Sergio Del Piccolo

With the announcement of the imminent release of K2 blackpoint, K2 are offering you the chance to win one of three prizes in their Get to the Point(s) game. The game is simple; follow some clues, get some points. The top three point earners will win three great prizes. From more see the K2 blackpoint: Get to the Point(s) site.

K2, SourceCode, blackpoint

K2 blackpearl has been selected as the winner of the Best of Tech Ed 2008 Developers Awards for SharePoint Development.

“…K2 blackpearl is a prime example of a new breed of applications that helps developers get the most out of their SharePoint investment. Using a collection of easy to use tools and features, K2 blackpearl allows developers to quickly create applications that pull together disparate systems, information, and business processes. K2 blackpearl can leverage your existing infrastructure investment—including SharePoint, but also BizTalk and Forms Server—to surface the application mashups you create…”

For more see the article on Windows IT Pro.

K2, SourceCode, blackpearl, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, MOSS, Tech Ed 2008

K2 announced the release of K2 blackpoint in beta. K2 blackpoint is a subset of K2 blackpearl features and tools. It works on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and allows users to build workflows and process-driven applications quickly — without code. Since K2 blackpoint is a subset of K2 bleackpearl, it is more affordable. However, it does offer an upgrade path so that customers can upgrade to blackpearl as their processes mature and become more complex.

The following provides a graphical indication of K2 blackpoint’s capapbilities:

To learn more and to sign up for a free trial, visit the K2 blackpoint site.

K2, SourceCode, blackpearl, blackpoint, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, MOSS

There are literally hundreds of processes that we as employees partake in every day as part of our doing our job. These can vary from requesting vacation time, asset tracking, dealing with customer queries or copying information from one system to another, to name just a few. How we do each of these processes varies substantially from one organisation to another. The way in which we do some of these tasks can be improved, leading to a better work experience, improved productivity and a reduction in costs.

Inefficient Processes

Imagine that we need to copy some data from one system to another - e.g. a paper form that has been completed that now needs to be entered into a couple of systems (a database application and a financial system). This task may only take 30 minutes a day, which doesn’t seem like much. However, that adds up pretty quickly to 2.5 hours a week or 130 hours a year, and that’s just for a single task! Automating this task so that it needs to be keyed in once and then entered into both systems at once can save at least half the time it would normally take.

Another common scenario is that there are many manual processes that are not documented and contained in the minds of a few employees. This is often the case with long serving employees. They then become a pivotal part of the process and without them no-one knows what is required or how to complete the process. The process quickly becomes dependant on this one employee.

Associated Costs

Many of these costs are hidden from employers. Top and middle tier management are usually unaware of the associated costs of these inefficiencies. It can require some complex analysis to come to an actual cost of wasted time. The cost includes accrued overtime, time spent finding people required to assist or time wasted in finding the person who is responsible for the next task. These costs may be hidden, but they are very real.

Some will say that this is what we pay our employees to do - spend time on completing these tasks. While I agree with that, there is more to it - as employers we should strive to make all of the tasks that our employees have to do as efficient as possible, for a number of reasons:

• Decreased productivity. Saving your employee half of the time to complete monotonous tasks will free up their time to get other work done. In Canada today, employees are working increasingly longer hours and taking less vacation. This is a dangerous precedent that should be of concern to all employers. It is not a sustainable practice and can lead to employees burning out and quitting their jobs. When people are tired they end up making mistakes that should be avoidable. Their level of productivity drops and as a result their performance suffers.
• Attracting new employees. In Canada today, there is a general shortage of skilled workers, plus the fact that the majority of the workforce will be retiring within the next 10 years, is an issue of grave concern. Labour costs are increasing and finding the right employee for the job becomes a time consuming and expensive task. Once you find the “right” person, are they going to come and work at a firm with outdated processes requiring tedious manual tasks? I would be surprised. If they did, you would have to ask yourself whether this was the person you wanted to hire in the first place.
• Island of knowledge. With one person knowing all of the processes and how to complete the tasks, the firm becomes dependant on them. Should this person decide to leave or have an accident, the process comes to a complete stop. The time and effort required to complete the tasks is enormous and the chance of making mistakes is all too real.

