Book description
K2 blackpearl and the K2 platform is a large, powerful,
"game-changing" application platform built on Microsoft
technologies. Understanding it from top to bottom would be a great task
for a single person, which is why we have gathered more than a dozen
authors to supply you with the information to successfully transform
your company into a process-oriented, efficient business that can grow
with the K2 platform.
Since this is the first book on K2 blackpearl, you will find a broad
range of topics in this book, from the market in which K2 blackpearl
is aimed to the architecture of the platform, from how to approach
process design to developing your own custom user manager.
The first part of the book is meant for everyone and provides an
understanding of K2 blackpearl and where it fits in the marketplace.
It is included to provide a framework for thinking about various
aspects of process-driven applications, including how they differ from
business process management techniques; identifying processes in your
company to automate, the different pieces that make up a process;
measuring the success of your efforts; and finally shifting your
company's culture in the direction of process efficiency. This section
may be the only section you need to read if you are sponsoring a
process improvement effort in your company. If you are responsible for
leading the effort, make sure to read Chapters 3 and 4.
The other parts are meant to provide details on how to effectively
deploy and use K2 blackpearl and include a broad range of topics. Read
what you are most interested in, but also make sure to read Chapter 8,
which will give you a great foundation to start designing processes
with K2 blackpearl. Chapter 14 is also recommended for everyone
because it provides an overview of the available K2 Designers and how
you can share projects among them.
If you are a developer, you may be tempted to flip through the book
looking for code, and you will find some, but we also recommend
reading much of the rest of the book to learn how the API and the K2
platform extensions fit within the overall process-driven application
environment. Pay particular attention to Chapter 22 and the Appendix,
which may save you hours of coding or give you a no-code solution to
something that you may have thought would take hundreds of lines of
code to accomplish.
If you are an administrators, focus on Parts II and IV, but also take
a look at the other chapters to gain an understanding of how your
users will be using K2.
K2 blackpearl is the main subject of this book, although we devote an
entire chapter, Chapter 23, to the add-on product K2 connect to give
you an understanding of how to bring SAP data into your processes. We
also talk a bit about K2 blackpoint, particularly in the SharePoint
chapters. Since K2 blackpoint is built on the K2 blackpearl
foundation, many of the same concepts apply to that product as well,
but we do not point out the differences between K2 blackpearl and K2
blackpoint. For that information browse to www. k2. com.
We recommend that you approach this book in parts and perhaps read or
reference each part differently. If you are working on a team, each
member of the team may find one part more interesting to them than the
other sections; that is expected and is how we designed the book.
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Part I, “Introduction to K2 blackpearl and Process-Driven
Applications”: The first four chapters discuss what K2
blackpearl is, how the applications you can design may or may not
fit the business process management (BPM) model, how to go about
identifying and designing processes, and last how to measure
results and shift the culture of your company to a more
process-oriented business.
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Part II, “Architecture and Installation Options for K2
blackpearl”: Chapters 5 and 6 will get you started. Installing
the K2 blackpearl components is a necessary step before you can
start designing processes, so in these two chapters you will gain
an understanding of all of the pieces of the platform, the
architecture, and the supporting technology, as well as ideas on
how to plan out your development, QA/staging, and production environments.
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Part III, “K2 blackpearl Process Planning and Design
Essentials”: Chapters 7 through 14 give you a ton of
information about how to design, build, extend, and generally work
with the main pieces of the platform. From a step-by-step tutorial
on building your first process to how to share processes across
the different K2 Designers, you'll learn all of what you need to
really get ramped up. Pay particular attention to Chapters 8 and
11, which cover the basic things you need to know about process
planning and the various concepts of process design with K2
blackpearl and then provide an in-depth view of the available
forms technologies that you can use for user interaction with your
processes. If you are particularly interested in SharePoint, make
sure to read Chapters 12 and 13.
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Part IV, “Administration of K2 blackpearl”: Chapters 15
through 20 offer an administrator's view into the platform. Things
like disaster recovery, logging, security, and using the K2
Workspace for notifications, reports, assigning process
permissions, and recovering from errors are all key aspects of the
platform that you or someone in your company will have to
understand. This section gives you everything you need to know and
probably more, including how to build your own user manager to
plug into the K2 platform.
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Part V, “Advanced K2 blackpearl Concepts and Platform
Extensions”: The last part includes Chapters 21 through 23,
and these chapters are there to round out the discussion of the
platform. You'll find information about using the Event Bus to
surface outside events to the K2 server and a discussion of
tailoring the platform and your processes to your particular needs
by going beyond the default settings of the components that you
learned about in Chapter 8. Finally you'll learn about the K2
connect platform extension, which allows data from SAP (and
eventually any system for which a WCF LOB adapter is released) to
be used within your processes.
