My second comment:
Dear Clay,
thanks for your response. In my post I was mentioning MDD more as a methodology than a technical framework (although it it is more often intended in the latter sense). This means to think about reality purely in terms of models, and relations (or mappings, or transformations) among them.
In this sense, MDD could contribute in MDM and BPM alignment.
Indeed, I fully agree with you that the real challenge is on alignment and synchronization. I think that MDD can help also on this, to some extent, thanks to the its “models and relations” paradigm.
I bring this in as an integrated design alternative to the siloed worlds you mention. Obviously this is not always possible, but it’s definitely the one I would embrace when starting new projects (if instead you already have the siloes as a starting point, a longer discussion is needed on how and if MDD can be applied).
And then, I was trying to push the things a little bit further by saying that besides models for MDM and BPM, one could think to other aspects of the real world to address, and generalize the approach.
Maybe a grand vision, not for tomorrow, but something worth imagining.
We actually had some successful experiences on this, both at research and large-scale industrial level, by working on projects that integrated BP models, complex Data management models, user and role models, and user interaction models. Some slides about this are online on Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/mbrambil) and we are going to publish the experience in the upcoming book edited by Michael Rosemann and Michael zur Muehlen following up the industrial session of the BPM 2010 conference in Hoboken, NJ. I’ll keep you posted on this if you want.
In this sense, MDD could contribute in MDM and BPM alignment.
Indeed, I fully agree with you that the real challenge is on alignment and synchronization. I think that MDD can help also on this, to some extent, thanks to the its “models and relations” paradigm.
I bring this in as an integrated design alternative to the siloed worlds you mention. Obviously this is not always possible, but it’s definitely the one I would embrace when starting new projects (if instead you already have the siloes as a starting point, a longer discussion is needed on how and if MDD can be applied).
And then, I was trying to push the things a little bit further by saying that besides models for MDM and BPM, one could think to other aspects of the real world to address, and generalize the approach.
Maybe a grand vision, not for tomorrow, but something worth imagining.
We actually had some successful experiences on this, both at research and large-scale industrial level, by working on projects that integrated BP models, complex Data management models, user and role models, and user interaction models. Some slides about this are online on Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/mbrambil) and we are going to publish the experience in the upcoming book edited by Michael Rosemann and Michael zur Muehlen following up the industrial session of the BPM 2010 conference in Hoboken, NJ. I’ll keep you posted on this if you want.
Software AG buys Data Foundations: Business Acumen Meets Data Competency (Fri, 10/22/2010, Clay Richardson Forrester Blog)
I think your predictions are crucial for both the data and process management fields. I would actually read them more as a recommendation to potential adopters than a mere prediction. I think that the evolutions you mention in the vendor market are only external signals of a deep need that has been latent for (too) long.
I strongly believe that business process models “per se” are not enough for representing the complexity of real world enterprises and therefore also of software applications devoted to implement the enterprise processes.
I think that other design dimensions should be taken into account in the analysis, design, and implementation of such applications.
Besides business processes, data is definitely one of these dimensions, and probably the most important one. In the approach we have been devising for some years, we studied some further aspects:
– application structure
– user navigation
– visual identity
As a research team, we have tried for a long time to find a way to combine all these aspects together in a sensible way. We ended up with Model Driven Development (MDD): different orthogonal models represent the various aspects of the applications and a set of mappings and transformation rules allow a seamless integration of all of them (plus a set of nice-to-have features, such as quick prototyping, integrated documentation, automatic alignment of models and implementation, and so on).
I would be glad to get feedback on this. Do you think it makes sense to consider further aspects wrt data and processes? Might MDD be an interesting option for integrating them?