Benefits of Process Improvement

With process improvement comes some valuable benefits.

• Higher quality of work. With an automated task, the chance for errors to occur is reduced. Employees can deal with more tasks and time management becomes easier. Rules and validation can be built into a single location affecting all instances of the process. The process tasks and activities becomes standardised and the results are consistent regardless of the employee responsible for the outcome.
• Reduced risk. The enterprise is no longer dependant on the process expert to be able to complete the task. Training of new staff becomes easier and the business can repeatedly complete all tasks within a given time period.
• Process improvement. Activities and tasks can be audited and it becomes easier to analyse trends and identify areas for improvement. Employees become accountable for their tasks. Escalations can be built into the process that will notify those responsible that some tasks are slipping and there may be a need for more resources to be allocated to certain areas within the process. Many of the process automation tools these days have the ability for people to set Out of Office notices which will re-route their tasks to others. This ensures that no task is left waiting while someone is on a well deserved vacation or out of town.
• Process documentation. The automated process becomes a documented process - the steps of required activities can be viewed in one place and it is easy to resolve questions about what the next step should be. Some of today’s process automation tools have documentation functionality included in the toolset. This can be a great way to get a formal process document started.
• Easier to automate additional processes. Once a single process has been automated, the process to automate tasks becomes known and can be improved. This is especially the case once a process automation framework has been established. With each additional process being streamlined, the return on investment associated with process automation increases. Many of today’s process engines provide scalable solutions allowing for the enterprise to grow without the need to hire many new resources. With the lack of available personnel and high labour costs, the firm’s bottom line is better off as well.
• Reporting. As soon as tasks, activities and process associated data can be tracked, it becomes possible to report on them. This is a huge benefit, especially to management, who can use this information to make informed decisions about business strategy and planning.

While some of these benefits are obvious, others are less so. Yet they are all key to the continued success of a company’s ability to do business. Often, during the post-implementation debriefing process I’ve heard decision-makers question why this process streamlining exercise wasn’t done sooner. While that is a good question, hindsight is always 20-20. It takes a certain amount of fortitude to ask “How can we improve the work we do?” and that can be lacking when we’re working long hours to complete the tasks that we are required to do on a daily basis…regardless of how inefficient the process may be.

Avantage Partners, Business Process, Business Process Automation

The 0803 release for K2[blackpearl] has been announced. This release provides support for 64-bit hardware platforms, support for Worldwide English (non-English Windows, SQL Server, SharePoint, Office and Visual Studio), improved license management, performance enhancements and post-SP1 patches and bug fixes.

64-BIT SUPPORT
64-bit support allows K2[blackpearl] components to be installed on 64-bit hardware platforms. Support for the 64-bit platform includes the following components.
    > 64-bit SQL Server 2005
    > 64-bit SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
    > 64-bit SharePoint 2007 (WSS/MOSS/Forms Server)
    > 64-bit K2 [blackpearl] Server
    > 64-bit K2 Workspace

WORLDWIDE ENGLISH (INTERNATIONALIZATION)
Worldwide English support allows K2 [blackpearl] to run in English on non-English platforms. Support for non-English platforms includes the following components.
    >  Windows 2003 Server (Standard or better)
    >  SQL Server 2005
    >  SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
    >  SharePoint 2007 (WSS/MOSS/Forms Server)
    >  Visual Studio 2005 (Professional or better)
    >  Visio 2007

LICENSE MANAGEMENT
The K2 license management feature adds the following capabilities.
    >  Add / Delete license
    >  Edit existing licenses
    >  Manage Logged in Users
    >  Manage License over usage

DISTRIBUTED INSTALLATION ENHANCEMENTS
The K2 Installation Manager and K2 Configuration Manager tools have been greatly enhanced to allow for greater flexibility and robustness when installing K2 [blackpearl] in distributed environments, including the following.
    >  Improved support for network load balanced web front ends in SharePoint farms
    >  Improved support for network load balanced K2 Workspace scenarios

PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS
Numerous performance enhancements have been implemented. Some of the highlights are as follows.
    >  Workflow Server Performance
    >  Improved processes execution
    >  Worklist & Worklist Item performance
    >  Improved memory usage when starting processes and finishing work list items
    >  Improved batch execution of K2 processes
    >  SmartObject Performance
    >  SmartObject Server data handling enhancements
    >  Client Data Marshalling enhancement
    >  SmartObject Synchronization - see KB000250 - SmartObject GUID Synchronization

IPC EVENT
The following issues have been fixed relating to the IPC Event.
    >  Process Synchronization using Batch Actioning, IPC Sync Events, and Worklist Navigation
    >  Worklist Issues with Multiple Destinations, IPC Events and Dynamic Roles
    >  Not all processes in a solution are displayed when browsing for child processes in an IPC Event
        wizard
    >  When an activity contains an IPC event where the destination user is mapped to the child process and
        is used in a client event, both users are able to view the other user’s work items.

DOCUMENTATION
Several additions and enhancements have been made to the K2 blackpearl Documentation. The key areas of improvement are as follows:

1. OVERALL DOCUMENTATION
    >  Combined all documents to be linked from CHM file for easier discovery
    >  Added a “Send Feedback” link to all topics
    >  Added/Improved content for Troubleshooting, License Management, K2 Wizards, SmartObject
        (Delete), 2003 Interoperability and InfoPath Templates

2. GETTING STARTED GUIDE
The K2 [blackpearl] Getting Started Guide has been completely rewritten to provide clear concise information for planning and installation including the following.
    >  A Getting Started Checklist spreadsheet is embedded in the guide to help you plan, document and
        verify your K2 environment
    >  Software prerequisites list is provided by component and by role
    >  A new “Before you begin” section has been added that details steps for configuring DNS, Service
        Accounts, Permissions, NLB, SPNs, MSMQ and DTC
    >  Detailed information for installing in a distributed environment has been greatly enhanced
    >  New topics have been added to the Troubleshooting the Installation section

3. DEVELOPER REFERENCE (FORMERLY SDK)
The K2 [blackpearl] Developer Reference was introduced mid Q1 and has been updated with the following new content for 0803.
    >  Database Overview & Schemas
Architecture topics
    >  Architectural Overview of K2 [blackpearl]
    >  Architecture of Authoring, Management and Runtime aspects of the K2 platform
    >  Architecture of the Workflow Server
    >  Architecture of the SmartObject Server
    >  Architecture of the Event Bus
    >  Architecture of the Environment Library
    >  Architecture of the Workspace Management Console
New “How To” topics
    >  How to access and return information from the Global Worklist
    >  How to upload a file to a SmartObject
    >  How to add a 3rd-party event recorder to the K2 [blackpearl] Server
    >  How to create a custom MSBuild task to set rights on a process
    >  How to Generate a Report in PDF format

COMPATABILITY MATRIX
The K2 [blackpearl] Compatibility Matrix has been added to the customer portal at http://portal.k2workflow. com/help/k2blackpearl/k2bpmatrix.aspx.
Please take the time to review the latest K2 [blackpearl] 0803 (4.8075.1.0) Release Notes and product documentation before installing 0803 to ensure you understand the enhancements, fixed issues, and outstanding known issues.
DOWNLOAD K2 [BLACKPEARL] 0803 (4.8075.1.0)
K2 [blackpearl] 0803 (4.8075.1.0) is available at https://portal.k2workflow.com/do wnloads/bp/Default.aspx. 
License keys can be obtained at https://portal.k2workflow.com/lice nsekey/Default.aspx.  The page can also be found via the Support > License Key Request > License Key menu on portal.
The 0803 installer is slipstreamed, so if K2 blackpearl is not already present, the installer will install K2 blackpearl with the 0803 updates.

SUPPORT
Please use the customer portal to open support tickets and/or contact your local support offices to report any issues. Additionally, the K2 blackpearl public forum on K2 Underground is available for community-based discussions: http://k2underground.com/forums/default.aspx?GroupID=21.  Note: K2 Underground is a community Web site and should not be used for production support issues or for logging bugs.

