Getting things straight about IBM BPM current solutions

In short: No IBM BPM product branch is getting terminated and you can mix them however you want.

In detail: One day IBM decided to buy the Lombardi product family… and having their own BPM product line we all knew it was going to get complicated. The original product line was the “4 friends” WebSphere Business Modeler -> WebSphere Integration Designer / Developer) -> WebSphere Process Server -> WebSphere Business Monitor.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/1105_alcorn/images/modeler.jpg — IBM WebSphere Business Modeler Advanced Version 7.0 (the Process Modeler with the eclipse look)

attachment_14943953_WBM7_screen_cap — The flash based Business Designer from IBM WebSphere Business Modeler Advanced Version 7.0

So far so good, no problem whatsoever, but now from out of the blue here it comes: IBM Business Process Manager V7.5.1, which is the tool previously known as “Lombardi BPM”, it is quite easy to tell it apart from the Business Modeler tooling because of the style used on the screens and terms like “coaches” that are only seen in Lombardi (where else but Lombardi!).

The lombardi interface (eclipse with a twist)

Now things start to get complicated. A technical IBM pdf released in 2011 could lead to think the original branch would be somehow discontinued but as we read here it was just a matter of “finding a place for each tool”:

conclusionbpm — “Modeling for execution” interesting expression

Which can be detailed the following way:

WebSphere Business Modeler (the IBM traditional brand line) no longer supported for modeling for execution
WBPM V7.5 Process Designer (lombardi based brand) is the new tool for this class of modeling (so called ‘execution’ which is somehow not true as you yet need some BPEL and a lot of code from the WID and RAD)
WebSphere Business Modeler 7.0 is the preferred tool for modeling for documentation and simulation (makes sense due to the flash’y interface and the blueworks revamp we saw in 2012-2013 as maybe a presales tool)

Note: WebSphere Business Modeler 7.0.0.4 provides a plugin to export BPMN 2.0 if you want to take your diagrams to Lombardi (or wherever), you may lose some elements but mostly non standard features that prevent portability.

The following drawing represent the focus that is being promoted with Business Process Manager Suite 7.5

Knowing each solution in detail you can tell why they chose that approach and kudos for the Architecture guys at IBM… If I had any money I would buy IBM stock.