Workflow Management Systems Comparison Study

Sudan University of Science and TechnologyCollege of Graduate Studies

Workflow Management Systems Comparison Study BizAgi vs. Joget

Master In Computer ScienceSoftware Engineering Track

Prepared By:

Farh Mohamed Zeinelabdeen Abdelgader

Supervised By:

Dr. Mohamed Elhafiz Mustafa

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AGENDA:

• Background .• Problem Definition .• Research Objectives.• Workflow & Business Process .• Tools.• Case Study & Comparison Framework.• Discussion & Results.• Conclusion.

Master Thesis Presentation - Workflow Management Systems Comparison Study

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BACKGROUND

• In the 1980s, the term workflow was first used (called "WorkFlo") by Ted Smith and Ed Miller.[1][2]

• A workflow management system is a computer system that manages and defines a series of tasks within an organization to produce a final outcome or outcomes.

• Workflow management systems may control automated processes in addition to replacing paper work order transfers .


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PROBLEM DEFINITION

• To develop a framework for:• How to select the more suitable WFMS

(BizAgi and Joget) for a given project?• Which one of BizAgi and Joget may be best

suited for use in various situations? • What are the strong features and the week ones

of each tool, the differences and similarities between WFMS (BizAgi and Joget)?


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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• To study the workflow to highlight the activities and phases of the development lifecycle of projects.

• To develop a comparative study between BizAgi software tools and Joget software tools.

• To develop a case study practices in SUST MS.c Online Application system which presents the documentation of how to apply the system processes using two tools.


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WORKFLOW & BUSINESS PROCESS


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WORKFLOW

• The computerized facilitation or automation of a business process, in whole or part [3].

• Workflow is often associated with Business Process Re-engineering (BPR).

• Workflow Management System : A system that completely defines manages and executes “workflows” through the execution of software whose order of execution is driven by a computer representation of the workflow logic [4].


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CONT …

• A process specification (or workflow schema) describes a type of process that can be interpreted as a template for the execution of concrete workflow instances [6].


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WORKFLOW LIFE CYCLE


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BUSINESS PROCESS

• Defined by Davenport and Short (1990) as "a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome".

• Hammer and Champy (1993) : "a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer".

• We use the term "business process" to refer to a conceptual way of organizing work and resources in this sense; a business process is not tangible. [5]


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TOOLS


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• Bizagi is software suite with two complementary products, a Process Modeler and a BPM Suite, With Bizagi most of the common and reoccurring requirements in process automation.

• Bizagi Architecture


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• Joget Workflow is a workflow management system that serves as a platform for users to design, deploy and run workflows for their organization's business processes

• Joget System Components


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CASE STUDY & COMPARISON FRAMEWORK


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CASE STUDY Online Application Process


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COMPARISON FRAMEWORK


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DISCUSSION & RESULTS


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PROCESS MODELINGProcess modeling is used to model a system using Business Process

Modeling Notation (BPMN) .• Bizagi uses Bizagi Process Modeler for modeling BPMN while Joget

uses Workflow Designer. • Bizagi Process Modeler allows you to draw business process of the

system and export and import the process in many formats includes: XPDL (version 2), Visio, and export PDF, Word, Image.

• Workflow Designer is used to design a business process in Joget. it allows you to export and import processes into only XPDL (version 1).

• We can not import Bizagi .XPDL into Joget workflow designer because of the incompatibility of versions.

• Each one of tools (BizAgi or Joget) is excellent in process modeling, so both of them get 1 in this category.


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MONITORING• In BizAgi the administrator or a user who has access to monitoring

page can view the distribution of cases of each of the system users.• A list is displayed for each user, with all the pending activities.• The case search can be carried out in accordance with the

following criteria :(Area, Role, Location, Skill, and Position).• In Joget the Workflow Monitor feature enables the system

administrator to monitor the workflows running in the system.• The system admin can monitor the running processes and update

the activities if required.• Completed processes or aborted processes and activities can also

be monitored.• BizAgi provide the monitoring best than Joget according to this

BizAgi get two marks and zero for Joget.


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PROCESS ENGINE• BizAgi incorporates an underlying caching component to

improve performance and scalability for complex processes, handling large numbers of cases and process definitions.

• Effectively, this component ensures that relevant information is retrieved automatically in advance of the point where it is needed. Otherwise, the product relies on the .NET or J2EE container for clustering, fail-over and fault tolerance.

• The standard installation of Joget Workflow is bundled with Apache Tomcat as the servlet/JSP container. Apache Tomcat is the reference JSP/container since its inception. Despite a lack of full JEE support, it certainly has its appeal.

• Each one of tools (BizAgi or Joget) is excellent in process engine, so both of them get 1 in this category.


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BUSINESS ACTIVITY MONITORING• BizAgi provides four indicator groups:

– Process BAM: Provides information on the current status of ongoing cases.– Task BAM: Provides information on the current status of ongoing activities.– Process Analytics: Presents summaries of the cases and activities that are

currently closed.– Task Analytics: Presents information of closed activities that belong to closed

cases.– Sensor Analytics: Provides information of the phases (or paths) defined by the

user .

• Joget does not provide any good business activity monitoring but it has made an advanced BAM package. There is a free edition but it is restricted to one instance. Businesses would have to buy the enterprise edition .

• According to above BizAgi get two marks, where Joge we give them zero mark for not meeting our expectations.


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COMPARISON RESULTS


Criteria Joget BizAgi

Process Modeling 1 1

Monitoring 0 2

Process Engine 1 1

Business Activity Monitoring 0 2

Total 2 6

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CONCLUSION

• This research compared two Workflow Management System BizAgi (academic version it support all features but only for ten users) and Joget (Community Edition is available free under the open source General Public License (GPL).

• The research was focused on the Process Modeling, Monitoring, Process Engine and Business Activity Monitoring.

• The research show that the BizAgi tool has satisfactory performance during development, as it was quite easy to develop the case study.


25Master Thesis Presentation - Workflow Management Systems Comparison Study

REFERENCES

[1] H.C. Sun and Y.Y. Du, 2008. Soundness Analysis ofInter-OrganizationalWorkflows. Information Technology Journal, 7: 1194-1199.

[2] N. B. Dubey , 2009. Office Management: Developing Skills for Smooth Functioning. Global India Publications. ISBN 978-93-80228-16-7.

[3] M. Dumas, Wil van der Aalst and Arthur H.M. ter Hofstede ed. (2005).Process-

Aware Information Systems. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-66306-9.[4] WfMC. 1993. Workflow management coalition. Internet: http:// www. wfmc.org/

(accessed May 23, 2012)[5] H. A. Reijers. Design and Control of Workflow Processes: Business Process

Management for the Service Industry, volume 2617 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2003.

[6] M. Dumas, W.M.P. van der Aalst, A.H.M. ter Hofstede . Process-Aware Information Systems: Bridging People and Software Through Process Technology. John Wiley and Sons, 2005.

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Workflow Management Systems Comparison Study