SourceCode, K2, K2[blackpearl], K2 Underground

Yesterday Microsoft announced their intention to release a licensed upgrade of BizTalk Server - BizTalk Server 2006 R3. It will include the following features:

• New web service registry capabilities with support for UDDI version 3.0
• Enhanced service enablement of applications, i.e. new and enhanced adapters for LOB applications, databases, and legacy/host systems
• Enhanced service enablement of “edge” devices through BizTalk RFID Mobile
• Enhanced interoperability and connectivity support for B2B protocols (like SWIFT, EDI, etc)
• SOA patterns and best practices guidance

The expected release date is by June 2009.

For more information on this view Steve Martin’s blog.

Microsoft, BizTalk, BizTalk Server 2006 R3, Steve Martin

The new Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 Management Pack for for System Center Operations Manager 2007 has been released. Taken straight from the download page:

The BizTalk Server Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 is a entirely new management pack that provides comprehensive discovery and monitoring of BizTalk Server components and applications. In addition to general support for BizTalk Server 2006, BizTalk Server 2006 R2, this management pack provides coverage for new BizTalk Server 2006 R2 features, such as the native EDI runtime and RFID.

Feature Bullet Summary: This management pack focuses on the following key scenarios which are discussed further in the management pack guide provided within the download:

• Suspended Message Alerts
• Alert Suppression Policy
• BAM Technical Assistance Alerts
• BizTalk Message Boxes and Hosts
• Orchestration Failures
• Service Monitoring
• Application Monitoring
• Monitoring of various aspects of RFID

Download the new Management Pack from here.

Microsoft, BizTalk Server 2006 R2, BizTalk, Management Pack, SCOM, Systems Center Operations Manager

Friday morning I managed to get in to the Microsoft Strategic Architect Forum to catch Peter Kelcey’s presentation on the Microsoft ESB guidance, integration using Microsoft BizTalk Server and SOA. The presentation revolved mostly around the ESB guidance that can be found on CodePlex and the benefits it can provide your enterprise.

For more information look at:
Microsoft Strategic Architect Forum
Microsoft ESB Guidance
Peter Kelcey’s Blog

Be sure to look at Peter’s article on installing the ESB guidance. He provided a checklist that can be used for a smooth(er) installation of the toolkit.

Microsoft Strategic Architect Forum, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2, CodePlex, Enterprise Service Bus, ESB, ESB Guidance, Peter Kelcey

The final day of the conference came around to quickly. Soon it would be time to go. I can happily report that I won a handsome bet of $1 last night at the bowling alley!

Development Reference
Mike Talley, SourceCode

Mike went through the development reference that comes with K2 [blackpearl]. He went trough what existed and what was planned. The following is planned for release this year:

i - Database schemas of all 14 K2 databases.
i - Architecture diagrams and discussions.
ii - More How To topics e.g. how to debug.
iv - Event Bus topics e.g. calling another another assembly, starting a process.
v - Impersonate a user (and reverting to a user).

Training
Codi Kaji, Source Code

Codi discussed planned training content for the year, including:

i - A K2 Infrastructure course
ii - A Getting Started guide
iii - A K2 Developers course - once the Development Reference is complete

Smart Objects
Jason Apergis, Colin Murphy and Gabe Malherbe (K2 Insiders)

Jason, Colin and Gabe went through a discussion of Smart Objects, highlighting the advantages and mentioning pitfalls to avoid. They started with a quick overview of K2.net 2003 advantages and shortcomings:

i - It was easy to drop into code from wizards
ii - When  using code to access external systems, it was time consuming, complex is not generally considered a best practice.
iii - When storing workflow data in XML or process data fields, you could run into performance issues when storing large amounts of data.
iv - When creating custom wizards for non-technical users to consume your custom code, it was very time consuming and could lead to problems during deployment.

