IBM BPM Reviews

Process Design, Integration Services (UCA), Event Management, Web Service Provision.

It has reduced the amount of code that we write in a process to achieve the required functionality. Also, the integration with our core product (UI interface) has improved and allowed flexibility for user assignment and management.

More features for user management and dynamic role change.

Three years.

Apart from the usual fixes (which any product encounters), generally the product works well in production.

Based on the sizing and hardware capability, we don't face any scalability issues.

The possibility to add Java code as embedded .jar, that increases the flexibility of the solution.

BPM products are there to optimize the business flows in mid to large organizations. IBM BPM does that pretty well. Currently we use it for the automation of virtual machine provisioning in private clouds.

• The user interface builder could be more powerful and easier to use.
• The real-time process reporting functionality is limited to human activities – there is no visibility over the system tasks.
• IBM BPM uses JavaScript as a programming language for the server-side. I don’t know why it’s not Java, as it’s more powerful and the JavaScript part is translated into Java anyway.
• Sending complex data from the user interfaces to the server side is not achieved easily.

Three years, constantly.

No, stability is good, even with hundreds of new process instances per day.

Scalability depends greatly on the application server, WebSphere Application Server in this case. I haven't encountered any issues so far.

I would say that I like its GUI designer the best. Using it, I have created elegant, user-friendly, and performant end-user graphical interfaces that allow end users to complete their tasks in the most enjoyable and easy way.

We implemented it on our own attendance system. Employees have been able to record hours for projects much more easily and HR can view various statistics, reports about it.

Installation and configuration could be simplified. Performance on large scale requirements could also be improved.

Five years.

Not really. Not that I can remember.

No. Scalability is actually a strong point of IBM BPM because it is designed to run on IBM WebSphere which can be scaled up easily if required.

IBM technical support is great. Customers can receive very good support from business partners too.

We did have experience with other solutions such as Appian, jBPM, Activiti BPM. We switched to IBM BPM primarily because we had customer demand for that product, and it has been that way since.

Like I said, IBM BPM installation and configuration, migration, and upgrading can be a bit complex because you need to deal with a large set of data that involves databases. And product metadata always needs to be in good shape.

Usually, it's best for customers to start out with the Express edition to understand and see what value the product provides. Then they can upgrade to Advanced if their requirements increase and they know how to use the product properly. Starting out with Express can also help reduce the cost for adopting the product.

Yes. Appian, jBPM, Activiti BPM, Camunda, Bonita BPM, Pega BPM.

This product is fully capable of enabling organisations to achieve business process improvement goals. Although, like any software project, IBM BPM can fail if you're not doing it right.

You must have business buy-in before a BPM project can start. A BPM project will be more likely to be successful if executives understand and appreciate the value it can provide.

Also, you need a strong partner to help with the technical stuff; building up a satisfactory IBM BPM solution requires skill.

Responsive Portal + Process Federation Server. This set of solutions offers a unified worklist to our customers.

Unfortunately, I am an infrastructure SME and architect. This question would be more related to development team and business process team.

There is a lot of room for improvement of the dashboards.

Started with v7.5.0 in 2011, but a few months later we updated it to 7.5.1. I have been working with IBM BPM since 2011.

Yes, v7.5.1 was the worst. v8.0.3 started to be more stable, but still complex to update. v8.5.6 is more reliable but we faced lot of problems with some development issues.

UI is amazing for development, and ever since they adopted responsive UI the implementation is easier to adjust on demand.

BPM has become a backbone of our organization, handling major processes. It not only automated the key processes but also highlighted areas that require improvement and acceleration points.

Though I am quite satisfied with the product, and especially the introduction of responsive UI, I still believe that the overall development environment must be desktop based rather web based.

Since 2009.

None.

None.

The Process Portal provides access to most heritage capabilities and introduces many new features, such as a mobile-ready user interface, the ability to edit and share saved searches, and support for federated environments.

Simple processes and automation.

Business areas.

I have used various versions of this product: v6.2, v7.0, v7.5, v8.5, v8.5.6, and v8.5.7.

No.

No.

• Very easy test management
• Good import/export features
• Very good JIRA integration
• Great customer support
• Good report templates, which are very easy to use.

• Shortened time for test management 
• Saved time in QA team communication and collaboration

• Import/export of attachments 
• Transfer of attachments to/from JIRA

Three years.

Not at the moment.

Not at the moment.

Currently, I am using the latest cloud version on my current project. On previous projects, I have used in-house solution.

• The functionality to design UI to be responsive and can run on multiple devices. 
• Exposing of the process components as REST API: This enables consumers to easily integrate and get information on processes and their data.

Helps automate processes, also it easily manages and tracks the business processes. It has the ability to have a view of the performance on each process so you can identify the possibility of optimisation.

Integration with web services, especially in the standard version of the product.

More than three years.

Yes, on the Process Center (development environment), especially when you have too many developers working on it. Then, it becomes unstable.

Not at the moment. It is quite easily scalable.