There are some pieces of this book that you can sit down and read
without needing a computer or access to K2 blackpearl at all, but much
of this book requires you to have access to K2 blackpearl and the
supporting applications as well. Whenever we talk about designing
processes, we do so in the context of the K2 Designer for Visual
Studio. To install this component you will need Visual Studio 2005.
Support for Visual Studio 2008 may be available by the time this book
is published, so look for that on www. k2. com.
For the server pieces of the platform, you will need a Windows Server
2003 environment (virtual or otherwise) and the additional components
required by the K2 server.
Holly Anderson is the product marketing manager
for K2. Holly began working with K2 software in 2004 as a technical
consultant building complex workflow applications for clients and
joined K2 as a technical specialist in 2006. With her technical and
marketing background, Holly is able to provide a unique perspective on
K2 products for both business and technical audiences. You can reach
her at holly@k2. com.
Jason Apergis is a software consultant who has lived in the
Washington, DC, area his entire life. Jason currently works for a
Microsoft Gold Partner named RDA Corporation as a technical project
manager and has worked for various other consulting firms like
BearingPoint and AMS. One of Jason's solutions, which integrated K2,
BizTalk, SharePoint, and InfoPath, was nominated as a finalist for a
Microsoft solution of the year award in 2006. Jason completed both his
undergraduate and graduate degrees in Information Technology from
Virginia Tech. Jason plays ice hockey on a weekly basis and is both an
avid fan of the Washington Capitals and a Virginia Tech Football fan.
Jason dedicates this book to his wife, Catherine, and both his
children, Ethan and Caroline.
Sergio Del Piccolo is an experienced business process
consultant and a partner at Avantage Partners in Vancouver, Canada. He
has led business process integration engagements of all sizes and
brings over 10 years of hands-on experience as a technical and
business solutions architect. Sergio has acted as a trusted advisor
for multiple clients, providing guidance and leadership on successful
process-driven and integration solutions. As a well respected
consultant within the community, Sergio has achieved a number of
accreditations that have further established his expertise, including
being a K2 Insider and a Microsoft Virtual Technical Specialist for
BizTalk Server. He is an expert on the Microsoft Connected System and
K2 platforms. Sergio leads the Partner Integrated Workflow program,
focusing on getting organizations to streamline their business
processes and helping them gain a competitive edge in today's global
market. You can reach him at sergio. delpiccolo@avantagepartners. com,
and you can take a look at his blogs at http://delpiccolo. com and http://avantagepartners.
com/team-profiles/ sergio-del-piccolo.
Chris Geier evangelizes K2, helps build and nourish the broader
K2 community, and coordinates global readiness efforts internally.
He's worked in the technology industry for 14 years - for several
companies, including Microsoft - and has focused primarily on
infrastructure and security. Chris lives in the suburbs of Chicago
with his ever-so-patient wife, Sara, and their three children:
Leah-Rose, Carter, and Ella Claire. Chris is a history buff, ashamed
to admit he loves reality television, and loves the soon to be world
champion Chicago Cubs.
Codi Kaji is a technical writer for K2, where her main
responsibility is translating the features and functionality of the K2
platform into things business people can understand, in other words,
translating geek to human. With a background of consulting and
training on various Microsoft based technologies, she enjoys the
challenge of installing and testing the latest products and writing
information that helps people get the most out of their K2 experience.
Codi and her husband have three cats and enjoy fishing. When she's not
testing the latest build, writing words, or landing a trout, Codi
enjoys the soothing craft of knitting. Watch out for the pointy sticks.
Shaun Leisegang is the presales manager for K2 and is
responsible for technical presales across Europe. Shaun is responsible
for product evangelism, solution design, and specifications as well as
for solution consulting. Shaun has vast experience within the
Microsoft ecosystem; designing and building NET-based enterprise and
system architectures that include workflow or business process
automation as well as consulting and working with the full Microsoft
stack of technologies. Shaun is a true stage performer of the IT
world: immensely capable, adaptable, confident, an excellent
communicator, who is equally comfortable in front of large crowds and
intimate groups. Shaun has a passion for both people and technology,
which allows him to convey dynamic new products in an infectious way,
while at the same time knowing the IT business as a whole in order to
speak authoritatively across multiple products and platforms. He began
his career as a software developer, moved on to lead a team of
application developers, and now runs a presales team where he has
found a perfect mix between two of his passions: people and technology.
Igor Macori lives in Bologna, Italy, with his three girls (his
partner and his two cats). He is cofounder and Training and Consulting
Manager for GreenTeam (www. greenteam. it), an Italian Microsoft Gold
Certified Partner founded in 1991. He has managed various IW Solutions
projects (SharePoint, LCS/ OCS, Project Server, WWF, and others) and
completed various solutions implemented for enterprise companies and
public sector organizations. He is a regular trainer and speaker for
Italian Microsoft courses and events dedicated to partners and
customers and has achieved various technical certifications since 1996
(MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCTS SharePoint, MCAS, MCT, and MOS Master
Instructor). In 2008, he received the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable
Professional) Award for Microsoft SharePoint Server - Architecture. He
is the owner of one of most visited Italian SharePoint and
Collaboration Internet Blogs (www. macori. it). He is co-organizer of
the Italian SharePoint Technical Conference (www.
sharepointconference. it). He has written 14 books about the Microsoft
Office System and Microsoft Windows Vista, and since 2007 has been a
K2 Insider.
