WebSphere Lombardi Edition 7.2 > Plan Lombardi projects


Understand process development in Lombardi

Design and developing processes in IBM WebSphere Lombardi Edition is easy for large or small teams of developers and BPM analysts because of the following features:

Feature Benefits
Process Center

  • Provides a central repository for all items (like BPDs and services) that you create in Lombardi Authoring Environment.
  • Multiple Authoring Environment clients can connect to a single Process Center, which enables you to share items.
  • You can see edits or updates made by other users as they occur.
Toolkits

  • Users in Lombardi Authoring Environment can create dependencies on Toolkits in order to re-use the items within.
  • When Toolkit items are updated, existing dependencies show that updates are available.
  • Team members with the required permissions can create new Toolkits as projects grow and additional items for re-use are identified.
Snapshots

  • Enable Lombardi Authoring Environment users to capture and save the items within their process applications at specific points in time.
  • Snapshots are important in terms of saving key milestones for future reference such as playback versions of your process application, versions that you submit for review, and so on.
  • You can compare one snapshot to another to determine what has changed in different versions of your process applications.
  • You can install snapshots of your process applications on the Process Servers in your test and production environments.
  • You can view previous snapshots of your project assets; you can also run processes or services to compare previous implementations to your current status.

  • You can choose to copy an older version of an asset to your current project or you can simply revert to an older version of a particular asset if the previous implementation matches your current needs.


Understand the Process Center

The Process Center serves as a central repository for all project assets created in Lombardi Authoring Environment. When multiple Authoring Environment clients connect to the Process Center as shown in the following image, users can share items (like processes and services) and can also see changes made by other users as they happen:

When you're developing processes in Lombardi, there's a hierarchy available in the Process Center repository which is designed to help you manage your projects. The following image provides a conceptual overview of the repository hierarchy:

As you can see from the preceding diagram, the Process Center repository includes the following:

Process Applications Containers for the process models and supporting implementations that BPM analysts and developers create in the Designer in Lombardi Authoring Environment.
Workspaces Optional subdivisions in a process application based on team tasks or process application versions. When enabled, workspaces allow parallel development to occur. Administrators determine if additional workspaces are necessary and, thus, enabled for each process application.
Snapshots Record the state of the items within a process application or workspace at a specific point in time. Usually snapshots represent a milestone or are used for playbacks or installations. You can compare snapshots and revert to previous snapshots. If an administrator enables workspaces for a process application, he uses a snapshot as the basis for a new workspace.


Re-using items in Lombardi

Lombardi enables process developers to re-use existing items both within and across process applications. For example, if you know several services already exist that include Coaches and other library items that you and other developers need, you can access and re-use those items by including them in a toolkit. Then, from your process application, you can add a dependency to the toolkit in which the library items reside. This enables you to pick one of the existing services when choosing the implementation for an activity. The items in the toolkit can also be used by other developers working in different process applications.


Versioning Lombardi items

To version items stored in the Process Center repository, you can save and name snapshots. Doing so enables you to compare one snapshot to another to find differences. For example, if a developer fixed a problem with a service and took a snapshot at that point, and then a different developer made several additional changes to the same service and took a new snapshot, the project manager could compare the two snapshots to determine which changes were made when and by whom. If the project manager decided that the additional changes to the service were not worthwhile, he could revert back to the snapshot of the original fix.

The following diagram illustrates how snapshots capture points in time and how administrators can use a snapshot to create a new workspace if additional workspaces become necessary:


Plan for process deployment and installation

When developing processes in Lombardi, you need to plan for the eventual installation of your process applications on servers in your test and production environments. The following diagram illustrates the lifecycle of a typical process development effort:

Initially, you can work exclusively in your development environment. But, as you can see from the preceding flow chart, you need to configure Process Servers and Performance Data Warehouses for both your test and production environments. The preceding flow chart also includes steps for building and refining an installation service so that you can install your process applications on the Process Servers in each configured environment.

Parent topic: Plan Lombardi projects

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