Given the immutable nature of the Smart Contracts (as well as the transactions) in a Blockchain, and the impact a (buggy) Smart Contract can have across a business network (as highlighted by The DAO Attack), Smart Contracts require extra due diligence. Having worked with Business Rules Management Systems (especially IBM Operational Decision Manager/ILOG) for the past 10+ years, I see a lot of similarities between Smart Contracts and Decision Services. Though they have different purpose (Smart Contracts are used to manage the state of an underlying asset, and Decision Services are used to make decisions), both of them are essentially a collection of business rules with rule flows, and both of them have similar needs.

Support for Custom Business Friendly Rules Language: Decision Services require a business friendly language so that they can be easily authored and maintained by business users. Since each business can have a different business vocabulary, the language needs to be customizable. Similarly, as I summarized in my last post, Smart Contracts have a legal aspect, and need a rules language, which can combine the legal prose with code. Since each industry can have different vocabulary, Smart Contracts also need a customizable rules language.

Support for Rules Templates: In case of Decision Services, Rules Templates allow a business user to create multiple instances of a business rule by parameterizing the corresponding Rules Template. A similar need exists for Smart Contracts so that common rules templates can be created for an industry, which then can be customized by each business network (as needed).

Support for Rules Analysis: Similar to a Decision Service, Smart Contract rules also require Static rules analysis as well as Semantic Query capabilities. While Static rules analysis can help identify those rules (within a Smart Contract) that might be conflicting, overlapping, may cause domain violation, or may cause the Smart Contract to use too much CPU (or Gas), Semantic Query can help identify rules (across Smart Contracts) that might be affected by a change in regulations.

Support for Business Driven Change and Release Management: Like Business Rules, Smart Contracts also requires Business Driven Change and Release Management. Based upon the agreed upon Change and Release Management process, (permissioned) parties in a business network should be able to simulate changes to a SmartContract, initiate a Change Request; approve or deny a Change Request; make the changes to the Smart Contract; test changes to the Smart Contract; approve or reject the changes; and deploy the new version of the Smart Contract.

Support for Versioning and Routing: Some of the Business Rules Management Systems use a well-defined versioning strategy to automatically route the requests for a Decision Service to the latest backward compatible version of the Decision Service (if the request does not specify a specific version). Similar capability is needed for the Smart Contracts so that the Smart Contracts requests and registered users can be automatically moved to the latest backward compatible version (with bug fixes) of the Smart Contract.

Conclusion: Given the similarities between Smart Contracts management needs and the Decision Services management needs, with some modifications, it might be possible to manage Smart Contracts using Business Rules Management Systems. For example, if Hyperledger can add support for ILOG Rule Language (IRL) then it might be possible to develop and manage Smart Contracts using IBM Operational Decision Manager – Decision Center. This requires further investigation.

For more on blockchain, join our upcoming webinar:

John Wood, Program Director of IBM PartnerWorld Digital Content, chats with Perficient’s Vishal Rajpal at the IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference. John and Vishal discuss Perficient’s second consecutive Beacon Award, our Immersion solution, and the value of customers in helping develop technology that enables the adoption of cloud.

John Jenkins, VP of Perficient’s IBM business unit, on stage at IBM’s PartnerWorld Leadership Conference

We’re excited to announce that Perficient won the 2016 IBM Beacon Award for Outstanding Enterprise Cloud Solution. Each year, this top honor is awarded to a few elite IBM Business Partners who have delivered exceptional solutions that drive business value and digitally transform the way clients and industries do business. The 2016 awards recognize achievements across a wide-range of solution areas, including, cloud, analytics, mobile, security, and social business.

The Outstanding Enterprise Cloud Solution award was presented to Perficient for its Immersion Solution, a migration-as-a-service for the IBM Bluemix® platform that boosts in-cloud application development efficiency nearly 40% over standard migration practices. Immersion, built with Bluemix, Softlayer, and UrbanCode, reduces the cost and increases the velocity at which existing on-premises IT can be migrated through continuous delivery, validation, and connectivity.

“Cloud and digital transformation are part of everyday conversation as companies seek competitive advantages, faster time to market, and improved customer experiences,” said Vishal Rajpal, general manager of Perficient’s IBM Cloud and DevOps Group. “Our proven processes and methodologies help enterprise customers accelerate their journey using private and hybrid-based solutions for new implementations as well as successful migrations of their on-premises workloads. This award is great recognition for the success we’ve experienced in helping our customers and our partners navigate the cloud journey.”

