Is IBM overtaking Oracle in BPMN 2.0 race with release of BPM V7.5.1?

In October IBM has announced release of IBM Business Process Manager V7.5.1 which became available today (electronic distribution, for media package you will need to wait until next month). This is the first minor release after IBM released unified BPM platform that we have introduced earlier this year.

In this release of BPM the major step forward is the enhanced BPMN 2.0 support where IBM was stepping behind its rival Oracle.

Oracle has claimed its BPMN 2.0 support with Oracle 11g R1 (PS2) that was released in March 2010. At that time I think the Oracle was the first of the complete BPMS (not process modeling tools only) leaders to claim BPMN 2.0 support. We were anticipating that Oracle will continuously enhance its BPMN 2.0 tooling from that point on. Unfortunately this has not happened. Oracle is still not compatible with the BPMN 2.0 schema. Importing or exporting conformant BPMN 2.0 files is not possible.

With the BPM V7.5.1 release IBM has made a huge step towards BPMN 2.0 compliancy. We know that IBM offered limited support for BPMN 2.0 with WebSphere Business Modeler V7.0 and Business Compass V7. Problem with those tools is that they provide only non executable model that needed to be transformed to BPEL (only option in V7) or imported into BPM V7.5 Process Designer.

With V7.5.1 release Process Designer supports majority of BPMN 2.0 elements and adds some of its own like Ad Hoc start event and Tracking Event. See figure below for supported set of BPMN activities, events and gateways.

IBM BPM V7.5.1 Process Designer

What is even more important when we talk about BPMN 2.0 support is IBM’s effort to implement BPMN 2.0 Import/Export functionality. Import/Export feature (it can be used from Process Center and Process Designer) is promising direct execution of processes from BPMN 2.0 compliant BPMS without special post import process preparation (for example Coaches are generated automatically).

We can definitely expect Oracle to follow with BPMN 2.0 conformant import/export capabilities. That being said, it looks like Oracle started to fall behind IBM’s BPM platform. They have lost their over a year head start.  For the closure we can say that it seems that IBM has taken the lead for now.
Other enhancements in V7.5.1 are equally important and are mainly improving productivity:

• Simplified installation and configuration experience for production deployment environments
  • New refactoring features for process application and toolkits
  • Creation of process application documentation that can be reviewed and printed by stakeholders
  • Ability to view change management history between versions of a process application
  • Process instance recovery
  • Enhanced support through IBM Support Assistant

• Enhanced case solutions
  • Integration with IBM Case Manager with Common inbox
  • IBM Case Manager case solutions can invoke BPM processes
  • BPM processes can interact with IBM Case Manager cases

We have not had a chance for a test drive of the new release yet but will definitely make a follow up post when we make BPMN 2.0 interoperability test.

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