For Application Development & Program Management Professionals (Length: 10 pages)

March 10, 2006

Business Process Management Suites And SOA

Enabling Flexible Process Improvements

by Ken Vollmer

with Randy Heffner, Mike Gilpin, Andrew Sahalie

Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

Organizations are increasingly relying on business process management suite (BPMS) products to support their process improvement efforts, and this is driving an annual growth rate of 20% and up in this market. BPMS and service-oriented architecture (SOA) implementations frequently occur together, and this is no fluke, as these two technologies complement each other very well, resulting in a more powerful solution than either could provide on its own. In particular, advances in key standards such as business process management notation (BPMN), business process execution language (BPEL), and XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) are making it possible for BPMS products to support a model-driven approach to process improvements that can be significantly more agile than earlier methods. At the same time, improvements in SOA-based repository technology are facilitating the storage of important business metadata in a common location, where it is easier to share, reuse, and modify without affecting business applications. These advances enable IT organizations to respond more quickly to new requirements, while providing business units with more visibility and control over their key business processes.