An example of #entarch contributing to a business strategy

"The aim of this Brief is to outline how the coherent use of several existing information technologies can significantly accelerate the achievement of the vision stated in the Bank’s Long-Term Strategy (LTS)."

UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY FOR AFRICA: ARCHITECTING THE SYNERGY BETWEEN EXISTING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

Thanks,
AS

SAP Tech 2012 Madrid 4th half-day

4 hours hands-on workshop for SAP PI 7.31 (PMC262):

1) good complimentary work between BPMs and PI
2) majority of PI configuration from Eclipse
3) simple configuration of PI's information flows
4) naming convention from SAP (!)
5) boundary between BPMs and PI is flexible thus requires good recommendations. For example, PMC262 puts some logic in PI while I would consider to put the same logic in BPM (actually in its inter-process communication part) for easier maintenance and monitoring. In case of performance, it may go to PI.
6) configurable alerts

Thanks,
AS

SAP Tech 2012 Madrid 3rd day

1) Agile implementation methodology ASAP 8: SCRUM-based + accelerators(!)
2) Accelerators example: irise for mock-up; co-development and co-innovation
3) Roles management in NW identity management
4) Visual composer and adobe forms are dead - use HTML5 kit
5) BW may be on top of Hana
6) NW gateway for human-centric applications; potential emdebbing into NW
7) SAP is moving to the core banking and Africa
8) NW PI is a normal ESB
9) NW in the cloud: ability to work together with SAP's dev teams!

Thanks,
AS

SAP Tech 2012 Madrid 2nd day

1) NetWeaver BPM can handle many pools in one diagram - pools are treated as separate processes (templates and processes) in case of async invocation
2) Event layer is available to externalise events from SAP ECC6, NW and SAP WF - this is a way to understand existing implicit processes
3) CEP engine is coming
4) It seems that BW will be replaced by something based on HANA
5) HTML5 is the choice to go to mobile apps which should work on-line and off-line
6) SUP is the way to communicate between SAP and mobile

+ A very good ipad application as a conference guide with personalised agenda

Thanks,
AS

SAP Tech 2012 Madrid 1st day

A few quick points:

1) Synergetic  mobile+cloud+big data offer
2) Fun with NetWeaver development studio exercise which looks similar to Intalio thus easy to complete the job first in the class :)
3) Impressively strong internal EA function at SAP AG

Thanks,
AS

Practical process anti-pattern: NAP

No Aggregated Participant (NAP)

It was noticed that the use of swimlines forces to put too much details in the diagram thus making it not easy to understand. With swimlines there is no place for a group of "tiny" activities which are carried out by several participants (each of them already has her/her own swimline), or "aggregated participant".

Without swimlines the use of  "aggregated participant" may simplify complex diagrams.

This simplified diagram is very close the pattern IPS (Initial Process Skeleton, see my book www.samarin.biz/book) and the "Approve proposal" activity is similar to the pattern DAM (Delegation Authority Matrix - see http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.com/2012/07/practical-process-pattern-dam.html).

Actually, we follow the pattern DIP (Decompose In Patterns - see http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.com/2011/06/practical-process-patterns-dip.html ).

Thanks,
AS

Practical process anti-pattern: RID

The anti-pattern Ruined in Details (RID) was detected while looking at business processes documented by the users.  Often, the sequence of activities (or tasks) is the following:
...
Role B: receive documents from role A
Role B: do your work
Role B: send documents to role C
Role C: receive documents from role B
Role C: do your work
Role C: send documents to role D
...

Sure that receiving and sending documents are important, but those activities don't add the value. Indicating only value-added-value activities (e.g. "do your work") will make diagrams more compact and easier to understand.

Maybe this anti-pattern is a sign that there are problems with integration?

Thanks,
AS