Claus Hagen

Flexible exception handling in the OPERA process support system

Exceptions are one of the most pervasive problems in process support systems. In installations expected to handle a large number of processes, having exceptions is bound to be a normal occurrence. Any programming tool intended for large, complex applications has to face this problem. However, current process support systems, despite their orientation towards complex, distributed, and heterogeneous applications, provide almost no support for exception handling. This paper shows how flexible mechanisms for failure handling are incorporated into the OPERA process support system using a combination of programming language concepts and transaction processing techniques. The resulting mechanisms allow the construction of fault-tolerant workflow processes in a transparent and flexible way while ensuring reusability of workflow components.

The fruits of Business Process Management: an experience report from a Swiss bank

Purpose – This paper aims to describe how process reengineering, combined with the use of modern process‐oriented information technology, can lead to substantial improvements in terms of overall process quality.Design/methodology/approach – A real‐life case study from the financial industry is used to show how process management can take place in a competitive business area. Four processes (each with a different characteristic) are used to explain the approaches implemented.Findings – Through the combination of process restructuring and the application of modern IT, processes can be improved significantly. First of all, cycle times of the restructured business processes have been reduced. Second, reliability of processes has been improved. Third, process‐related performance has become more visible, which in turn is a good basis for further enhanced performance.Originality/value – This experience report illustrates that the concept of process reengineering is applicable, and that the potential of many proc...

Geo-Opera: Workflow Concepts for Spatial Processes

A Process Support System provides the tools and mechanisms necessary to define, implement and control processes, i.e., complex sequences of program invocations and data exchanges. Due to the generality of the notion of process and the high demand for the functionality they provide, process support systems are starting to be used in a variety of application areas, from business re-engineering to experiment management. In particular, recent results have shown the advantages of using such systems in scientific applications and the work reported in this paper is to be interpreted as one more step in that direction. The paper describes Geo-Opera, a process support system tailored to spatial modeling and GIS engineering. Geo-Opera facilitates the task of coordinating and managing the development and execution of large, computer-based geographic models. It provides a flexible environment for experiment management, incorporating many characteristics of workflow management systems as well as a simple but expressive process modeling language, exception handling, and data and metadata indexing and querying capabilities.

Beyond the black box: event-based inter-process communication in process support systems

We describe the concept and implementation of an inter-process communication facility based on the exchange of events between concurrently running processes. In contrast to previous approaches based on shared data stored in a common database, our approach has the advantage of being platform independent and providing straightforward support for distribution. In addition, we also explore the problem of process atomicity and consistency when events are revoked due to the abort of processes. We present a family of recovery protocols that allow to control the effects of aborted processes.

Business process monitoring & measurement in a large bank: challenges and selected approaches

In order to gain competitive advantage, many companies are engaging in the reorganization of their business processes and in implementing automated or semi-automated process execution based on workflow and process engines. In order to improve business processes continuously, closed-loop systems are required. This paper describes how a combination of process modeling, process execution, and process measurement has been applied at Credit Suisse, a large Swiss bank operating internationally. The paper shows that explicit process models are a vital requirement for process measurement. Moreover, it illustrates the strengths and limitations of a particular performance management tool that has been in place for about a year. Based on practical experience with different process engines and a process performance management software, alternative architectures are suggested to support process monitoring, process measurement, and business activity monitoring (BAM).

Towards a platform for distributed application development

This paper describes the architecture of a generic platform for building distributed systems over stand alone applications. The proposed platform integrates ideas and technology from areas such as distributed and parallel databases, transaction processing systems, and workflow management. The main contribution of this research effort is to propose a “kernel” system providing the “essentials” for distributed processing and to show the important role database technology may play in supporting such functionality. These include a powerful process management environment, created as a generalization of workflow ideas and incorporating transactional notions such as spheres of isolation, atomicity, and persistence and a transactional engine enforcing these “quality guarantees” based on the nested and multi-level models. It also includes a tool-kit providing externalized database functionality enabling physical database design over heterogeneous data repositories. The potential of the proposed platform is demonstrated by several concrete applications currently being developed.

Highly available process support systems: implementing backup mechanisms

Availability in process support systems (PSS) can be achieved by using standby mechanisms that allow a backup server to take over in case a primary server fails. These mechanisms, resembling the process pair approach used in operating systems, require the primary to send information about state changes to the backup on a regular basis. In PSS where all relevant state information is stored in a database, there are two principal strategies for synchronizing a primary-backup pair. One is to use the replication mechanisms provided by the DBMS. Another is to implement a message mechanism to exchange state information between servers above the database level. For both approaches, several variants exist that allow to trade run-time performance for failover time. This paper discusses the possible strategies and evaluates their performance based on an implementation within the OPERA process support kernel.

Fifteen Years of Service-Oriented Architecture at Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse has been an adopter of service oriented architecture (SOA) principles and patterns since the beginnings of this architectural style, even before the term appeared. The authors reflect on the financial institutions journey from using tightly integrated mainframe programs to open SOA services, emphasizing the importance of interface contracts and service governance in corporate IT.