Tim Bauer’s Running Thoughts

Watched this webcast today due to my ongoing desire to understand how MSFT is positioning the integration of BizTalk Server (BTS) and Sharepoint (SP).

People Ready Processes

It was a nicely done deck w/ a mix of MSFT’s angle on why the two (SP and BTS) go together in solutions. I recommend watching it. The keys I took away were:

1. People Ready Processes Interesting angle here. Hanging off the overall marketing blitz of people ready software coming out of MSFT. Basically they are saying that bringing BTS (system focused process automation) and SP (people focused process automation) together creates people ready processes. Not bad. Amusing how they pointed out (not exactly true) that BPR was about removing people. People Ready Process automation is about enabling them (not true entirely either). Still nice spin.
2. There is that System Analysts Modelling Processes Live Again. To do this they focused on a demo by one partner showing how the System Analyst can push processes to BTS and not stomp the definition that was evolved, in there, by the developer. So a custom solution (implied by earlier webcasts) is not the only means to achieve this.

Again a solid presentation. Worth watching regardless of camp. For those amused here are my detail notes:

• BTS & Office Sharepoint Server
• Agenda
………….○ Overview of BPM
………….○ Office Sharepoint + BTS
………….○ Partner solutions
• 1:30 - BPM Overview
………….○ Strategy / Org Design / Processes
………….○ Enable via tech
• BPM = People Ready Business
• 4:00 - Why Process Matters
• 4:30 - Next Era of Automation
………….○ Old - Replace paper (doc scan)
………….○ Old - System centric auto (EAI)
………….○ New - Both (People Ready Processes)
• 7:30 - People Ready Process
………….○ BPR Removed People
………….○ People Ready Processes Enables them
………….○ Steps
……………………..§ Model/Design - same tools
……………………..§ Develop/Deploy - same tools
……………………..§ Manage/Interact -
……………………..§ Analyze/Optimize - Drill down
• 10:30 - Breadth of Processes
………….○ Spectrum - Collab to Transactional
………….○ Spectrum - Adhoc, (two in middle) to Fixed
………….○ Spectrum - Individual, Team, Cross Team, to Cross Division
• 14:00 - Tool Layer
………….○ Spectrum - Sharepoint to Process Svr
………….○ Common tools (design, monitor, run)
• 17:00 - Customer Example
………….○ OHA (Oncology Hematology Assoc)
………….○ Clinical Medical App.
………….○ End to end … unstructured team enablement to connection to backend systems
………….○ Tablet PCs used for capture. Sharepoint for teaming. VS & BTS for system integration.
………….○ www.microsoft.com/customerevidence
• 19:30 - Loan Approval Demo
………….○ From unstructured to structured
………….○ Process
……………………..§ Website to
……………………..§ Sharepoint to
……………………..§ WWF to
……………………..§ BTS to
……………………..§ End Tran systems
………….○ Infopath form in webpage
……………………..§ [bauer comment - very slow - claimed vpc issues]
……………………..§ [bauer comment big push to move forms in sites to be infopath based]
………….○ Save to SP
………….○ BTS picks up transaction on save to SP
……………………..§ Checks credit
……………………..§ Reviews customer history etc
……………………..§ Credit score wait, when receive decides what to do
……………………..§ 27:00 - Creates (BTS) a word doc w/ a credit report that someone should review (based in Sharepoint) … put information panel @ top to enable the workflow in the document.
………….○ Want to analyze the workflow in aggregate and see where optimization of workflow (auto approvals, time per step, etc)
……………………..§ BTS can provide inform from BAM in SP what the key statistics being tracked (like loans requiring loans requiring human review)
………….○ If a very system focused process maybe just BTS … if human exception processes tied for notable volumes SP is viable
• 33:00 - Partner Solutions
………….○ BPMS Partners
……………………..§ ITP
……………………..§ ProActivity
……………………..§ ProForma
……………………..§ Semtation
……………………..§ Simul8
……………………..§ K2.net
……………………..§ Captaris
……………………..§ Skelta
……………………..§ inRule
……………………..§ RuleBurst
………….○ 35:00 - ITP Commerce - Process Modelling Solutions
……………………..§ Product - Process Modeller for Visio …
…………………………………□ BPMN syntax in visio
…………………………………□ BPEL, XPDL, XLANG mapping
…………………………………□ Word integ / excel integ
…………………………………□ Team repository
…………………………………□ Model analysis
……………………..§ Show Visio w/ their BPMN stencil … How KPI go to excel
……………………..§ Export to BTS (from Visio). Include BAM KPI definition file.
…………………………………□ Creates instrumented orchestration in BTS
……………………..§ Import BAM data to Excel (BAM data). Via Process Modeller (their tool)
……………………..§ 42:00 - Summary
…………………………………□ Model in Visio
…………………………………□ To BTS via XLANG
…………………………………□ Push BAM def to BAM AddIn for Excel
• 44:00 - Roadmap
………….○ BTS 2006 release (3/06)
………….○ Next - o12, .NET 3.0, BTS r2
………….○ Beyond - Modelling, WWF integration, Commoditization of low level integration
• 48:00 - References
………….○ WWw.microsoft.com/BPM
………….○ Partners list –
……………………..§ www.microsoft.com/biztalk/solutions/bpm/partners
……………………..§ [bauer comment - are we on that list]
• 50:00-Q&A
………….○ How developer in BTS takes visio and imports?
……………………..§ Use the BPEL lang or the tool demo’d. Superset of BPEL is XLANG (their partner supports that too).
………….○ Integration of BAM to BI capabilities in o12 (business scorecard and forms point)?
……………………..§ Easy BAM is based on sqlserver analytics cube. So any BI client can hit.

Ah, now here was an example of a webcast where the summary and title sounded great but the horse flagged early in the race:

Integrating BizTalk Server 2006 and Windows Workflow Foundation

This guy was a MVP for MSFT on the BizTalk line and pointed to how they had built a $3M global system that had a plug and play forms model that business users did (basically where workflows or parts can be edited/added on the fly by the business). Unfortunately he didn’t show that too much … but did clearly have a deep DEEP grasp of BTS and WWF. He wandered around like a mad hatter at times.

Still there were keys:

1. BTS Can’t Do the Hosted Rules Model? He didn’t talk to it but one of his slides alluded to it. In short WWF can allow rules to be done in a variety of places (and managed in there). This enables the business to use a tool of thier choice versus a howitzer tool like the BTS Rules Composer. A good reason to weave together BTS and WWF if true.

2. WWF Can Scale Hosted By ASP.NET. Made an interesting point here that if the WWF process is loaded under ASP.NET it would inherit (as any webservice) alot of the scaling. He still feels if you are doing serious applications that BTS should step in for that role.

3. WWF is not the silver bullet. He talked about how alot of shops are getting all warm and fuzzy over WWF and basing apps just on that. He thinks it is too early to say if what the SLA and performance of a WWF solution can be (still in beta). For now BTS should be leveraged and, if it helps, a plan to weave it out if WWF if POC’d at some point to handle the load well alone for a give app.

In short, an intersting deck … but not as cool as the name implies … here are my raw notes.

Watched this webcast today (still gearing on a specific estimate for a client that heavily involves workflow)

Getting Up To Speed with Windows Workflow Foundation (Level 200)

Interesting point I only watched it because it wanted to watch something while I ran. Turns out that a ton of insights came out of it (seems MSFT is gearing up on this topic as well - getting more robust examples each week).

1. Visual Designer (can be hosted outside of VS). Bingo. This is what I have been looking for. The ability for end users to not have to go into VS to edit workflows. They showed a sample application that can allow a user to edit specific areas of workflows defined in VS. Take that and add some G&R/FC special sauce and you have something pretty cool (think similar to ECM templates and global regions couples w/ user definable areas on a website - now think process flow). Huzzah!

2. Sneaky MSFT or shall I say Brillant. It also became evident on what thier angle is on bundling / offering all this power on workflow/rules for free (in effect) to developers. Get the applications hooked on this style of construct and then let the applications dictate when the BizTalk server is needed to support applications that flounder hosting the workflow services on thier own. Brillant.

3. Free Workflow Monitor. They showed a sample application that allows a workflow manager to (1) select a workflow (2) see the history of threads that have gone through it or active ones and (3) drill into one historical thread and see why it pathed the way it did. Huzzah again. More special sauce and you have a nice workflow manager dashboard + a customer service troubleshooting tool (why did transaction xyz process the way it did).

