Slides from my talk at Developer Week

1. @berndruecker
Workflow automation
with BPMN.
Lessons Learned.

2. Berlin, Germany
bernd.ruecker@camunda.com
@berndruecker
Bernd Ruecker
Co-founder and
Developer Advocate of
Camunda

3. What is
workflow automation?

4. The „hello world“ example
Human task
management
Service
orchestration
Events,
e.g. timers

5. BPMN
Business Process
Model and Notation
ISO Standard

6. More realistic examples

7. Workflow engines
+ Code, UI, …
XML

8. Workflow engines
+ Code, UI, …
XML Visibility
State Handling

9. Important: Avoid the 7 sins!
https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com/the-7-sins-of-workflow-b3641736bf5c

10. The 7 sins of workflow
Homegrown
engine
No engine Wrong engine
4
6
5
7
3

11. Think about subsequent requirements
Monitoring &
Operations
Visibility
Versioning
Time &
Timeouts
Domain Logic
Operate at
scale

12. The 7 sins of workflow
Zero-code suites
Homegrown
engine
No engine Wrong engine
4
6
5
7

13. Avoid zero-code suites!
Death by properties panel
Low-code is great!
(You can get rid
of your developers!)
Complex, proprietary, heavyweight, central, developer adverse, …

14. Zero code meets developers
We have
some problems
It is horrible.
I hate BPM!

16. Why is this so important?
Some advice to
convince your boss!

17. Software is
eating the
world.
Marc Andreessen,
Entrepreneur &
Investor
2011 in „The Wall
Street Journal“
„
Photo by techcrunch, available under Creative Commons BY 2.0 license.

18. “Goldman Sachs is a Tech Company”
18
https://media.thinknum.com/articles/the-bank-jobs-which-big-financial-firms-are-betting-heavy-on-tech/

20. From the Microsoft Press Release
20
https://news.microsoft.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-to-acquire-github-for-7-5-billion/
Today, every company is becoming a software
company and developers are at the center of digital
transformation; they drive business processes and
functions across organizations from customer
service and HR to marketing and IT. And the choices
these developers make will increasingly determine
value creation and growth across every industry.

21. Camunda Open source platform for workflow and
decision automation.
Developer friendly!
> 75 people
HQ Berlin + Offices US
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

22. BPMN Workflow Definition
Your Application
Workflow Engine
REST
C# Code, …
Client
Console,
WPF,
Core, …

23. Example

24. Live hacking
https://github.com/berndruecker/camunda-dot-net-showcase/

25. https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com/use-camunda-without-touching-java-and-get-an-easy-to-use-rest-based-
orchestration-and-workflow-7bdf25ac198e

26. https://thenewstack.io/5-workflow-automation-use-cases-you-might-not-have-considered/

27. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

28. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation
Long running =
sit and wait

29. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

30. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

31. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
Distributed
Transactions
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

32. Distributed
systems

33. Distributed transactions using compensation *

34. Distributed transactions using compensation *
Compensation

35. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
Distributed
Transactions
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

36. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
Distributed
Transactions
Orchestration
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

37. (Micro-)services
Checkout
Payment
Inventory
Shipment

38. Implement this business capability

39. Peer-to-peer communication (e.g. via events)
Checkout
Payment
Inventory
Shipment
Order
placed
Payment
received
Goods
shipped
Goods
fetched

40. Peer-to-peer communication (e.g. via events)
Checkout
Payment
Inventory
Shipment
Order
placed
Payment
received
Goods
shipped
Goods
fetched

41. The danger is that it's very easy to make
nicely decoupled systems with event
notification, without realizing that you're
losing sight of that larger-scale flow, and
thus set yourself up for trouble in future
years.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/201701-event-driven.html

42. The danger is that it's very easy to make
nicely decoupled systems with event
notification, without realizing that you're
losing sight of that larger-scale flow, and
thus set yourself up for trouble in future
years.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/201701-event-driven.html

43. The danger is that it's very easy to make
nicely decoupled systems with event
notification, without realizing that you're
losing sight of that larger-scale flow, and
thus set yourself up for trouble in future
years.
https://martinfowler.com/articles/201701-event-driven.html

44. Peer-to-peer event chains
Checkout
Payment
Inventory
Shipment
Order
placed
Payment
received
Goods
shipped
Goods
fetched
Fetch the goods
before the
payment

45. Peer-to-peer event chains
Checkout
Payment
Inventory
Shipment
Fetch the goods
before the
payment
Goods
fetched
Order
placed
Payment
received
Goods
shipped

