Sergio Del Piccolo

The inaugural K2 Insiders Conference started on April 8th, in Denver Colorado. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time, waiting to meet fellow Insiders and to have a chance to find out more about the inner workings of BlackPearl and new offerings from SourceCode.

Key Note, Vision and Roadmap
Adriaan Van Wyk, CEO, SourceCode & Olaf Wagner, Senior VP – Product Development, SourceCode

Adriaan started with welcoming everyone and speaking to the history of SourceCode and the product and it’s evolution to the current version of BlackPearl. One phrase that stood out to me was his description of BlackPearl being software for creating Process Driven Applications.

The Year in Review

Adriaan spoke about 2007 which turned out to be a challenging year for SourceCode with the release of BlackPearl; some of the issues that the firm faced and what they were planning to do to resolve them. The release of Service Pack 1 helped SourceCode esolve many issues that had existed before and the product team was working hard to get the next two releases (803 and 805)out. They will contain the following enhancements:

803
- Full 64 bit support
- A new and improved installer for deployment
- Internationalization  support
- 30+ patches including
   – Visual Studio stability around InfoPath projects
   – Enhanced workflow performance
   – Enhanced reporting performance
   – Enhanced Smart Object performance
   – Smart Object lifecycle improvements
   – Sales tools for partners

805
- Team Foundation Server integration
- References bug fixes
- Additional Smart Object and Reporting performance enhancements
- K2 [connect] for SAP RTM 
- Additional bug fixes

Strategic Components for K2

The next item on the agenda were the strategic components for K2, what they meant and proposed time frames for delivery:

1 – K2 Studio

K2 are planning to release a new version K2 Studio. K2 Studio is a development environment that can be used for creating process driven applications. It is felt that K2 Studio will be better suited for non-developers as many feel intimidated by having to use Visual Studio. K2 Studio re-hosts the Visual Studio designers used to develop applications. It will support the following: process design; Smart Object design; the Artifact Library (when available) and any future designers released.

The K2 Studio can be installed without the need for Visual Studio to be installed and solutions can be opened and edited in either designer. There is support for K2.net 2003 processes and artifacts. The K2 Studio does make use of MS Build to create the deployment packages (similar to Visual Studio). One limitation of the K2 Studio is the fact the user will not be able to get to .Net code – the solution will have to be opened in Visual Studio.

The design of the K2 Studio is similar to that of Office 12 and 14, making use of the ribbon menu. It maintains the relevant context, allowing for Activity and Event options to be edited as well as Deployment options.

2 – Process Management

The plan is to release a Process Management API and tools, with the primary focus being for inclusion in K2 Studio and Visual Studio. A web tool is planned for a later release. Processes will be able to be managed at process and instance levels. It will allow for in-flight process instances to be altered. The changes can then be applied to a single instance, all instances of a specified definition or all processes.

The demo showed a process being opened from a report, the instance being drilled-down to and being selected. It opened the instance within Visual Studio although no solution had been opened. The View Flow was displayed and it was mentioned that a new zoom-able version of the View Flow was planned for a future release. Access to rules and policies are available for alteration on activities that had not been reached. Activity wizards can be re-run and altered. Once complete the instance was redeployed to the server, showing some analysis of the two versions and highlighting their differences.

Needless to say, this is a very powerful feature allowing for an incredible amount of flexibility. The impact can be significant and can effect reports and policies and rules in unexpected ways. Some guidance will be required around this and there will no doubt need to be internal policies managing changes within your firm.

3 – Process Portals

These are portals allowing for management of processes through WSS sites. They are not dependant on MOSS. They may either be created or existing can sites can be extended to become Process Portals. They contain web parts allowing for the management of the processes and the templates used for creation of the sites is customizable.

The available web parts are: Process Overview; a My Task List with all my Worklist items and a Task List for all Worklist items (a managerial view). All process instances can be managed including running, error and stopped instances. There is access to reports, administration, and security management. The web parts are fully extendable as well.

Now users won’t need to leave SharePoint to manage their processes or work on their Worklist items.

