Thursday, October 18, 2007

And You Thought Galaxy was Chocolate Bar...but it is a new BPM Tool from SAP

Just had a session at TechEd with the SAP guy who is heading up the development of the GALAXY Process tool that was announced yesterday at TechEd and it was a very interesting and frank session.

Thanks to Marilyn Pratt for sorting it out at the BPX club house.

Things I thought I heard (although I might be wrong) :-

1) Galaxy has a long term roadmap to become a process abstraction layer for SAP – you change the process model and the deployed system changes…cool
2) Initially the focus is "Edge" type Composition for processes outside the core SAP processes, the core maybe exposed later
3) BPMN as a model language – so that both business and IT can understand
4) Tool uses Eclipse so that developers and BPX, work together on the same model – no throwing the model over the wall
5) CAF Guided Procedures will be replaced – but can be used today – Galaxy is still some way off (12 – 18 months)
6) ccBPM will be replaced eventually once the process engine has been proved, but investment in BPEL models will be protected
7) The tool is about modelling and operation of processes. There is still a space for Enterprise modelling tools which model conceptual processes / optimise processes and include other perspectives.
8) Usage of the new rules engine (Yasu) will be key to reducing complexity
9) Many lessons have been learned from tools like CAF and ccBPM, easy usage is key

I think we can expect big things……