When using K2 [blackpearl], Smart Objects can solve many of the aforementioned shortcomings.

i - Smart Objects are reusable business entities which are deployed centrally and available to be consumed by non-technical business workflow authors.
ii - The SmartBox is the storage location for process data.
iii - Allows for quick access to external Line of Business (LOB) data.
iv - Allows for the aggregation of data from multiple back-end systems (e.g. AD, SAP, SQL Server) into a single composite object.
v - Can be created without writing code.
vi - Can be accessed by the workflow and can be used for reporting.

There was some discussion about the positioning of Smart Objects within the application layer (see the diagram below) and some things to consider:

i - Don’t circumvent the data warehouse.
ii - Think carefully about whether there is a need to save the data from the Smart Object in the workflow context to the database layer.
iii - Consider the reporting benefit that comes from the Smart Objects.

Diagram 1 - The Smart Object position within the application layer.

Next came a discussion about Smart Objects services. These services are wrappers to functionality that Smart Objects can call. The following are available out of the box:

i - SmartBox (although these can’t be used for custom SQL Server databases).
ii - Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
iii - Microsoft Active Directory
iv - K2 [blackpearl]
v - SalesForce.com

There are more available on K2 [blackmarket]:

i - Dynamic SQL Server Stored Procedure Service
ii - Dynamic Smart Object Services Service
iii - Dynamic Web Services Service
iv - Microsoft Office Communication Server Service
v - SharePoint Users in Groups Service

K2 [blackmarket] is part of K2 Underground - the community site that allows community to create and share projects and code on the K2 Underground site.

Forms Discussion
Mike Talley, SourceCode

Mike led a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of using InfoPath and ASP.net for forms development in a K2 Solution. The table below summarizes the discussion.

So after three action packed days, the inaugural K2 Insiders Conference comes to an end. It was a great opportunity to meet some of the people behind K2 and other Insiders. Thanks to Chris who went to a great deal of effort to organize this. Well done!

SourceCode, K2, K2[blackpearl], K2 [blackmarket], K2 Underground, Smart Object, SmartBox, Microsoft SharePoint Office Server, MOSS, ASP.net, InfoPath 2007

Solution Architecture Overview
Bob Maggio, Architect, SourceCode

Bob went through a K2 [blackpearl] solution showing much of the detailed architecture. A couple of noteworthy items to share here are:

1. When working with a Smart Objects, you can add a process level reference to the Smart Object in the solution. By doing this, each activity or event will point to the Smart Object in the reference. Not using the referenced Smart Object results in each call to the Smart Object adding to the operating cost of your solution and thus negatively affecting performance.

2. K2.Net 2003 and K2 [blackpearl] differ regarding activity instances. In K2.net 2003, there would be an activity instance for each person assigned to a task. In K2 [blackpearl] there is now a single activity instance regardless of the number of people assigned to a task.

K2 [blackpearl] Architecture Overview
Koos du Preez, CTO, SourceCode

Koos went through the some of K2 [blackpearl] architecture. The first thing he spoke about though was performance. Although not an architecture item, the product architecture is a major consideration in achieving optimal performance. Performance will be much improved with the upcoming 803 release. While the main goals of this release are 64 bit support and improving the K2 [server] installer, it includes significant performance enhancements. The workflow server performance is much improved; primarily process execution. The worklist and worklist item performance has been improved significantly as well.  

Koos also touched on the following items:

1. Workflow Authoring

K2 allows for authoring of processes using any designer, viz. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, K2 Studio and Microsoft Visio 2007. It has a common authoring API which generates a KPRX file used by all designers. It also contains custom configuration data and customizable pre-built workflow schedules - which don’t require code generation. The schedules are created using XAML. One important point to note is that the extender files should not be checked into source control, as it will result in the extender files becoming corrupted.

When the solution is built, the result is compiled executable artifact which are contained in a MSBuild package ready for deployment. Deployment executes the MSBuild package which in turn results in the following steps being taken:
i - Obtaining environment setting
ii - Deploying artifacts using build tasks
    a - creates MOSS artifacts
    b - uploads MOSS artifacts
    c - deploys the workflow
    d - deploys the events
    e - deploys Smart Objects

One thing to remember is that Service Objects need to be manually deployed to other environments. Lastly, a great tip regarding deployment is that when deploying using the command line tool, detailed information is returned as well as error information, e.g. an error that might be returned using this method could be “Error creating MOSS site”.

