Camunda BPMN — Business Process Management for MicroServices

What is a Business Process Management Software?

Business Process Management (BPM) is a type of technology that helps organizations design, model, execute, monitor, and optimize their business processes. BPM software provides a centralized platform for managing process workflows, automating routine tasks, and improving overall process efficiency.

BPM softwares are used across a variety of industries, including healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, to manage a range of processes such as customer onboarding, invoicing, and order fulfillments. The software can be tailored to the specific needs of an organization, making it a flexible solution for managing business processes.

Why Do Organizations Need BPM?

1. Improving process efficiency: BPM software helps organizations identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and areas for improvement in their business processes. It also provides tools for automating routine tasks and streamlining workflows, which can increase overall process efficiency.
2. Enhancing customer satisfaction: BPM can help organizations streamline their customer-facing processes, reducing wait times, increasing accuracy, and providing a better customer experience.
3. Increasing transparency and accountability: BPM software provides real-time visibility into the performance of business processes, making it easier to track progress, identify issues, and take corrective action.
4. Improving compliance: BPM software can help organizations ensure that their processes are in compliance with regulations and industry standards, reducing the risk of legal penalties and reputational damage.
5. Supporting digital transformation: BPM software can support digital transformation initiatives by providing a centralized platform for managing digital processes and integrating with other systems and technologies.

What are Popular BPM Softwares?

There are many Business Process Management (BPM) software solutions available on the market. Some of the most popular BPM software include:

1. Appian: A cloud-based BPM platform that offers process automation, low-code app development, and real-time analytics.
2. IBM BPM: A comprehensive BPM solution that provides process design, simulation, execution, monitoring, and optimization capabilities.
3. Pega BPM: A cloud-based BPM platform that offers process automation, case management, customer engagement, and decision management capabilities.
4. ProcessMaker: An open-source BPM software that provides process design, automation, and collaboration capabilities for organizations of all sizes.
5. Nintex: A cloud-based BPM platform that offers process automation, workflow management, and document generation capabilities.
6. Bonita BPM: An open-source BPM software that provides process design, simulation, execution, and monitoring capabilities.
7. Activiti: An open-source BPM platform that provides process design, execution, and monitoring capabilities.
8. Oracle BPM: A comprehensive BPM solution that provides process design, simulation, execution, monitoring, and optimization capabilities.

These are just a few examples of the many BPM software solutions available in the market, best solution for your organization will depend on your specific business needs and cost.

How does the Camunda BPM stands among above softwares?

Camunda BPM is a popular Business Process Management (BPM) software that is known for its open-source, flexible, and scalable architecture. Here are some ways in which Camunda BPM stands out among other BPM software solutions:

1. Open-source: Camunda BPM is an open-source platform, which means that organizations can access the source code and make custom modifications to the software. This gives organizations greater control and customization options compared to proprietary BPM software.
2. Flexibility: Camunda BPM provides a flexible, modular architecture that can be easily adapted to the specific needs of an organization. It can be used to automate a wide range of processes, from simple workflows to complex, multi-step processes.
3. Scalability: Camunda BPM is designed to be highly scalable, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises.
4. Integration: Camunda BPM integrates with a wide range of systems and technologies, including cloud platforms, databases, and development tools.
5. User-friendly: Camunda BPM provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface for designing and managing processes.

Designing a Business Process using Camunda Modeler

Let’s suppose we have developed a new application named Orders and now we are going to integrate our business process into Orders, problem statement is as follows.

“When a record of Order is created it goes to `New` status, now user have following choices on newly created item :

(a). Mark Completed

(b). Mark Cancelled

After selecting one of the choices the status will change according to the selected choice and the process will be finished.

Steps to Create process:

Step 1: Open Camunda Modeler and create a BPMN Diagram.

Step 2: Drag Service Task and target the flow to it, coming from the process Start Event.

Step 3: Left click on the service task and fill the details as given:

Step 4: Drag User Task and target the flow to it, coming from the process Service Task.

Step 5: Now we have a user task and here we will provide the User choices. Click on the user task and fill the details:

You can add plenty of variables like Order, Choice, ActionLabel etc… depending upon your need, In the same way add one more choice with name ‘ActionCompleted’ and defines variable for same as well.

Step 5: Now drag a Exclusive Gateway :

Step 6: Now drag two service tasks and link them with Exclusive Gateway. These tasks are used to change the status according to the choice given by the user and fill the details as described in Step 2.

Step 7: Now click on the FLOW ARROW coming from the exclusive gateway. Let’s click on the flow arrow connected to the completed service task and fill the details as given below:

Step 8: Now end the process.

Messaging and Process Communication

Use publisher-subscriber like rabbitmq or awssqs for process-to-process communication. We publish a message using the delegate and the Message Event listens to that message, sample format of defining the message event is as given below

Camunda Modeler provides flexibility to achieve plenty to tasks like custom forms, order management of user tasks, notifications, users who can take actions etc… all depends upon how to design your process and write delegate functions to achieve desired results.

FieldCircle has successfully served over 200 clients, catering to their specific requirements through the robust BPM capabilities offered by our SAAS software. If you need assistance in designing tailored processes for your organization or integrating Camunda into your existing solutions, we are here to help. Feel free to reach out to us at ankurlnmiit@gmail.com to explore how we can support you further.