[jbpm-dev] jbpm 5 feedback

[Wim Geeraerts]

This is the feedback we have at this point:

CORE PROCESS ENGINE
The time line will be very important for us: which BPMN2 nodes will be
implemented first?
 It would be great if we have a number of core nodes in a first phase
and the ability to customize these (both by configuring the core nodes
and by adding custom nodes)
 Customization of nodes is key to us, f.e. we want to be able to
define our own task created within a task node with custom attributes
and with links to our domain data
 process instance migration is something we don't want to happen
always.  In some situations we want our old process instances to use
old process definitions.  Furthermore process instance migration must
be extensible since some of the constraints are application specific.
Jbpm 5 can only provide a good default implementation.

HUMAN TASK
good that is is based on a standard
Will  this be offered as a POJO instead of a webservice?
Will this be customizable?  (as described above, we want our own
flavour of tasks to be created)
Will the task data pattern be implemented?  Having scoped variables is
important for us.
We need  group assignment / escalation / assignment rules - again this
should be customizable
Human task console / from editor is something which has less priority
according to us.  If the core is there these tools can be created on
top of that afterwards.

PROCESS REPOSITORY
Versioning of processes is a must.  Also think about how attached
business logic or rules will be versioned.  What is the link between
process version and business rule version? .  Furthermore if old
process instances refer to business logic using class names (as in
jbpm3 f.e.), they will no longer work if the business code is
refactored (i.e. the class names are changed).  So we need a better
way to link the business logic / business rules from within the
process description and version these.
Dynamically updating processes - how whill this behave if process
instances are active at that time?  This is a nice feature but with a
lower priority.
Scenario testing before deployment - Does this mean we can test the
application using the new process definitions before they are
deployed?  Nice feature but again lower priorty according to us.

BPM CONSOLE / WEB-BASED PROCESSING TOOL
It would be beneficial to have the same functionality available via
EJB.  I.e. it would be nice if the web tools would just be a WS layer
on top of  a set of EJBs (which we could use to create our own
integrated tools).

SIMULATION
Something we would use in a later stadium to allow service engineers
to adapt processes to optimize usage of resources f.e.  But for us
this has a lower priority.

BAM/BI
It would be nice if the data that is used to create the BIRT reports
on is available, so that we can integrate our own BI solution (Oracle
BI f.e.) on top of this.
We will use this not only to show statistics but also to do trend
analysis and report changes in trends, f.e. some data normal for one
site is abnormal for another site
So again here according to us it is more important to focus on the
core (make sure the data is there) and a customizable way to consume
the data (with BIRT as default implementation)

INTEGRATION
authentication / authorization: it must be possible to provide our own
module here.
JOPR => is there also an integration with RHQ?

Kind Regards,

Olivier Debels, Wim Geeraerts, Roel Adriaensens  ( Agfa HealthCare)