2. Runtime

At runtime, a .Net AppDomain is created on the K2 [server]. All process definitions and behaviour is loaded from the K2 databases. Isolated and versioned execution of processes start.

3. K2 Layered Architecture

i - K2 [blackpearl] comes with a K2 SSO (Single Sign-On) - see below for more.
ii - Communications are pluggable by design. Currently the K2 API to the server uses TCP on port 5555. This can be replaced by WCF or an alternative protocol if needed.
iii - Roles can be authenticated using AD (Active Directory), LDAP or Microsoft SQL Server amongst others.
iv - The K2 [server] can listen for K2.Server 2003 and K2 Studio 2003 using TCP over port 5252.

4. K2 Single Sign-On (SSO)

The K2 SSO is based on a primary ID. Line of business (LOB) IDs are attached to the primary ID. It supports multiple backend LOB credential caching using pluggable authentication providers. These can have multiple instances of the authentication providers e.g. multiple SAP instances can be attached. The K2 SSO supports Windows SSPI (NTLM and Kerberos).

The K2 SSO ships with the following authentication providers: AD; SQL; Siebel; SAP; SalesForce. The K2 SSO is pluggable and an SDK exists for creation of custom authentication providers. It is highly secure, making use of SQL Server symmetric keys in turn protected by system credentials. Caching can be set to expire or turned off. Automatic prompting, validation and caching of credentials occur the first time an event results in a LOB being hit.

K2 SSO supports seamless Smart Object integration. The way it works is as follows:
i - The API requests the Smart Object method call
ii - Marshalling calls the Smart Object Exec with broker package
iii - The Service Instance requests the LOB credentials
iv - The Security Framework accesses the SSO cache
v - If the credentials are not cached then the Security Framework prompts the user for them

When a prompt is requested, it is the result of an error being thrown. If not handled, then the process will be in error state. This needs to be taken into account when using Microsoft InfoPath as a user interface.

5. K2 Databases

There can be up to 14 K2 databases. They can be configured for performance by adjusting the threads for the processing database and the log database. In the k2server.setup file, the <K2ThreadPool> tag is set at 20 thread by default for both databases. These numbers can be adjusted e.g. processing uses 25 or 30 threads and the log 15 or 10 threads. It is also possible to rename the databases as long as the names are updated in the configuration manager.

6. Common Logging Framework

The logging framework allows for logging events to be sent to multiple targets, including:
i - Microsoft SQL Server
ii - MSMQ
iii - File
iv - Windows Event Log
v - Console

The verbosity and severity levels for each target can be set. The message queue used to send logging events can be bypassed, resulting in synchronous real time logging of messages. This does affect overall performance though. This is done by opening the HostServerLogging.config and altering the <AsyncQueueEnabled> tag. When making this alteration, the service needs to be restarted.

It is also possible to create predefined messages taking parameters using text, etc.

7. Monitoring (Windows PerfMon)

The following are tracked using PerfMon:
i - Processes Started, per second
ii - Worklist Opened, per second
iii - Worklist items finished, per second
iv - Process Memory Usage
v - Process Thread Count
vi - Process Modules Loaded
vii - TCP Bytes Retrieved Total, per second
viii - TCP Bytes Sent Total, per second
ix - TCP Concurrent Connections
vii - TCP Connections Opened, per second

Business Process Management Today
Maureen Flemming, Program Director, Business Process, Integration and Deployment Software, IDC

The afternoon session had Maureen give some insight into the market today and Business Process Management. The session was highly informative, although I did not take too many notes.

As is clearly evident, the second day was busy and managed to live up to the high standards of the day 1. Here’s to day 3, but before that there are a few bets to win at the bowling alley this evening.

SourceCode, K2, K2[blackpearl], Process Management, K2 SSO, K2 Databases, Monitoring K2, K2 Logging Framework, K2 Workflow Authoring