46. Peer-to-peer event chains
Checkout
Payment
Inventory
Shipment
Fetch the goods
before the
payment
Customers can
pay via invoice
Goods
fetched
Order
placed
Payment
received
Goods
shipped
…

47. Photo by born1945, available under Creative Commons BY 2.0 license.

48. Extract Orchestration logic

49. Workflows live inside service boundaries

51. Zalando
Sales-Order and
Order-Fulfillment
via Camunda
for every order worldwide
Orders Q2-2017: 22,2 Mio.
Sales 2016: 3,6 Mrd. EUR
Growth 2016: 23%

52. Orchestrating serverless functions

53. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
Distributed
Transactions
Orchestration
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

54. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
Distributed
Transactions
Orchestration
Communication in
distributed systems
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

55. Distributed
systems

56. It is impossible to
differentiate certain
failure scenarios.
Independant of
communication style!
Service
Provider
Client

57. Distributed systems introduce complexity you have to tackle!
Credit
Card
Payment
REST

58. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
Distributed
Transactions
Orchestration
Communication in
distributed systems
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

59. <= milliseconds seconds minutes, weeks, …
Business
IT
Business processes
automation
Distributed
Transactions
Decision
Automation
Orchestration
Communication in
distributed systems
long runningalways short running short running, but
potentially long running
Use cases for workflow automation

60. Photo by ErikaWittlieb, available under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 license.

61. Decisions with DMN

62. Kühne + Nagel at BpmCon 2017 and Helvetia at BpmCon 2016

63. Architecture
https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com/architecture-options-to-run-a-workflow-engine-6c2419902d91

64. Architecture
https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com/architecture-options-to-run-a-workflow-engine-6c2419902d91

65. Architecture
https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com/architecture-options-to-run-a-workflow-engine-6c2419902d91

66. Who uses a message bus?

67. Who has no problems
operating a message bus?
Dead messages | No context | Inaccesible payload | Hard to redeliver |
Home-grown message hospitals | …

68. Architecture
https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com/architecture-options-to-run-a-workflow-engine-6c2419902d91

69. Architecture
https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com/architecture-options-to-run-a-workflow-engine-6c2419902d91

70. Architecture
https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com/architecture-options-to-run-a-workflow-engine-6c2419902d91

71. Workflow automation at scale!
low latency,
high-throughput
low frequency,
latency doesn‘t matter
What people think workflow
automation can do
What we currently teach
workflow automation
to be able to do
What workflow automation
can already do today

72. Summary:
Workflow automation
with BPMN
is great.

73. Biz Dev
Leverage
state machine &
workflow engine
Living
documentation
Visibility in
testing
improve
communication
improve
communication
Ops

74. Biz Dev
Leverage
state machine &
workflow engine
Living
documentation
Visibility in
testing
Understand and discuss
business processes
Evaluate optimizations
in-sync with
implementation
improve
communication
improve
communication
Ops

75. Living documentation for long-running behaviour

76. Biz Dev
Leverage
state machine &
workflow engine
Living
documentation
Visibility in
testing
Understand and discuss
business processes
Evaluate optimizations
in-sync with
implementation
improve
communication
improve
communication
Ops

77. Biz Dev
Leverage
state machine &
workflow engine
Living
documentation
Visibility in
testing
Operate with visibility
and context
Understand and discuss
business processes
Evaluate optimizations
in-sync with
implementation
improve
communication
improve
communication
Ops

78. Proper
Operations
Visibility + Context

79. BPMN
Executable
and mature Easy to
understand
Widespread
for Biz, Dev and Ops

80. Azure Durable Functions
From https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/durable-functions-overview

81. From https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/logic-apps-overview and
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/quickstart-create-first-logic-app-workflow
Azure Logic Apps

82. Windows Workflow Foundation

83. Before mapping processes
explicitly with BPMN, the truth was
buried in the code and nobody
knew what was going on.
Jimmy Floyd, 24 Hour Fitnesse
„

84. Thank you!

85. bernd.ruecker@camunda.com
@berndruecker
https://bernd-ruecker.com
https://blog.bernd-ruecker.com
https://github.com/flowing
https://www.infoq.com/articles/events-
workflow-automation
With thoughts from http://flowing.io
@berndruecker | @martinschimak
Contact:
Slides:
Blog:
Code:
https://www.infoworld.com/article/3254777/
application-development/
3-common-pitfalls-of-microservices-
integrationand-how-to-avoid-them.html
https://thenewstack.io/5-workflow-automation-
use-cases-you-might-not-have-considered/