This is Perficient’s second consecutive Beacon Award. In 2015, the company received the Outstanding Information Management Solution for its Health Analytics Gateway, a robust information management framework that streamlines data processing for health care organizations. Perficient also was named Worldwide Analytics Business Partner of the Year during IBM Insight in October.

“The IBM Beacon Awards recognize business partners who continually deliver transformative solutions that help clients prepare for the cloud and cognitive era,” said Marc Dupaquier, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners. “We’d like to congratulate Perficient on winning the Beacon Award for Outstanding Enterprise Cloud Solution and serving as a trusted business advisor to clients with the Immersion Solution for IBM Bluemix.”

John Jenkins speaking on cloud trends at PWLC

The Beacon Awards were presented at IBM’s PartnerWorld Leadership Conference this week to John Jenkins, Vice President of Perficient’s IBM business unit. During the conference, John also had the opportunity to speak alongside Robert LeBlanc, Worldwide VP of Cloud Computing, on the changes we’re seeing in cloud adoption. While just a few years ago, executives were hesitant to make the move, now “Those same CEOs are trying to push everything to the cloud,” John said.

A couple of weeks ago IBM announced the release of IBM Operational Decision Manager V8.7.1. The latest release delivers further enhancements for business user experience in Decision Center and Decision Server Rules, enhance platform operations for Decision Server Insights, and enhanced performance. The planned availability date for IBM ODM V8.7.1 is May 15, 2015.

Decision Center and Decision Server Rules now includes simpler deployment operations with the inclusion of Java Execution Object Model (XOM) management from Decision Center for decision services. Java XOMs can be managed in Decision Center as decision center resources. This enhancement will result in the capability to build a complete Rule Designer workspace from Decision Center. Governance is made easier with the ability to create and reuse simulations from within validation activities in Decision Governance Framework. Other highlights in Decision Center include a definition file to declare custom roles and groups, and LDAP connections for dynamic management for custom roles. This translates to no longer needing to repackage the Teamserver EAR and redeploy the application in order to map the user roles. Finally, the user experience is improved in the Business Console with a better layout for test reports and easier navigation as a result of a redesign to the breadcrumb bar.

Additionally, the IBM Operation Decision Manager Advanced Edition supports new capabilities for Decision Server Insights. This includes easier testing with the ability to define and run test scenarios without programing. The Insight Inspector interface usability has been enhanced with the capabilities to include the list of rules fired on an event. It is now also easier to deploy from Insight Designer. Decision Server Insight now has support for local languages to define business rules. In IBM ODM 8.7.1, memory usage and CPU resource consumption has been improved as a result of performance tuning on the database persistence.

See the announcement for more information.

Presentation by Dennis Parrott & Paul Pacholski of IBM

On Wednesday at IBM InterConnect, Paul Pacholski and Dennis Parrott from IBM, spoke to us about some of the features and functionality that will be part of Business Process Manager v8.5.6 & Business Monitor being released on March 13, 2015.

Increasingly towards a unified desktop and mobile experience, BPM 8.5.6 will further lessen the gap between the two and create a single point development for this shared experience.  We will see the IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation 6.3 (formerly known as IBM Worklight) bundled with BPM – providing an open and comprehensive platform to not only build, but test, run and manage native, hybrid and mobile web apps.

They have improved enterprise quality of service by introducing new migration facilities (including migration of individual process applications), platform management and a variety of architectural and usability improvements. New case management enhancements will include better support for BPM/ECM integrations and the ability to link cases and process instances. We will see a Federated Portal infrastructure that supports migration and isolation scenarios and allows our customers to massively scale their BPM environments.  In this version of BPM, we’ll also see improved snapshot deployment failure diagnostics, where instead of having to sift through piles of logs – connected server deployments can make use of new deployment error messages which will also provide recovery information giving us better insight into how to correct these problems.  Disconnected deployments will not be left in the dark, now you can now make use of a new API to collect similar messages in the event of failure.  Another added feature we will see is the ability to create alert definitions in the Process Admin Console that fire when the number of process instances or tasks go beyond the specified thresholds.  Furthering our control over the environment, you’ll now have the ability to pause live instances, allowing for the suspension and resumption of instances in bulk.