4 – K2 [connect]

K2 [connect] is SourceCode’s integration solution for process driven applications. It envisaged that it will remove many of the integration pains experienced when there is a requirement for data integration. The ease of use and low cost is seen as the value proposition for K2 [connect]. It’s based on WCF adapters and can be hosted without the need for Microsoft BizTalk. 

What it does:
- Allows for is a synchronous access to data as logical composite service objects
- Allows for easy binding of data to forms
- Declarative mapping between internal SAP fields and external fields
- Supports composite mapping and transformation
- Comes with a Microsoft BizTalk license

What it is not / does not do:
- An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
- Provide persistence points for data i.e. a message box.

Currently there is a version for SAP in beta which is expected for release as RTM by the end of April 2008 (yes this month). It adds nearly no load to the SAP system, which will make many SAP administrators that I deal with happy. It allows for processes to be triggered by SAP events, and creates a two-way connection allowing for reads and writes. It can also be used in reporting.

The next version of K2 [connect] which is expected in October 2008, will include:
- Support for Microsoft BizTalk WCF LOB SDK
- Support for Siebel, Oracle, SQL Server, and complex services
- Updated designers
- Integration with WF

5 – End-Point Publishing

End-Point publishing allows for the publishing of any Smart Object with a WCF endpoint or to the UDDI Catalog. It automatically versions the endpoint to the Smart Object. Workflow processes can be published as endpoints as well. The release plan for End-Point publishing is for a beta in the next of month, with a release to RTM expected between 1 and 3 months after that depending on the feedback received.

6 – Silverlight Workflow Designer

The Silverlight Workflow Designer is planned to replace the current AJAX Workflow Designer. It is built on Silverlight 2.0 and can be hosted in any web application. It will be backwardly compatible with the current version, although there is a change in the design concept: it will focus on people and results rather than the normal K2-style event steps. It is built on a new extensibility model and won’t be specific to MOSS/WSS.

7 – BlackPearl Simulation

The BlackPearl Simulation engine will allow customers to answer “what if” reports to assist in intelligent decision making around their business processes. It is built on Silverlight 2.0 and is architected to have an extensible resource and reporting model. It has a “video editing” mode, and can use actual historical data in its models. It can measure KPIs across process versions. Currently there is no release timeframe.

8 – BlackPearl Workspace 2.0

That’s right – the current BlackPearl Workspace is pencilled for an upgrade. The new version will have a new look similar to that of the K2.net 2003 Workspace. It will be a more granular AJAX implementation with improved performance. Web parts will be available for inclusion on SharePoint sites. Currently there is no rush to get this out and it is thought that it will be ready for release by the end of 2008.

9 – Out of Office

The Out of Office feature is planned to allow for external events to effect Out of Office status, e.g. Out of Office in Microsoft Exchange will change the users Out of Office status in BlackPearl. Another feature is task-type delegation, e.g. delegating leave approvals to one person and expense approvals to another. It will allow for sharing based on action rights and for confirguration to be saved. Once saved, Out of Office can be turned on or off. 

10 – Release 806

This release has no time frame but it is planned to include the following enhancements:
- Visual Studio 2008 support
- Full K2.net 2003 Interop support and migration wizards
- K2 Studio RTM
- Process Portals RTM
- K2 Endpoint RTM
- Out of Office RTM
- Dynamic SQL Service (tables, views and stored procedures)
- Web Service / WCF Workflow templates RTM (low priority)
- K2 BlackPearl templates for Microsoft BizTalk 2006 R2 (low priority)

In Conclusion

What a day! There were a lot of exciting new features and enhancements, as well as problems shared with the Insiders. Much discussion and feedback around the vision and product was generated. It proved to be very informative and gave us a chance to meet and interact with some of the people behind the scenes. Hopefully this results in a better product for your process driven application J needs.

SourceCode, BlackPearl, K2, K2 [connect], K2 Studio, Process Management, Process Portals, Endpoint Publishing, Silverlight Workflow Designer, BlackPearl Simulation, BlackPearl Workspace, Out of Office

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