Man … talk about lucking out. I assume that there will be subsequent webcasts that drill into the examples above (typical MSFT style) but this one is definitely worth watching … for the technical and business sides.

Here are my detail notes:

Watched “MSDN Webcast: Using the Business Activity Monitoring Tracking Profile Editor (TPE) Tool and APIs in BizTalk Server 2006 (Level 200) this morning. Here is the link

http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=%7eCMTYDataSvcParams%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032292405%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f%5e%7esParams%5e%7e%2fsParams%5e%7e%2fCMTYDataSvcParams%5e

In short, I continue to refresh my understanding of where MSFT is around this specific enabler because we have a building set of clients that are assessing automation of business processes that includes the ability for management to have visibility into the process. That is where the BAM module comes in. Nothing more than a packaged set of functions (TPE), tables and services that you could build custom … but probably cheaper and more powerful via the product.

My high level notes are as follows:

Quote:

MSDN Webcast: Using the Business Activity Monitoring Tracking Profile Editor (TPE) Tool and APIs in BizTalk Server 2006 (Level 200) Pasted from <http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/calendar/MonthView.aspx?audience=Developer> • 1:50 — Again the visibility slide to drive automation in process • 3:22 — Tools / Roles …………○ BA - Observation Model …………○ Tech - Map Model to API’s • 5:17 — BAM API’s — 4 layers …………○ Direct (visibility, no latency) …………○ Buffered (high throughput, some latency) …………○ Message (high throughput, pipeline participation, logical unit of work commit / tracking .. Avail since biztalk server 2004 sp1 ) …………○ Orchestration — similar to msg but only avail in biztalk envir • 10:50 — EventStream API detail …………○ Begin, Update, End, Add, Enable Continue, Add reference, Flush • 14:18 — Sample Activity Overview (PO) …………○ 3 milestones (recv, approved, ready) …………○ 2 data items (customer name, product) • 15:36 — Sample of code you would do to send events to BAM to track (from the native process) • 17:51 — Overview of the BAM tables updated • 19:00 — Demo of BAM API …………○ Not so good • 23:45 — Shipping Demo …………○ Example of continuation (corralate events from multiple applications / orchestrations). In short parent child relationships relative to what are seens as distinct processes in the org • 32:30 — Tracking Profile Editor (TPE) …………○ TPE — In 2006 how to get away from code …………○ GUI Tool • 34:20 — Demo of TPE (create a TPE Profile) …………○ In BizTalk …………○ Select events to use in the flow …………○ View assemblies / and pipelines and select various steps to make them into milestones …………○ Tracking pipeline, schedules, and orchestrations, and orchestrations (can BAM across all) …………○ 44:00 — Discuss how data pulled from message payload for bam (to continuation created) out of schema …………○ 46:00 — relate activities in BAM (just name them similar, and map keys together)

Watched this webcast this morning:

Quote:

Whats New in the Biz Talk Server 2006 Messaging Engine — Richard Seroter - MSFT — http://blogs.msdn.com/RichardBPI

Was a pretty good webinar 49 minutes w/ q&a after that. Looks like BizTalk is coming of age in the EAI space (TIBCO, WBI, Webmethods, etc). We have seen a larger volume of customers embracing it as thier message bus for key apps in the last six to nine months.

Here is the link:

WEBCAST LINK

Here are my detail notes:

Quote:

Whats New in the Biz Talk Server 2006 Messaging Engine — Richard Seroter - MSFT — http://blogs.msdn.com/RichardBPI • 2:44 — Overview of notable new features in biztalk 2006 (vs 2004) Messaging Engine …………○ Orchestration Engine …………○ Pipelines …………○ Adapters (available in the box to MF and other notable 3rd party systems) • 4:27 — Race conditions (ordered processing) … to insure messages are ordered based on packet info • 6:00 — Demo (ordered processing) • 13:22 — Demo ends. Talk of how ordered processing can do clustered for high avail • 14:00 -0rchestration (convoy’s) discussed • 16:00 - Discuss interchange processing …………○ In 2004 fail on batch (all or none) …………○ In 2006 can process around bad transactions (suspend queue) in batch file • 17:43 - Demo of interchange procesing …………○ 20:01 - Shows (in demo) integration of email/infopath/and sharing of messages (not bad) …………○ 23:00 — Shows pipeline and how you can change @ run time (in visio vs in 2004 had to change files) .. Adds suspend queue to his demo to handle bad transactions …………○ 25:45 — Shows how to debug and view transactions and actually have re-processing occur (to fix known problems) • 28:00 - Failed message routing …………○ In 2004 couldn’t subscribe to that message (to fix) .. Just notification …………○ In 2006 can subscribe for certain msg failures for resolution (and filter based on data - like xyz customer) …………○ 29:59 - Demo of this …………○ 37:02 - Demo ends … review key points hit … key point ability to resume a suspend msg (04 could do outbound only) • 38:30 - Large Msg Handling …………○ Note, recommendation to use sqlserver 2005 x64 when get frequent out of locks on this type of work …………○ Ability to map large files to disc (used to be 1Mb standard in 04) to not swamp memory • 42:23 - Ability to throttle not buried in registry and now just for all or none … can now do host level throttling. • 44:30 - Discussion of how to prioritize msgs from specific systems • 48.21 - Review of materials biztalk focused resources should subscribe to

A slow presentation (set it to 2* speed and it works well … seriously … a nice feature you should leverage in playback) but towards the end the business value of this technology became more self evident.

Specifically the value of Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) for business management is the ability to dynamically setup of alerts (that they can change w/ a couple clicks) on monitored processes in thier org. Think about all the manual processes (or semi manual) that flow through an org today. Where does management want insight? Where do they think there is risk of unethical behavior? What is the $ risk of that occuring.

Here is the link to the discussion:

https://www118.livemeeting.com/cc/_XML/partners1/view?id=3330&fmt=dll&pw=f48dc8

If that doesn’t work goto partner central and search for this in training:

Event Title: BizTalk Server 2006 Business Activity MonitoringRecorded Date: 12/13/2005Duration: 60 minutes

Here are my notes from the discussion:

Quote:

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) - BizTalk 2006 (BAM). MSFT Webinar. **BAM 2004 vs BAM 2006, biz talk orchestration and msging covered. **claims (interesting angle) that there is process automation in the typical org (xls macros, sas, etc) **Visability **4:36 — Basics of a value proposition is value of visibility of a process can drive automation (BAM) **Example of process that crosses divisions, systems, and branches … but how does business owner see where a process is for a given transaction … manual intensive issue **BAM instruments all processes (small changes in each system state). KPI metrics from that tied to business focused questions on state of transactions. –BAM is to Business Events what OLAP is to Reporting. Viewing complex data on current business events. –Create views of BAM Activity by Role in org. – –BAM 2004 overview — business resource activities created (and views) created in xls. IT rsrc used BAM utilitiy to create BAM infrastructure to track that in Database. Then the business resource views via a live xls. –BAM 2006. –1–Data can be viewed via webparts and/or ODBC integration. –2–Alerts on significant event or data point –3–Out of box dashboard (webparts). 2004 had a basic webpart. –4–Native integration to Biztalk messages (no changes required for apps that base on BizTalk). Add instrumentation step into Biztalk pipeline (config vs code). –5–(coming) integration to SQL Reporting Services. –Business User .. Viso/Excel still used to create observation model. Called ODBA. –demo 24:50 –issue on 29min … so skip to 30 minutes. –31:40 samples of xls reporting … how to create a view by a business owners. –BAM Manager is still command line to deploy (interesting). –Deploy produces XML config script in effect … based on xls workbook def –Nice feature (self service on alers) –39:13 portal view in sps viewed … allow you to to search all transactions being tracked in BAM… filter by fields on transaction … can also create on the fly different alerts or subscribers. Nice. –43:00 another snafu … didn’t have data yet … doh! –44:00 detail discuss of alert functionality. Using SQL Analytic Services to drive this. For example alert on PO > $100. –Again here is business value … management visability to transactions that they are concerned about … slippage, high $, etc. Key is figuring out what the business mgmt would like to know about processes that are going on (could change over time) and enable BAM to watch for it on thier behalf. –POS is best example … –53:00 … alerts continued … instance query alerts ..