Essential Business Process Modeling

Summary

The main points in this chapter include the following:

• Hyped by vendors and consultants, the Message Broker is not a technological breakthrough but a sensible solution to the common problem of intersystem interactions in the enterprise.

  Figure 11-10. Dashboard confirmation of medical process

• One manifestation of that problem is the proliferation of point-to-point interfaces. In the worst case, if there are N systems and each connects to each other, the number of required interfaces is N * (N - 1)/2. But if each system connects solely to the central hub of Message Broker, only N connections are needed.

• The quantity of connections is one concern, but even more troublesome is the quality. The diversity of interface transport mechanisms and messaging formats in a large enterprise is unmanageable. To introduce Message Broker into a corporate architecture requires standardization of these layers, including the adoption of technologies such as ESB and canonical XML. Systems that cannot be reworked to fit this model require adapters.

• BPM is a good technology fit for Message Broker; BPM processes are good representations of complex message routing logic.

• A lengthy example of an Employee Benefits Message Broker is provided. The broker is a set of business processes that routes messages from an HR Portal web application to two internal systems—HR and Payroll—and two insurance companies—life ...