Back to basics: what does W4 BPM Suite do? Before answering this question, let’s take a look at what American analysts have said: Forrester Research recognized our software solution as being a “strong performer” in the category of “Human-Centric BPM, Q4 2007”.  For its part, Gartner, which recently published a very selective similar study (the famous Magic Quadrant dedicated to BPM suites) lists W4 as being a “pure player” BPM suite.

Then concretely, what does W4 BPM Suite do? Basically, it serves to automate company processes and to do this, the software application includes a set of functions necessary for the execution of projects of this kind, from the description/discovery of processes to control panels, to the inclusion of tools for the creation of presentations (collaborative, professional applications).  On the process side, the “human-centric” orientation means that the type of  processing undertaken is rather of the unitary kind, in contrast to batch processing. However, this doesn’t mean that the actions are only “human” (that is to say interactive): the suite includes real functions for integration with the information system and thus covers all of the needs for automation of the enterprise’s professional business processes and of intranet as well as extranet coverage, by the possible involvement of partners, clients or even providers, in complete security. Finally, the automation of processes cannot be fully justified without a measurement tool, whether it is instantaneous (commonly called business activity monitoring) or consolidated (reporting).

Let’s now see “how”, by describing in detail the method for implementing a business processing management project with W4 BPM Suite.
Description of the conceptual method used

1/ Functional analysis and modelling of processes
Functional analysis allows us to specify the application’s processes and set of functionalities. For that, the following must be studied:

• The data manipulated by the application as well as the way in which they are posted, their management and consolidation rules in databases,
• Those involved in using the application and their associated roles and functions,
• The processes: sequences of stages and detailed activities (forms),
• Ancillary functions whether or not they are related to the workflow: a basket of users’ tasks, a research, balance sheet and report interface and help online…

Once this functional analysis has been performed, the W4 procedure can be modelled.
The process is created graphically with the W4 BPM Studio tool.

The sequence of stages must be defined (human or system actions), the participants’ roles, the routing nodes (condition, parallelism), the delays and alarms.

The data managed and their use must also be defined at each one of the stages.

This graphic representation emanates directly from the user’s needs. This diagram which programs the engine is completely understood by a user acquainted with the professional need.

Nevertheless, it implements the workflow functions and requires mastery of workflow logic and a knowledge of workflow functions, so as to guarantee:

• optimisation of the modelling,
• cohesion between the modelling and the ergonomics of the application and
• cohesion between the final application and the need expressed.

For this reason, it will be carried out by a project management advisor (or application consultant) with expertise in using the modelling tool.

2/ Creation of the collaborative, professional application for Web browsers
Once the process has been defined graphically, the user interfaces are automatically generated from the generation  model. Personalisation of the interfaces generated is accomplished using the W4 BPM Studio tool within the context of available configurations.
These configurations represent the specific functionalities which are most frequently employed in the course of using workflow in the enterprise. They will facilitate the rapid implementation of new processes by assembling different modules (representation and recovery of data, specific Webpages for the management of a task and the personalised posting of lists of tasks …).

System actions can also be assembled,  either by calling on connectors or by calling on  technical flows (examples: a specific alarm, the creation of an XML file, or monitoring messaging,…).

The generation of the application from a generation model, the configuration of the generated interfaces, the request to connectors and the creation of technical flows by graphic assembly of components are actions which need the assistance of a main contractor (an application developer).

3/ Personalisation of generation models
A generation model to be used is similar to an application (it assumes its structure) whose contextual data (procedural standard and variables) are replaced by keywords which will be substituted during the generation. In addition, once the application has been generated in accordance with this model, its pages contain certain elements which can be configured in W4 BPM Studio.

It’s possible to develop one’s own generation library so that, on the one hand, the application produced meets the need perfectly and on the other hand to gain in subsequent productivity for the production of all W4 applications.

Generation libraries provided by W4 can be modified and personalised freely in order to enhance the models with pages and/or objects. In particular, it incorporates the graphic chart.

The tools for realisation of the generation model are the standard tools on the market, such as Eclipse and Websphere… for the development of JAVA and Visual Studio.NET applications for Microsoft environments.

The new W4 applications will be based afterwards on the generation model which was developed thanks to the W4 BPM Studio tool and thus, will allow teams to create future applications.

The technical design will be executed by a computer specialist (a developer).

4/ In conclusion,
The creation of collaborative professional applications owes nothing to chance and requires  a structured approach, starting with the initial functional need. The methods used enable us to guarantee that the duration of projects will be short (more than half of W4 projects last less than 3 months) due in particular to successive validation of the important stages (modelling/unitary integration /global approval). Each change accomplished in a part of the process does not call the entire process into question and it’s thus that agility and flexibility are part of the package thanks to W4 BPM Suite.