BPM Project meetings

OLE Project meeting on BPM – Notes from Day 1 – Nov.6, 2008

The OLE Project is meeting at Rutgers University Nov. 6-8, 2008 for training in Business Process Modeling (BPM) and for general project planning. Notes from Nov. 6, 2008 follow.

• This meeting includes representatives from 15 libraries or consortia, from diverse types of libraries and from 3 countries: Columbia University, Duke University, Indiana University, Lehigh University, Library and Archives Canada, National Library of Australia, OhioLink, Rutgers University, University of Chicago, University of Florida, University of Kansas, University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University, Whittier College
• Marianne Gaunt, University Librarian at Rutgers, welcomed the group and discussed the importance of the OLE Project for her library and other libraries. She has invited directors of libraries in the region to dinner tonight, so we can share information about OLE and encourage additional libraries to participate in the project
• Kyle Gabhart of Web Age Solutions, Inc. provided training on Business Process Modeling for SOA.
• Training included analysis of case studies.
• Some questions/issues discussed during the training included

- top down vs. bottom up approaches to BPM and SOA – impact of each approach

- SOA is not just a software methodology. It is an overall problem solving approach which involves the entire business in developing a solution.

- viability of SOA as long term approach (designed for flexibility and change)

- challenge of adhering to standards when the standards are not fully evolved. Libraries tend to spend a lot of time defining standards, but by the time we get our systems built on those standards, they are no longer useful. Should we be less concerned about library standards, and more concerned about service definitions that can be changed over time? Think about the number one use case as a starting point.

- It is essential to be able to state the problem clearly, in one or two sentences.

- Our libraries used to be the center of the information universe. Now, we need to be able to interoperate with other information worlds – Google, etc.

- Objective analysis of our organizations and innovative thinking about our activities and mission can be threatening. How do we get our existing organizations to embrace change?

- Must be able to handle consortia of libraries as well as libraries as stand-alone units. Need to be able to handle many different types of libraries. If we think of ourselves as information specialists, how do we interact with other information services on campus?

- Focusing on our core mission and services, and freeing ourselves from tasks which could be performed by other parts of the enterprise, is critical.

- We spend a lot of time massaging data that comes from other parts of the enterprise. It would be valuable to think of those components as services.

• We did a hands-on lab using the Eclipse software, which is an open-source tool for BPM.
• We broke into groups of 5 – 6 and modeled the process “fulfillment of a request for a resource.” We might call this “Circulation” but we are trying not to be locked into traditional ILS terminology. We took photos of the diagrams different groups developed. Comment made: isn’t this similar to business processes such as renting a video, renting a car, etc. We should consider practices outside of libraries that could inform our workflows.
• There are patterns emerging that could be useful starting points for us, e.g., Thomas Erl’s recent book of 45 SOA patterns.
• There might be multiple models that could be considered feasible. Stakeholders and high level organization goals (business drivers) might influence which model we use. For example, saving money vs. fitting the university accreditation goals could lead toward adoption of different models for the same workflow.
• Key Business Processes – which ones are we focused on? See page 5-5
  Answer: To some extent, all three
  Mike Winkler had good explanation
  Core processes – committed to developing a system that enables libraries to run their business
  Supporting processes – Enterprise approach is to connect with other infrastructure at university
  Strategic Processes – Ultimate goal is strategic ones – growing our “market,” adding value and enhancing our mission
• Project goals include:
  - freeing our processes from our technology
  - creating a system that allow us to use our human resources in the most efficient way so as to make sure we are spending the most time on the things that are most important to our libraries
  - want to focus on things are unique to us or most important to us – take advantage of other systems to do things that are not as critical to our mission or could be handed off
  - become more agile in an environment which is changing rapidly
  - have the capacity to adapt to new information content models
• We need to be able to describe the core processes we will model. We haven’t yet decided how to do this, because we don’t want to get locked into standard wording which prompts us to recreate the old model. But, we also need to convey that we will provide the functionality needed to run our organizations. Looking at other domains might help us think things through without getting locked into our community’s way of thinking about things. For example, the medical world is also struggling with new ways to define their service models. Evolutionary vs revolutionary.
• Process scope – art more than science. A process model is good enough if you can describe it to someone outside of your industry in the time it takes to ride an elevator 5 stories.
• Challenge – where to start? Everything is connected to everything else. Pick a mid-level of complexity – not the hardest problem, and not a very simple process; something that would produce noticeable results but does not carry high risk to the organization.