New platform support has been added, including IBM POWER8 hardware broadening the options your organization has to choose from.  Additional capabilities have been added to allow customers to integrate Mobile UI with their business processes bringing mobile market presence to your clients with ease.

Build apps for any mobile operating environment and device with your preferred development approach – native, hybrid or mobile web

Connect and synchronize mobile apps with enterprise data, application and cloud service, including BlueMix

Safeguard mobile security at the device, application, data and network layer

Manage your mobile app portfolio from a single central interface with detailed operational analytics

On the short list, the summary of key new features to be provided in BPM 8.5.6 include:

• Mobile
  • Responsive Coach Views
  • Responsive BPM Process Portal
  • Process Federation Server
  • IBM MobileFirst Integration
• Enterprise Quality of Service
  • Improved Operations
  • Manage Platform Stability
  • Migration Simplification
• Case
• Smarter Process for SAP
  • SAP Transaction Coach View to Modify SAP Screen
  • SAP Inbound Event Pattern
• Platform Certifications
• Business Monitor

Business Process Manage & Monitor v8.5.6 will be available on March 13, 2015.

We live in a world today of instant gratification.  The now is too late and those who can’t adapt quickly to these changes in their markets suffer.  Businesses need to adopt methodologies and technology that can help get their product to market effectively and is flexible enough to withstand the changes within the industry.  Reinventing your business processes involves getting the right team and the right tools to create a successful Business Process Management practice within your organization.

On Tuesday, at InterConnect, I will be speaking with Jim Schmitt on how independent financial advisors Raymond James was able to transform their current technology to meet customer needs.  On demand changes were highly ineffective the and not cost effective.  Their adoption of BPM, ODM and other technologies allowed them to reinvent their “Money Movement” system to meet this requirement of on-demand changes and automated check printing.

Raymond James successfully implemented a 3 Phase release to evolve their current system into an application their customers embrace and stand behind.  Reinvent your business process in 3 steps:

1. Functionality
2. Features
3. Expansion

First, identify a process that is a valid candidate for analysis and retooling.  Create a functional process to replace this existing system – this is about getting the working product to your client as quickly as possible.  Don’t get hung up on all the bells and whistles.  The main goal is to replace the out-dated process with the new one.

Secondly, upon successful roll-out of of your first phase of the new process you will start to receive feedback from your users.  This is the time to implement new features.  Identify what key features will provide the best results for your customers and further build on top of your initial solution to incorporate these new components.  Your users will be excited for their new functionality and even more so with the rapid timeline you are able to accomplish it in.  You’ll get back additional feedback and requests for additional features – you’ve now adopted the Agile Development Life-Cycle!

Lastly, your organization will realize the success and potential of utilizing BPM to solve its process management needs.  You have now created the demand for future BPM projects to which involves the expansion of your product across your organization and continue process development and improvement!

Come see how Raymond James implemented this 1, 2, 3 approach to successfully transform for their customers.

Get the session details here: Session # 5252A @ Mandalay Bay – Palm B – Tues, 24-Feb 5:30PM – 6:30PM

In recent times, the need to follow government regulations and identify fraud to avoid financial loss as become more prominent. This forced companies in financial and health care domains to implement stricter business processes. The need to adapt and build better business process requires to use Business Rules Management System (BRMS) which will allow to modify and implement the business rules on the fly. In technical terms, it established a need to use BRMS. IBM offering of the BRMS is IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM). In any given architecture to make a component reusable and abide to modular design is to integrate the component to Enterprise Service Bus. This will allow to improve the system with minimal impact to other systems.

Why to integrate Datapower XI 52 with WebSphere Operational Decision Manager (ODM)?

Both the products complement each other well. The core competence of the Datapower XI 52 is capability to process XML fast, good security options and integration capability with different systems.

Advantages of Integration

• Flexibility: Ability to expose rules as JSON over REST, as of writing ODM only provides ability to expose rules as XML over JSON.
• Security: Avoid exposing the ODM directly outside the enterprise. Datapower has capability to block Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack
• Unified Process: The integration helps to orchestrate the processes better. This will allow build as unified process with check and balances for calls related to BRMS.

One way of integration Datapower to ODM

ODM exposes rules using Hosted transparent Decision Service Interface (HTDS). HTDS will allow any deployed rules package to expose rules using REST. For our demonstration, we will use a Datapower XI 52 Virtual Machine (Version 6) with Operational Decision Manager (Version 8.5) with complete mini loan rules app.

Step 1: Deploy the rules app

You can build the Mini loan rules app using the tutorial provide by the IBM here and complete the deployment.

Step 2: Download WADL or WSDL

Once application is deployed open the Rule Execution Server Console.

Go to Explorer -> Click corresponding rules set -> click RetrieveHTDSDescriptionFile (as shown below)

Select Latest Rules Set and Latest RuleApp version and click download.

Step 3: Setup a pass through Multi-Protocol Gateway

This will act as pass through for now but can be used for XML to JSON conversion, security setup and other use cases.

Step 4: Test

We are using POSTMAN plugin in chrome to test this service.

Using the WADL we download we can build the request for the service.

The request URL looks like

http://<DatapowerHostAddress>:<MPGPort>/DecisionService/rest/v1/myruleapp/myruleproject?Accept=application/xml&Accept-Language=en

Sample Input

<par:Request xmlns:par=”http://www.ibm.com/rules/decisionservice/Myruleapp/Myruleproject/param”>

<!–Optional:–>

<par:DecisionID>test5</par:DecisionID>

<!–Optional:–>

<par:borrower>

<creditScore>600</creditScore>

<!–Optional:–>

<name>string</name>

<yearlyIncome>80000</yearlyIncome>

</par:borrower>

<!–Optional:–>

<par:loan>

<amount>25000</amount>

<approved>true</approved>

<duration>240</duration>

<yearlyInterestRate>0.05</yearlyInterestRate>

</par:loan>

</par:Request>

Sample Output:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?><par:Response xmlns:par=”http://www.ibm.com/rules/decisionservice/Myruleapp/Myruleproject/param”>

<par:DecisionID>test5</par:DecisionID>

<par:loan>

<amount>25000</amount>

<approved>true</approved>

<duration>240</duration>

<yearlyInterestRate>0.05</yearlyInterestRate>

</par:loan>

</par:Response>

Execution Trace

By this test we are successfully tested the integration between Datapower XI 52 and ODM. The sample loan application execution trace shows the rules trigged when service is hit.

References

1. Using Hosted Transparent Decision Service Interface (HTDS) in IBM Operational Decision Manager
2. Mini loan Web application

Three extraordinary IBM conferences—Pulse, Impact, and Innovate—have joined together to deliver one of the most comprehensive software events ever as IBM InterConnect 2015 on February 22 – 26 in Las Vegas, and Perficient is proud to be a Platinum Sponsor.

My feet already hurt thinking about navigating through this monumental event, but the flip flops will be readily available and I am excited to make the absolute most out of this event that will bring:

• 20,000 + attendees – think of all the networking and learning!
• $8,000 in training, certifications, hands-on labs, networking with IBM and industry experts, expert talks, and, food and entertainment. (Aerosmith is in the house!)
• 1,500 sessions with over 500 clients sharing their stories…

Speaking of clients – Perficient has several key sessions, many will be joined by our clients who will share their innovation and success stories.

Check out our video sneak peak of our IBM InterConnect activities, download our free ‘Guide to IT Modernization’, and be the first to sign up for an executive meeting with our experts on site.

See you and your flip flops in Las Vegas!

#ibminterconnect

In the IBM DataPower world, JSON is the representational format used by the RESTful façade exposed by the appliance. Starting with firmware version 3.8, there has been a gradual increase in the number of ways that JSON payload is handled.

DataPower services that will handle and process JSON messages include:

• Multi-Protocol Gateway (MPGW)
• XML Firewall
• Web Token Services (Firmware v7.0 & up)

These services offer additional options to a developer on what type of request or response to expect. Selection of type of payload results in sort of treatment the payload is to receive. Our main concern in this article is JSON payload and its processing and manipulation. So, let’s dive in:

Non-XML as the request/response type

The original JSON message is available as the INPUT context.

JSON as the Request / Response Type

1. Incoming JSON payload is validated as a well-formed JSON document.
   • Simultaneously JSON parser enforces limits on the incoming JSON document

2. Message is converted to JSONx (an IBM standard to represent JSON as XML)._­
   • Simultaneously XML parser enforces limits on JSONx document as it is being created.

3. The JSON message is now available in two context forms:

• INPUT context (original message) 

• _JSONASJSONX context (the converted JSONx message that can be manipulated with XSLT, just as any other XML)

Before firmware version 6.0, DataPower offered the following process of dealing with JSON payloads thru converted JSONx:

 Source: for further examples visit here.

