Best Approach for Release Management & Publishing of Process Models

Hi Shashi,

that is a very common scenario that you describe.

It sounds like you are approaching dimensions where ARIS Process Governance becomes an option. Any comments from people knowledgeable with that product?

http://www.softwareag.com/corporate/products/aris/bpa/process_governance/overview/default.asp

Regards, M. Zschuckelt

Dear Shashi,

Please have a look at the videos about ARIS Process Governance:

http://www.ariscommunity.com/help/videos/platform:

ARIS Process Governance - Overview Modeling a data flow Creating a dialog Transform models Managing tasks in the Task list module Managing tasks with Process Board

 

Thanks for the Response Mr Zschuckelt.

 

We agree that the scale of the project may be big. Lot of processes are involved.

But our management isn't keen on procuring licenses for Aris Process Governance, yet.

Our primary aim being just to capture processes and publish out to a user group. We aren't looking at automation, transformation of process models to BPMN and other advanced features which APG provides.

Hoping there is a way to achieve this using just Business Server & Publisher Server.

Specifically we are looking for how to move models from development area to production area.

Are multiple business servers / Publisher servers needed, how many databases should we maintain.. so on..

 

Regards,

Shashi Kanth 

 

Dear Shashi,

if APG is not an option, then I suggest you take a look at the "Participant Guide" of the course "Managing ARIS Projects with ARIS Business Architect  (ABA)". Maybe someone in your organization has taken this course? In chapter 13 there are several suggestions, how to set up a RCM concept. The most complex one involves four databases: "Modelling", "Review", "Release", and "Archive". Every process would be staged through these databases. After a sign-off in "Review"-DB, it would be transferred to "Release"-DB, which is very restricted in access and intended for publication only.

But there is also a leaner example.

As to the question of the number of Business Servers I reckon this is independent of the release cycle management. Probably most ARIS users will have at least two business servers, because you will want to have an environment for testing method changes, scripts and custom reports without running danger of compromizing your production environment. Those are configurations at server level. Seen from this point of view, ALL of the abovementioned databases of your future RCM concept (even "Modelling") are "production" databases.

Regards,

M. Zschuckelt

Hi Mr M.Zschuckelt
When we have two separate servers for test and production, how to export and publish across servers. Because the models need to be exported from test to production business server first and then published from production business server to production publisher server. Appreciate if you can explain in detail.

Cheers
Balaji

Hi Balaji,

so I gather from your question, that you do (productive) modelling in a database on a separate Business server, which is intended for test purposes. Then you should ensure, that the server configuration of the 2 servers is sufficiently in sync, so you don't run into trouble with symbols or other custom method content present on the test server (and used by your modellers), which is not deployed on the production server.

My recommendation would be, to move the database in which you do productive modelling to the production server. Leave the test server to the guys developing the method and fiddling with configurations, scripts and filters. This just as a side remark.

Whenever you want to move content from one database to another (also across different servers) use the XML export and import. Make sure to select the appropriate branches of your explorer tree that you want to stage. Choose a filter and user to perform that operation that makes you feel sure that you can access all the content there is to be moved (if in doubt, "Entire Method" filter and "system" user will definitely do). If you want to automate such functions with APG, I'm sorry, I cannot help. Some other expert in that field should answer.

Edit: On import make sure to check the error protocol displayed (if any). It will show you, what content could not be imported because the method content was not in sync (see initial remark above). Get the content in sync and retry. The quickest way to get the two servers sufficiently in sync is to restore a backup of your Test-DB on the Production server. However be aware that method renamings will take effect on all databases of that server as they are part of the server configuration and not of the database content.

Cheers,

M. Zschuckelt