Gabriel Malherbe is a .NET solutions architect in the Thames
Valley, UK. He currently works with the amazing team of K2
professionals at Dynamyx, where they service some multinational
clients across Europe in the manufacturing and financial sector. He
built his process management experience by codesigning system
integration components that are used by airports worldwide. Broadening
his horizons, he and his wife, Sharm, moved to the UK where Gabriel
has delivered K2 training and seminars since 2004. He is one of the
founding members of the K2 Insiders program. He can be contacted at
gabriel. malherbe@dynamyx. com, and you can follow his K2 dedicated
blog at http://nakedprogrammer. blogspot. com.
Jason Montgomery is a principal of Active Technologies Group,
Inc. (ATGi - www. atgi. com), an international technology consulting
firm based in Columbus, Ohio, working with clients ranging from
Fortune 500 companies to government agencies, including the U. S.
Department of Defense. His skills cover a broad range of technologies
with specializations in information security, Microsoft technologies,
Microsoft .NET, and K2 Workflow solutions, as well as Linux and
FreeBSD system administration. Currently, Jason serves on the Global
Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) Advisory Board as well as
on the Global Information Assurance Professional (GSSP) Steering
Committee for the .NET Security Certifications for SANS Institute. He
additionally holds the CISSP Certification and the GIAC .NET Security
(GNET) and GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC) Certifications.
Colin Murphy is a principal architect with RDA Corporation, is
a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and has been working in the
industry for about 12 years. Colin's areas of specialization are
Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007, Smart Clients, and Workflow. Colin
has been working with K2. net 2003 since early 2006 on projects for a
variety of clients.
Chris O'Connor began programming on a Commodore 64 as an avid
12 year old, entering listings from computer magazines. He has spent
the last 15 years or so developing Web sites, Windows applications,
and other solutions using Visual Basic, C#, SQL Server, and other
products within the Microsoft arena. He is currently employed as a
SharePoint solution architect and has implemented many SharePoint
Content Management and Document Management Solutions, as well as K2.
net 2003 and K2 blackpearl.
He is also a Microsoft Certified Professional and Microsoft Certified
Application Developer, and K2 Insider. With so many new products and
technologies from Microsoft, it's hard to keep up; Chris follows with
great interest to the happenings of Microsoft and the Web 2. 0
community, especially with regard to SharePoint, Silverlight, and
“Software+Services.” He updates a blog of SharePoint related articles,
other technical bits and pieces, and fun and family at www.
grumpywookie. com. To keep up with the K2 community, Chris hosts a
K2-related blog, located at www. devk2. net. He is a keen
photographer, with his favorite subjects being his wife and two young
sons. Spending weekends with family is his favorite pastime, with
house renovations, gardening, kids' activities, and such. He can be
contacted at chris@grumpywookie. com.
Anthony Petro resides in Silverthorne, Colorado, and is the
Technical Product Manager for K2. He started his professional career
in the consulting world 14 years ago and has always remained focused
on Microsoft technologies and solutions. He joined Microsoft in 2001
and spent the next 5 years heavily immersed in SharePoint Joint
Development Programs bridging the gap between the product development
teams in Redmond and the enterprise customers around the world. He was
a strong contributor to the SharePoint community in its infancy and
focused on teaching the masses about the complexities of search and
enterprise scale issues and about using products such as K2 to fill
the enterprise workflow gaps of SharePoint. He joined K2 in 2006 to
help bring K2 blackpearl to market through early adopter programs that
spanned the alpha and beta cycles through to RTM. Anthony remains
actively involved in early adopter programs for K2 blackpoint and K2
connect, and in planning the future releases of all product lines.
Eric Schaffer has been working with K2 since early 2005 when he
helped formalize the K2 North America technical support team. He now
spends his time working on new ways to showcase the power of the K2
platform as a presales technical specialist with K2. Eric holds a
bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington State
University. Prior to joining the K2 family Eric contracted with
Microsoft in both the Xbox certification testing department and
developer technical support department. Eric lives in Seattle with his
wife, Dara, and daughter, Kayla.
Mike Talley joined K2 as a technical writer in February 2007,
working on whitepapers, training content, wizard text, and a variety
of other things in his time with K2. Prior to K2 he spent 8 years at
Microsoft, where at various points he was a programming writer, beta
lead, and support professional. While at Microsoft he worked with
product teams on supportability issues and wrote about InfoPath,
InfoPath Forms Services, SharePoint, and Excel. He currently resides
in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with his wife and two sons. You can
reach him at miket@k2. com.
