6 Self-Service Applications using IBM WebSphere V5.0 and IBM MQSeries Integrator
Figure 1-1 The Patterns for e-business layered asset model
Patterns for e-business Web site
The Patterns Web site provides an easy way of navigating top down through the
layered Patterns’ assets in order to determine the preferred reusable assets for
an engagement.
For easy reference to Patterns for e-business refer to the Patterns for e-business
Web site at:
http://www.ibm.com/developerWorks/patterns/
1.2 How to use the Patterns for e-business
As described in the last section, the Patterns for e-business are a layered
structure where each layer builds detail on the last. At the highest layer are
Business patterns. These describe the entities involved in the e-business
solution.
Best-Practice Guidelines
Application Design
Systems Management
Performance
Application Development
Technology Choices
Customer
requirements
Product
mappings
A
n
y
M
e
t
h
o
d
o
l
o
g
y
Runtime
patterns
Application
patterns
Composite
patterns
Business
patterns
Integration
patterns
Chapter 1. Patterns for e-business 7
Composite patterns appear in the hierarchy shown in Figure 1-1 on page 6 above
the Business patterns. However, Composite patterns are made up of a number of
individual Business patterns, and at least one Integration pattern. In this section,
we discuss how to use the layered structure of Patterns for e-business assets.
1.2.1 Selecting a Business, Integration, or Composite pattern, or a
Custom design
When faced with the challenge of designing a solution for a business problem,
the first step is to take a high-level view of the goals you are trying to achieve. A
proposed business scenario should be described and each element should be
matched to an appropriate IBM Pattern for e-business. You may find, for
example, that the total solution requires multiple Business and Integration
patterns, or that it fits into a Composite pattern or Custom design.
For example, suppose an insurance company wants to reduce the amount of
time and money spent on call centers that handle customer inquiries. If
customers are allowed to view their policy information and to request changes
online, they will be able to cut back significantly on the resources spent handling
these things over the phone. The objective is to allow policyholders to view their
policy information stored in legacy databases.
The Self-Service business pattern fits this scenario perfectly. It is meant to be
used in situations where users need direct access to business applications and
data. Let’s take a look at the available Business patterns.
Business patterns
A Business pattern describes the relationship between the users, the business
organizations or applications, and the data to be accessed.
8 Self-Service Applications using IBM WebSphere V5.0 and IBM MQSeries Integrator
There are four primary Business patterns, explained in Figure 1-2:
Figure 1-2 The four primary Business patterns
It would be very convenient if all problems fit nicely into these four slots, but
reality says that things will often be more complicated. The patterns assume that
most problems, when broken down into their most basic components, will fit
more than one of these patterns. When a problem requires multiple Business
patterns, the Patterns for e-business provide additional patterns in the form of
Integration patterns.
Integration patterns
Integration patterns allow us to tie together multiple Business patterns to solve a
business problem. The Integration patterns are outlined in Figure 1-3 on page 9.
Business Patterns Description Examples
Self-Service
(User-to-Business)
Applications where users
interact with a business
via the Internet or
intranet
Simple Web site
applications
Information Aggregation
(User-to-Data)
Applications where users
can extract useful
information from large
volumes of data, text,
images, etc.
Business intelligence,
knowledge management,
Web crawlers
Collaboration
(User-to-User)
Applications where the
Internet supports
collaborative work
between users
E-mail, community, chat,
video conferencing, etc.
Extended Enterprise
(Business-to-Business)
Applications that link two
or more business
processes across
separate enterprises
EDI, supply chain
management, etc.
Chapter 1. Patterns for e-business 9
Figure 1-3 Integration patterns
These Business and Integration patterns can be combined to implement
installation-specific business solutions. We call this a Custom design.
Custom design
We can represent the use of a Custom design to address a business problem
through an iconic representation, as shown in Figure 1-4.
Figure 1-4 Patterns representing a Custom design
If any of the Business or Integration patterns are not used in a Custom design,
we can show that using the blocks which are lighter than the others. For
example, Figure 1-5 on page 10 shows a Custom design that does not have a
Collaboration business pattern or an Extended Enterprise business pattern for a
business problem.
Integration Patterns Description Examples
Access Integration
Integration of a number
of services through a
common entry point
Portals
Application Integration
Integration of multiple
applications and data
sources without the user
directly invoking them
Message brokers,
workflow managers
Access Integration
Self-Service
Collaboration
Information Aggregation
Extended Enterprise
Application Integration
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