JSONx data, _JSONASJSONX context, now can be validated using jsonx.xsd schema file in the store:// directory.

Using an explicit Transform action with a custom XSLT style sheet, JSONx message will now need to be transformed to desired data format that is expected by the back end.

Response from the backend will need to be converted to JSONx using a customer XSLT in a transform action, if client expects a JSON response.

The appliance provides jsonx2json.xsl style sheet in the store:// directory that can be used to convert JSONx to JSON by applying an explicit transformation action to the desired context.

Starting with firmware v6.0 & later, in addition to the above capability, now available INPUT context, the original JSON payload could be processed in 3 different ways:

     1.   Validate JSON schema

         Source: JSON schema validation explained here.

     2.   Manipulated with a transform action that uses a processing control file such as:

XQuery transformation with JSONiq to:

• Text
• XML
• another JSON
• etc.

  Source: see JSON transformation to different data types here.

     3.   Manipulated using a GatewayScript (firmware v7.0 & up)

Source: More about GatewayScript here.

Considering Parser limitations for JSON payloads

JSON parser settings and XML parser settings work together to provide configurable settings for message size, nesting depth, and other limits.

• JSON parser settings apply to the JSON message
• XML parser settings apply to XML and converted JSONx messages

The parser limits helps protect against a denial-of-service (DoS) attack when a single maliciously huge message is sent to the service to keep it busy.

Default limits are applied unless Setting Configurations are specified. The maximum message size limit applies to JSON, SOAP, XML, and non-XML message types.

• Limits are not enforced for pass-through message type.

More restrictive limits of both the JSON and XML parser are enforced. Exceeding either parser limit results in an HTTP 500 response code being returned to the client.

Source: See the parser limits Here: JSON 

The Situation:

IBM BPM has been successfully installed and is up and running! Also you have successfully added your active directory(s) to your federated repositories and are able to find users and groups in the WAS console. Continuing with the good news you have also successfully found users in IBM BPM ProcessAdmin and ProcessCenter consoles, however for some reason you are unable to find groups and no meaningful error in the logs.

The Problem:

By Default IBM BPM sets the max number of search results of groups returned in IBM BPM is 4500 and because IBM BPM doesn’t the objectclass=group.

The Solution:

There are two main areas to fix your, object class filter in your repository and the wimconfig.xml

Steps:

WAS Admin Console

1. Login into the WAS Admin console as your administrator user, navigate to your repository and group mappings

Global security > Federated repositories > Manage repositories > LDAP1 >  Federated repositories entity types to LDAP object classes mapping > Group

2. Change the search filter to
   *below is an example of Microsoft Active Directory – Please contact your LDAP or AD admin for a qualified string*

• At minimum

(ObjectCategory=Group)

• At ideally limiting your search results but adding a filter.

(&(ObjectCategory=Group)(|(cn=*any limiting seach*)(cn=any limiting search*)))

3. Save you configuration changes to the master.
4. Sync your node.

File-System.

1. Navigate to this directory and back up your WimConfig.xml  /<IBM BPM install Directory>/profiles/DmgrProfile/config/cells/<yourCellName>/wim/config/wimconfig.xml
2.  And change this value  maxSearchResults=“4500” to your total number +growth of groups you want to return

Sync your nodes.

1. Shut down the server and do a Manual Sync of nodes and restart.
2. You should be able to find your groups now.

Introduction:

Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) is a XML-based language used to define enterprise business processes within Web services. BPEL extends the Web services interaction model and enables it to support business transactions.

BPEL can be developed to perform multiple activities such as invoking a web service, publishing a message to topic, subscribe for messages from topic, posting message into queue and consuming messages from queue. Below are the steps to publish messages to Topic and consume messages from Topic.

WebSphere Application Server Configurations:

Create Topic Space

• Click on “Buses” under “Service Integration” section in left panel. Then click on “BPM.ProcessServer.Bus”

• Click on “Destinations” under “Destination resources” section

• Click on “New” and select “Topic Space”

• Specify the identifier for Topic Space

• Navigate to next pages and click on Finish and Save configuration

Create Topic:

• Select “Topic” in left panel which is under “Resources->JMS”. Click on “New” button.

• Enter details such as Name, JNDI, Topic name, Bus name, Topic Space, JMS Delivery mode.

• Click on “Ok” and save configuration

Create Topic Connection Factory (Required for Publish):

• Click on “Topic connection factories” under “Resources->JMS” in left panel. Click on “New” button.

• Select “Default messaging provider” option

• Specify details such as Name, JNDI, Bus Name and other relevant details

• Click on Ok and Save Configuration

Create Activation Specifications (Required for Subscription)

• Click on “New” button

• Select the option “Default messaging provider”

• Enter details such as Name, JNDI, Destination Type, Topic’s JNDI, Bus details, Subscription Durability and other necessary information.

• Click on OK and Save Configuration

JMS Publish in BPM Assembly Diagram:

• Create a JMS import

• Specify the interface details for the JMS import

• Mention details such as JMS Messaging domain, connection factory, send destination and receive destination. These details can be selected from the server instance.

• Choose respective items by clicking on Select button and choose the relevant JNDI

1. Select Connection Factory from server instance.

2. Select Send Destination from server instance.

3. Select Receive Destination from server instance.

• Select JAAS Alias for J2C Authentication Data Entry. Click on Finish in both the popup windows. This steps will complete the creation of JMS import and this will enable the “EmployeeRequest” BPEL to publish messages into the Topic.

• Publish to Topic:

In process implementation, use invoke activity to publish messages to Topic. Note the Log Entry, employee ID has been printed here. Implementation of process can be done as per business requirement.

JMS Subscribe in BPM Assembly Diagram:

• Create a JMS Export in Assembly Diagram.

• Specify JMS Messaging Domain, Activation Specification, Receive Destination, Send Destination, J2C Authentication Data Entry and click on OK

• Subscribe From Topic:

In process implementation, note the Log Entry activity, employee ID of the message received from Topic has been printed. This process will keep receiving the messages from Topic as soon as messages are published to Topic by the other process. Implementation of process can be done as per business requirement.

Testing Publish-Subscribe using Test Client:

• Using test client of the process that publishes messages to topic, employee ID has been given as 3603566 and message has been published to Topic.

• Message has been published to topic and also consumed by subscriber process. Please note the System Out which were made in Log Entry of Publish and Subscribe BPELs.

BPM Methodology and Principles:

The BPM Methodology is an iterative framework used to effectively analyze and re-design a business process with the goal of constant process improvement. The methodology’s key objective is to foster communication between business and IT in order to establish an optimal business process. Here are 5 tips to ensure that your business partners properly adopt the BPM methodology to improve their business operations.

1. Sell! Sell! Sell!

Every opportunity you get with your business partners will be an opportunity to sell the benefits of adopting the BPM methodology. A client new to the principles of the BPM methodology might find the ideas foreign and might possibly show some initial resistance. It is important to educate and demonstrate how accepting these principles will positively impact not only business/technology operations, but also the corporate culture. Embracing a philosophy of change enables your business partners to avoid common pitfalls that lead to failed BPM projects and ultimately poor BPM adoption.

Each checkpoint during the project lifecycle should address specific business problems. You should demonstrate how the methodology’s effectiveness enabled a resolution. It is essential to illustrate to your business partners how the BPM methodology has and will continue to strengthen corporate initiatives such as product quality, customer satisfaction, and communication between business and IT.

2. Find a Champion.

The subject of change is always a tricky one. As mentioned earlier, you might receive some resistance to adopting this methodology. You will find it easier to get buy-in from your business partners if someone within the corporate structure supports you. It is essential to have a counterpart who can also promote the benefits of the methodology. Your champion does not necessarily have to be someone at the top of the food chain in the corporate structure, but it should be someone who has some influence with the other project participants.

3. Avoid Old Habits.

You will likely run into issues and roadblocks during your implementation process. When these situations arise, it is critical to continually use the principles of the BPM methodology to reach a resolution. Your business partners might find it prudent to use other techniques used in past projects to overcome these roadblocks. Stay the course!

4. Use the Right Tools.

To ensure the successful implementation of your BPM project, it is vital to use the right tools to support your project. From a project management standpoint, the iterative approach to the BPM methodology will not be compatible with the tools used for a waterfall project. Using tools that can handle an iterative project cycle will help clients better understand deliverable and will put their expectation in perspective.

5. Be Patient.

During the process, you will undoubtedly be challenged. Whether it’s resistance from business partners, impending deadlines, or scope of your deliverables, you must remain patient and focused on your implementation methodology.