Process Orchestration 

It involves integrating various systems, applications, and human tasks into a seamless workflow. Process orchestration ensures that each step in the process is executed in the correct order, with the necessary data and resources available at the right time. By automating and streamlining complex workflows, process orchestration improves operational efficiency, reduces errors, and enhances overall productivity.

The rise in process automation, microservice architecture patterns, and organizations’ reliance on cloud providers has sparked the demand for advanced software capable of creating dynamic composite end-to-end business processes. These processes effectively manage and coordinate a wide range of components, such as legacy systems, automated workflows, RPA, AI/ML, and cloud services.

Process orchestration presents a more intricate challenge compared to task automation. In orchestration, the designer or modeler specifies the desired outcome. However, the process orchestration software must handle the complexity of both internal and external elements within a business. This includes systems, services, individuals, bots, events, and data. Moreover, the software should possess the ability to adapt to evolving situations and conditions, ensuring flexibility and responsiveness throughout the orchestration process.

Modeling Orchestrations

Using a model-driven approach is the most powerful way to specify orchestrated processes.

It offers abstraction and visualization capabilities, clear process flow representation, adaptability to changes, facilitates collaboration and communication, provides validation and verification benefits, enables reusability and standardization, and integrates with automation tools for seamless execution. This approach empowers organizations to efficiently design, manage, and optimize orchestrated processes, leading to improved operational efficiency and business agility

Declarative versus Prescriptive Processes:
Understanding the Difference

Processes are a series of steps or actions taken to achieve specific goals or outcomes, involving coordinated activities. These processes can be classified as either prescriptive or declarative.

Prescriptive processes are commonly employed in predictable situations that can be modeled using structured workflows. They specify a predetermined sequence of activities, indicating what needs to be done next. A well-known standard notation for capturing prescriptive workflow processes is the Business Process Model and Notation™ (BPMN™). BPMN serves as a prescriptive visual language, where activities are sequenced, and the model itself dictates the next activity.

On the other hand, declarative processes are typically utilized in dynamic situations where it is impossible to prescribe a fixed, structured workflow process. They are represented as independent statements that respond to varying conditions. The Case Management Model and Notation™ (CMMN™) case models exemplify declarative processes. CMMN is a standard declarative visual language, focusing on what can happen rather than dictating how things should happen.

To encompass the entire spectrum of possible processes, a combination of both prescriptive and declarative processes is necessary.

For a more detailed exploration of declarative and prescriptive models, including the use of international standards, you can refer to Denis Gagne’s informative Trisotech short video titled “Overview of BPMN, CMMN, and DMN.”

Orchestration Logic

Process orchestration encompasses the sequencing, coordination, and management of multiple prescriptive and declarative processes to execute larger workflows or processes. It commonly involves end-to-end organizational processes that span across multiple systems. An automated process orchestrator acts as a coordinator, assigning the work to the appropriate agents (people, bots, automated processes, decision services, systems, etc.) rather than completing the work itself.

Effective orchestration of complex workflows requires advanced logic capabilities to adapt to changing environments and events. It involves coordinating multiple processes simultaneously, responding to internal and external events, managing data flows, and making decisions based on both human and automated task outputs. A crucial element of orchestration logic is decision making. Decision automation software, based on the Decision Model and Notation™ (DMN™) standard, can be utilized to create decision service tasks, which play a role in driving the flow path and providing data manipulation capabilities within the end-to-end orchestration.

Process orchestration can occur at various levels, including the coordination of human activities, web services, lambda functions, or data manipulation activities. However, a process orchestrator is most effective when it can orchestrate and coordinate both prescriptive processes (BPMN Models) and declarative processes (CMMN Cases) as end-to-end processes, spanning all levels of activities.

Process Orchestration Use Cases

Trisotech process orchestration offers a wide range of capabilities, and here are several customer use cases that highlight its versatility: