1. What are the typical functions and the typical parts of a workflow system?

Give
an example of a simple workflow application for order processing and billing.
Clearly explain all assumptions you make. (5)
Workflow normally comprises a number of logical steps (activities). A workflow system
automates a business process, in whole or in part, during which documents, information, or
tasks are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of rules.
Workflow technologies enables developers to describe full intra- or inter-organizational
business processes with dependencies, sequencing selection and iteration. It enables the
workflow developers to describe the complex rules for processing in a business process and
allows people to be deployed more productively within an organization.

2. Explain in some detail what are the main differences between workflow, EAI
and e-business integration. What are the main characteristics of EAI? (2)
Workflow passes information and physical objects from one processing step to another. It
links tools & technologies to be able to automatically route events and tasks between user
and programs.
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) =A key enabling technology that helps
organizations achieve intra-organizational integration and drive operational efficiency within
the corporation
E-Business integration = coordinating the flow of information and processes among
enterprises and their underlying systems. The aim is to facilitate supply, distribution and
customer information exchange and coordination and collaboration between multiple trading
partners.
Hence the main differences are that e-business and EAI enable the workflows, in which e-
business revolves around workflows between organizations as where EAI revolves around
workflows within organisations.
Other differences between EAI and E-Business Integration= E-business are likely to run over
the internet, involve additional security measures, are driven by business protocols and
standards.
 3. Describe in brief the purpose and operations of the data integration layer in
EAI.
Data integration is the ability to share and exchange relevant business data from a variety of
sources and integrate it with other such related data items, despite differences in data
formats, structures and intended meaning of business terms under possibly diverse
company standards. The data integration layer is connected to the data sources and
executes the tasks needed for data integration. It is EAI on the level of data.

4. What is point-to-point topology for EAI? What are its major disadvantages? (2)
Point-to-point topology: Applications are linked through hand-coded, custom-built
connectivity systems and data interchanged directly between any two systems. The
approach is to build an interface for each connection.
Disadvantages: Not scalable, hard to manage and inherently static and expensive.
 5. What is tight-coupling and how does it differ from loose coupling? Discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of each approach. (3)
Tightly coupled networks: are relatively stable networks of trading partners with shared
planning and control cycles. This entails organizing business activities along a virtual value
chain to attain a shared goal. They may involve predefined interaction patterns, such as
trading protocols requiring detailed agreements on cross-organizational business processes.
Adv:
Disadv:
Loosely coupled networks: Trading partners preserve their independence. They can
unilaterally decide to change their internal business processes and information systems
without influencing one another to the extent that the collaboration is disabled.
Adv:
Disadv:

6. What are business processes and what are their main characteristics?(2)
A business process: is any sequence of steps, with a beginning and an end, which is
initiated by an event, transforms information, materials, or business commitments, and
produces an output. Characteristics of business processes:
● Processes exist within an environment, which is both the internal business
environment in which the process operates and the external organizational
environment that can trigger the process.
● Every process has a customer and is initiated by a customer order.
● Every business process implies processing: a series of activities (processing steps)
leading to some form of transformation of data or products for which the process
exists. Transformations encompass multiple activities.
● Communication is an important part of any business process. Communication will
take place both within the process and with the environment.
● Workflows and processes have inventories or queues: these are locations where
steps in the workflow are waiting for being processed.
● Processes and workflows have decision points. Decisions have to be made with
regard to routing and allocation of processing capacity.
● Every process delivers a products, like a mortgage or an authorized invoice.
 7. What is the concept of a value chain? Describe in some detail the primary and
support activities in a value chain and give examples of each type. (4)
Value Chain = A model that describes a series of value-adding activities connecting a
company’s supply side with its demand side. The Value chain model provides managers with
a tool to analyse and, if necessary, redesign their internal and external processes to improve
efficiency and effectiveness. The original value chain model is applicable to organizations
with a physical goods flow, like manufacturing and trading companies. The model needs to
be adapted for service organizations, e.g. banks, insurance companies, tour operators.
Independently of the type of organization under consideration, the basic idea of the model
applies the analysis of how activities add value and distinction between activities that directly
add value to the customer and those that indirectly add value (through the primary activities).

Primary activities: Activities that have a direct relationship, potential or actual, with the
organization’s customers. They contribute directly to getting goods and services to the
customer.
o Inbound logistics: Receiving, storing and disseminating inputs to the production
process of the product or service.
o Operations: All processes associated with transforming the inputs into outputs.
o Outbound logistics: all activities concerned with distributing the products or
services to customers.
o Marketing and sales: provides opportunities for the potential customer to buy
products or services. Includes such processes as advertising, pricing, tendering,
sales force management, selection of distribution channels, etc.
o Service: processes concerned with the provision of service as part of the deal
struck with customers. Includes repairs, maintenance, spare parts supply, product
upgrades, follow-up services, training and installation, and so on.
Support activities: Activities that provide the inputs and infrastructure that allows the primary
activities to be performed.
o Firm infrastructure: Encompasses administration and (general) management for
overall planning and control
o Human resource management: refers to all those activities associated with the
recruiting, training, developing, appraising, promoting and rewarding of personnel.
o Product/Technology development: This function includes all activities that relate to
product and process development.
o Procurement: This function is responsible for purchasing goods, services and
materials required as inputs for the production process.
Compare and contrast the synchronous and asynchronous types of communication.
Clearly state their advantages and disadvantages. (5)
Niet behandeld. Komt van internet af!
8.

9. What is Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM), what are its main features and
what types of application can it be used for? (6)
MOM = The backbone infrastructure that is responsible for relaying data from one
application to another by putting it in a uniform message format.
Advantages/features: Prioritization of requests, load balancing and
synchronous/asynchronous messaging.
It can be used for Hub & spoke to enable an integration broker that provides an end-to-end
integration platform to completely automate business processes across the extended
enterprise.
It can also be used in publish/subscribe as middleware without the integration broker (of Hub
& spoke).

10. What are the most common semantic issues that can be encountered at the
business process level?

Niet zeker of dit correct is!! er staat wel op business process level. en dit is op data
integration level. Bovendien zijn de issues in de tabel niet allemaal semantic issues.
 11. What are the most common solutions to the semantic interoperability problems
for e-business?
To ensure interoperability, e-businesses must be based on a common set of protocols and
standard processes, such as EDI, ISA-95 and SCOR.
12. What is a supply chain and what is an integrated supply chain? (3)
Supply Chain = network of facilities and distribution option for procurement and acquisition of
raw materials, the transformation and processing of these materials into intermediate and
finished goods and the physical distribution of these finished tangible goods to customers.
A supply chain consists of geographically dispersed facilities where raw materials,
intermediate products, finished products are acquired, transformed, stored, or sold, and
transportation links connecting the facilities along which products flow. A supply chain is
encompassed within the value chain.

Integrated SC = Multiple enterprises within a shared market segment that collaboratively

plan , implement and monitor the flow of goods, services and information to increase
customer-perceived value and optimize efficiency.
They benefit from reduced inventories, cost savings, improved value added goods and
services to customers, and tighter links with business partners. They have the following
features:
- Processes transcend the boundaries of a single form and are not controlled by a
single organization.
- Production processes are flexible with different parties involved at different times.
- Parties involved in the production of a single product are often geographically
dispersed.
- Given the geographic dispersion of parties, coordination is heavily dependent on
suitable information technology infrastructure and telecommunications networks.
 13. What are the essential requirements of integrated supply/value chains? Briefly
explain what these are and what objectives they accomplish.(3)
An integrated supply chain = multiple enterprises within a shared market segment that
collaboratively plan, implement and monitor the flow of goods, services and information to
increase customer-perceived value and optimize efficiency. They benefit from reduced
inventories, cost savings, improved value added goods and services to customers, and
tighter links with business partners.
The essential requirements of integrated supply chains are: (volgens een oud tentamen)
- E-business enabling business models;
- End-to-end integration of processes.
These requirements accomplish the following objectives???
14. What potential benefits can the use of Internet-based technologies bring to the
supply chain?
Reasons for firms to create the ability to exchange transaction over the Internet: The internet
is a publicly accessible network with few geographical constraints. Its largest attribute, large-
scale connectivity (without the need to have special company networking architecture), is a
seedbed for growth of a vast range of business applications. The Internet global inter-
network connections offers the potential to reach the widest possible number of trading
partners or any viable alternative currently available. Companies use the WWW for
advertising their presence, for searching for information and products, and for buying and
selling intellectual property, physical goods, and professional services. Keywords that are
important to focus on when operation internet-based are Privacy, Security and Trust.
15. What is two-tier, three-tier and multi-tier client/server architecture? What are
the most important advantages and disadvantages of these three client/server
architectures? (3)
Two-tier client/server architecture. The number of tiers refer to the number of elements into
which the application is partitioned, not the number of platforms where the executables are
deployed. The partitioning into tiers is known as logical partitioning, as opposed to physical
partitioning of the platforms. Drawbacks of this architecture are:
§ Scalability problems
§ Poor business logic sharing
§ Client reliance on the database structure
§ Limited interoperability (no communication between clients)
§ High-maintenance costs
§ Having only one server, breakdown is catastrophic.
Three-tier architecture: overcomes the limitations of the two-tier architecture. A middle tier is
introduced between the user system interface client environment and the database
management server environment. The application is partitioned into three logical tiers:
- Presentation tier: responsible for the graphical user interface (GUI) layer usually in
the form of a web browser.
- Processing tier (middle-tier): Contains the business logic and is responsible for the
processing associated applications supported. It enables developers to isolate the
main part of an application that can change over time: data and relationships inherent
in the data. The tier has the effect of logically and physically decoupling business
logic from the presentation and database functions. Here we can find business
objects that correspond to entities in the business domain. Accumulation and
analyses of the data happens in this tier.
- Data tier: Holds the permanent data associated with the applications supported. It
interprets requests from a client and routes them to a suitable data resource.

Multi-tiered architecture for developing web-based applications.

§ Client-tier is implemented as a web browser running on the user’s client machine.
§ Presentation-tier generates webpages in which it includes dynamic content. It
supports different types of clients (HTML and JAVA capable clients). A web server
also finds the client application or user-entered data in webpages coming back from
the client and forwards it to the business logic-tier. The presentation-tier is also used
to connect architectures of different organizations.
§ Processing- or business logic-tier is where the application logic is written. This
includes performing calculations and validations, managing workflow and all data
access for the presentation-tier. An application-server supports the functions of
business logic-tier.
§ Data-tier is responsible for managing the data. It provides the business logic-tier
with required data when needed and stores data when requested.
 16. What is a publish/subscribe topology for EAI? Compare the point-to-point with
publish-subscribe topology. Explain their differences.
Publish/Subscribe = A network or shared bus connects applications. Applications can
publish a message to the bus, which in turn send the message to all the application that are
subscribed to that message. A message only has to be send once and can be received by
multiple subscribers. Adapters between the bus and the applications are translators of
language and technology.
Point-to-point topology: Applications are linked through hand-coded, custom-built
connectivity systems and data interchanged directly between any two systems. The
approach is to build an interface for each connection.
Differences: Publish/Subscribe needs to send one message to the broker which will send it
to all the recipients, while Point-to-Point needs to send it to all the recipients itself. Point-to-
point is way harder to manage and more static and expensive than Publish/subscribe. It is
also not scalable which publish/subscribe is.

17. Briefly describe the Supply Chain Operation Reference (SCOR) business
process methodology. What are the four levels of processes that guide supply
chain members using the SCOR methodology? Give a graphic representation
of the four process levels of the SCOR model. What are the major benefits of
the SCOR methodology?
Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model is a second-generation approach to
business process redesign tailored for specific industries and depicts the supply-chain from
a strategic perspective. It comprises four levels of processes that guide supply chain
members on the road to integrative process improvement. By using SCOR’s standards,
interoperability is improved.
- Level 1 (top level): consists of 5 generic processes: plan, source, make, deliver and
return. This is very basic and can be applied to every supply chain.

o In the picture above: “Your Company” owns the left side and aims at full
transparency to try to intercept problems in the early stages at suppliers. This is
called predictive monitoring. Big companies often own the whole supply chain to
reduce risks. To accomplish this, all suppliers must give away confidential
information, but if they refuse, the big companies will just exclude them from the
supply chain. Customers have no transparency in what happens in Your Company or
at the left side of Your Company.
- Level 2 (Configuration level): contains all processes that are more detailed than the
generic processes. They are sub-processes of the 5 generic processes (M1, M2, M3,
…, P1, …).
- Level 3 (Process element level): level 2 processes are even more decomposed into
level 3 processes (M1.1, M2.1, P3.4, …).

- Level 4 (Implementation level): using modelling languages (UML activity diagram,

RosettaNet, etc.) to implement processes.
 18. What is Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and what are its major
characteristics? What is a transaction set? What are the major disadvantages
of traditional EDI? (2)
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): The transfer of structured data by an agreed message
standard between applications. It is the UN standard and is basically cast in stone. It is a
network for transmitting standard transactions in a paperless trading environment, in which
documents are translated into standard business language.
Characteristics: Electronic documents replace their paper counterparts; and the exchange of
documents takes place in standardized formats.
Transaction set: In the EDI language, a single business document, such as a purchase
order, invoice or advance ship notice, is called a “transaction set” or “message.” And, a
transaction set is comprised of data elements, segments and envelopes.
(http://www.edibasics.com/what-is-edi/what-comprises-an-edi-document/)
Disadv: Fixed transactions sets; Resilience to change; Reliance on proprietary
communications networks; and encapsulation of business rules in transaction sets.

19. Briefly describe the client/server architecture. What are the basic features of
the client-server model?(2)
A form of distributed processing is client/server computing, which handles the need for both
centralized data control and widespread data accessibility. Client/server is an architecture
that involves client processes (service consumers) requesting service from server processes
(service providers). It provides a typical way to interconnect programs that are distributed
across different locations. The chosen way to divide the processing tasks between the client
and server depends on the specific application requirements. Information exchange between
clients and servers are strictly through messages that are typically interactive. Clients and
servers may run on separate dedicated machines connected through a network. This is no
problem, because the communication is encrypted and secure.
 20. What is an application server? What are its main features and what types of
applications can it be used for?
An application server supports the functions of the business logic-tier, in which the
application logic is written. This includes performing calculations and validations, managing
workflow and all data access for the presentation-tier. It enables developers to isolate the
main part of an application that can change over time: data and relationships inherent in the
data. The tier has the effect of logically and physically decoupling business logic from the
presentation and database functions. Here we can find business objects that correspond to
entities in the business domain. Accumulation and analyses of the data happens in this tier.

21. Why does EAI require different layers of integration? Briefly explain what are
the main layers of integration for EAI and how are they related.

Business Process Integration layer aims to automate business processes which need to
access data and business logic across disparate back-end applications. Process-oriented
workflows are used to automate processes with well-defined and stable structure. It builds
on EAI to ensure business processes are executed in the defined order using the required
data. It builds on middleware providing process execution engines, visual process definition
tools and process monitoring tools.

Data integration is the ability to share and exchange relevant business data from a variety of
sources and integrate it with other such related data items, despite differences in data
formats, structures and intended meaning of business terms under possibly diverse
company standards. The data integration layer is connected to the data sources and
executes the tasks needed for data integration. It is EAI on the level of data.

Transport integration layer niet gehad geloof ik (is ook niet rood in dat plaatje).

22. Explain what is meant by the term integration broker. What tasks does an
integration broker accomplish?
An Integration broker is built primarily on MOM and provides an end-to-end integration
platform to completely automate business processes across the extended enterprise. It
provides:
● Wide-ranging, pre-built application adapters, and bi-directional connectivity to
multiple applications.
● Data translation and message transformation mechanisms.
● Asynchronous/synchronous processing behaviour.
● Support of sending and receiving messages and status information.
● Use of a uniform interface to provide seamless access to each application.
● Ability to allow recovery in a consistent manner.
● Intelligent routing: routes messages based on message content.

23. Describe the three topologies for enterprise application integration below
(point-to-point, publish-subscribe and hub & spoke). Use diagrams to describe
their architecture and building blocks in your explanation. What are their main
advantages/disadvantages? How do they compare to each other? Which
topology would you use for a large integration project? Justify your answer
clearly by giving clear explanations.
- Point-to-Point: Applications are linked through hand-coded, custom-built
connectivity systems and data interchanged directly between any two systems. The
approach is to build an interface for each connection. Basically the worst strategy to
choose. Problems: Not scalable, hard to manage and inherently static and
expensive.

- Publish/Subscribe: A network or shared Bus connects applications. Applications can

publish a message to the Bus, which in turn send the message to all the application
that are subscribed to that message. A message only has to be send once and can
be received by multiple subscribers. Adapters between the Bus and the applications
are translators of language and technology. (STAR, BUS, RING)
- Hub & Spoke: Similar to the Publish/Subscribe method, there is a central Hub that handles
the communication from and to all applications. This hub (or broker) has more
functionalities than the Bus, it is the core of the system. It is flexible, scalable and less
maintenance is required. Integration brokering is the most popular hub & spoke solution.