Migration Considerations

Existing iProcess customers may want to consider migrating their iProcess applications to the TIBCO ActiveMatrix® BPM platform as a starting point for their development. Whilst the approach of migrating rather than considering the benefits afforded by the additional functionality provided by TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM has its drawbacks it is still a legitimate starting point in some cases.

Note: It should be noted that there are several aspects that might need to be considered when 're-platforming' an application from iProcess Engine to ActiveMatrix BPM, including:
  • Re-platforming Process Models
  • Re-platforming the external systems built upon those models and the various iProcess Engine APIs
  • Interfacing to any existing EAI layer
  • Dealing with in-flight process instances
  • Dealing with historical data
  • Migrating user accounts
Note: After migration we recommend that the application is reviewed to make sure that it is the functional equivalent of the original.
A fully automated migration is not practical though it is desirable to make the migration of existing iProcess business processes as automated as possible. Migration considerations can be categorized as follows:
  • There are many common features and constructs of iProcess business processes that have a generic equivalence in BPM and as such can be automatically converted with minimal or no human intervention.
  • There are some features and constructs of iProcess business processes that do not have a generic equivalence in BPM but may have some recognizable meaning and equivalence in a specific iProcess business process example.

  • There are some features and constructs of iProcess business processes that have no generic and no customer-specific equivalence in BPM.

The iProcess To BPM Process Conversion feature therefore focuses on:
  • Automatically converting aspects of business processes that have generic equivalence in iProcess and BPM.
  • Provision for customer extensibility of the conversion feature. The customer will have the ability to convert constructs that follow certain recognized patterns in their own business processes that otherwise could not be migrated in a more generic situation.