Business Process Integration Architecture Using Reusable Artifacts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional business process integration solutions are costly, time-consuming to develop and maintain, and difficult to upgrade, making it economically unfeasible for small to moderate-sized businesses to keep pace with technological advancements in the electronic marketplace.
Innovation Solution
A model-driven methodology for business process integration using a common architecture with application-independent software building blocks called artifacts, such as adaptive documents, processing flows, and adapters, which reduces the need for repetitive application-specific code and enables rapid construction and modification of business process integration applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If customized business process integration solutions are implemented for each business entity, then the solution can be tailored to specific business needs, but the cost and time required to construct and maintain the solution increases substantially
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the business process integration solution into reusable components including adaptive documents, process flows, screen flows, and adapters. These modular segments can be independently configured and combined to meet specific business entity requirements without rebuilding entire systems, thereby reducing construction and maintenance complexity while maintaining adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates universal building blocks that can serve multiple business entities and various business processes. The adaptive documents, process flows, and adapters are designed to be reusable across different contexts, allowing a single component to fulfill multiple functions for different business entities, thus reducing overall system complexity while maintaining customization capability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If entity-specific business process integration solutions are developed, then the solution can address unique business requirements, but the time required for development, training, installation, and implementation increases substantially
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs pre-configured templates and pre-built adaptive documents that contain standard business process logic already established. These preliminary actions allow business entities to rapidly deploy solutions by simply configuring existing components rather than developing from scratch, significantly reducing development and implementation time while still addressing unique requirements through configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables business entities to copy and reuse proven process flows, screen flows, and adapter patterns from other implementations. By copying validated configurations and adapting them to specific needs, the time required for development, training, and implementation is substantially reduced compared to creating entirely new entity-specific solutions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If customized software solutions are implemented, then the solution can be optimized for specific business processes, but the difficulty and cost of upgrading and modifying the software increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the software into independent, loosely-coupled components including adaptive documents, process flows, and adapters. This segmentation allows individual components to be upgraded or modified without affecting the entire system, making upgrades and modifications easier while maintaining optimization for specific business processes through targeted component updates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent designs universal components with standardized interfaces that can be upgraded independently while maintaining compatibility across different business entity implementations. This universality allows centralized upgrades of core functionality while preserving custom business process optimizations through configuration rather than code changes.
4Ease of manufacture
If generalized business process integration solutions are used, then upgrade and maintenance costs can be spread over a larger customer base, but the solution may not be optimized for specific business entity needs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates universal building blocks that can be reused across multiple business entities, allowing upgrade and maintenance costs to be amortized over a larger customer base. The same adaptive documents, process flows, and adapters serve multiple entities, achieving cost efficiency while maintaining the ability to optimize for specific needs through configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent allows each business entity to configure and customize specific aspects of the universal components to match their local business requirements. While the core components are generalized for cost efficiency, each entity can apply local quality adjustments through configuration of adaptive documents and process flows, achieving both cost efficiency and local optimization.
Data Source
AI summary
A software architecture can include an artifact layer and a configuration layer. The artifact layer can contain multiple application independent artifacts. A configuration layer can contain at least one application. The application can include multiple states in which the application executes instructions. The states can exist within execution spaces that are distributed across a network. The application uses artifacts of the artifact layer, which can operate in a state dependent manner.