular format. Each row in a Decision Table is a rule, and each column is a condition, an action, or another rule attribute. A decision table in BAMOE is developed in an Excel spreadsheet or directly in the DMN Editor.

is considered to be a consistent functional program that provides a set of defined functionalities that enable the execution of business models through Business Services.

A project build option that provides a fast feedback loop from code changes to a running system using hot reload. Development mode also enables debugging tools such as Swagger in Busines Services.

A definition of a business decision flow based on the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) specification. DMN is a standard established by the Object Management Group (OMG) for describing and modeling operational decisions. DMN defines an XML schema that enables DMN models to be shared between DMN-compliant platforms and across organizations so that business analysts and business rules developers can collaborate in designing and implementing DMN decision services. The DMN standard is similar to and can be used together with the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard for designing and modeling business processes.

A definition of a business rule in Drools Rule Language (DRL) format. DRL is a notation established by the Drools open source business automation project for defining and describing business rules.

A module for rules and a unit of execution. A rule unit collects a set of rules with the declaration of the type of facts that the rules act on. A rule unit also serves as a unique namespace for each group of rules. A single rule base can contain multiple rule units. You typically store all the rules for a unit in the same file as the unit declaration so that the unit is self-contained.

Open-source project part of Apache KIE that provides a rule engine, DMN engine, and complex event processing (CEP) engine for Java™ and the JVM platform.

An engine is a computational entity responsible for parsing and executing related models. There are three engines available in BAMOE: a decision engine for managing the DMN model. A rule engine for managing DRL rules and Excel decision tables. A workflow engine for managing BPMN processes.

A procedure or function in a program that reacts to a specified event, such as a completed node in a process or an executed decision.

An optimized, integrated solution that uses Business Services to implement business-domain knowledge.

A record of a significant change of state in the application domain at a point in time. IBM BAMOE emits runtime events as a result of successfully executed requests, or units of work, in a process instance or task instance in a process. IBM BAMOE can use these events to notify third parties about changes to the BPMN process instance and its data.

Open-source project that is part of Apache KIE, that provides a platform for modeling, executing and managing business processes.

Open-source project part of Apache KIE that provides an underlying foundation for Java-based cloud-native Business Automation projects via Quarkus and Spring Boot frameworks.

A specified point in a business process where a defined message is used as the input (received) or output (sent) as a result of the process execution. For example, a message event might be an email sent to a specified user after a task is complete.

A specification for sending and receiving messages within and between microservices using message brokers. IBM BAMOE supports MicroProfile Reactive Messaging for messaging in Business Services, such as message events used as either input or output of business process execution.

The collection of supplemental services in IBM BAMOE that provide capabilities such as persistence, messaging, and security. Key middleware infrastructure services in IBM BAMOE include Infinispan persistence and Apache Kafka reactive messaging.

A licensing option that enables users to use the BAMOE components to develop and deploy Business Services that utilize stateful workflow (BPMN) as well as DMN, DRL or spreadsheet Decision Tables.

A model that defines the components, workflow, and functionality for a business process, such as a BPMN model.

An occurrence of a pending, running, or completed business process, based on the Process Definition.

A data library used for marshalling Java objects in protobuf (protocol buffers) format. IBM BAMOE runtime persistence and communication with Infinispan or MongoDB are handled through a protobuf schema and generated marshallers.

is a process that is able to persist its instance state into a database or other type of storage. It may include user tasks, timers, be long-running, have data tracking and auditing.

is a Workflow whose instance state is not stored in database. A stateless Workflow is executed in one transaction, does not have data persistence, timers or User Tasks. Stateless Workflows are a subset of stateful Workflows.

A component in IBM BAMOE that serves as the basis for IBM BAMOE runtime execution. Units of work capture all steps in a process and are used internally to move a process instance from one state to the next state. After all possible steps in a process are successfully executed, the final state is sent to the IBM BAMOE runtime as a runtime event. IBM BAMOE can then use these events to notify third parties about changes to the BPMN process instance and its data.