Workflow automation was first applied for structured processes, for processes which were determined at design time. Decades later case management emerged, workflows which were determined at runtime. Decisions in case management are made by human actors. Case management processing is very labor intensive. How could case management be transferred to a Straight-through processing type workflow which reduces involvement of human actors? This paper focuses on merger of case management with real time analytics which helps to replace human decision makers in the case management process with automated real time decision making while preserving non-deterministic nature of the workflow. Merger of case management with real time big data analytics could be next step in the evolution of the case management. Reference architecture for case management and real time analytics merger is defined. Also a case study is presented which implements defined reference architecture.

Enterprises use the cloud for unlimited resource, scalability and elastic provisioning along with being able to use state of the art commodity or specialized solutions available in the cloud. The challenge of this vision is the proper and safe integration of on-premise IT-Landscapes with data and applications in the cloud. To find solutions for integration of classical and cloud environments two approaches, top-down and bottom-up, were used. In the top-down approach cloud integration patterns were specified based on scenarios. In the bottom-up approach cloud integration patterns were based on case study application requirements. Results of this paper are novel cloud integration patterns for various cloud integration scenarios.

Cloud, mobile, social, and analytics technologies are changing the environment in which today's industries operate. It takes only few employees to start a globally scalable business. It may be that such startups are currently still in their infant phase. But what will happen if these new enterprises achieve massive cost reduction and flexibility advantages over the coming years due to new technology application? It is clear that current enterprises have to adapt to the revolution initialized by the new technologies. How can existing enterprises respond to the new entrants who use the latest technology to their advantage? Should they just copy technology? Or should they take a knowledge-based approach and ask the question "what special know-how do they have that new entrants do not have?" What would be the "new" competitive advantage of today's enterprises? To answer these questions, this chapter analyzes four general business architecture views (value chain, process view, information view, and structural view) of an example financial service company. In particular, it discusses the impact of technology-driven changes on these four views. Based on this analysis, it proposes a scenario that could help financial service companies to respond to technology-driven changes. This scenario is based on process management techniques and the application of domain-specific industry standards. The combination of process management with elements of information architecture can act as a catalyst in transforming value chain oriented enterprises over to value network-oriented enterprises, which focus on orchestration of value creation activities in the value network. Rather than fighting new entrants in their strength areas (technology), existing enterprises can use their business process know-how for reconfiguring their business to adapt to changed external circumstances.

SOA has been seen as one of the main approaches for managing "system of systems" (SoS) i.e. Large scale IT landscapes. The extension of SOA to include the concept of process orientation could be the next evolutionary step for SOA. Before starting to define reference architectures for process-oriented SOA in SoS it would be advantageous to learn more about the current state of process handling in a SoS. The objective of the current paper is to describe the different approaches to implementing processes in a SoS. The term processing chain is introduced as an abstract representation of processes in SoS. A classification of processing chains is defined and an approximate distribution of different "processing chains" is presented in a case study based on the analyzed SoS. Also, the paper addresses the question which processing chain type would be appropriate in a certain context based on the underlying requirements.

Automation of workflows has been the focus of much research for more than three decades. There has also been significant research about the evolution of workflows. In this paper we describe how to achieve automation of workflows, not only in a single application but in an entire landscape of applications. How can distinctive types of workflow applications be built in an IT landscape? How can the SOA and BPM perspectives be combined in a very large scale system of systems context? We define a platform based approach for the automation of workflows which is in contrast with the classical single application based approach for workflow automation. Furthermore, we describe the core concepts of our workflow execution platform and provide an overview of the results.

Research about process instance migration covers mainly changes in process models during the process evolution and their effects on the same runtime environment. But what if the runtime environment - a legacy Business Process Execution (BPE) platform - had to be replaced with a new solution? Several migration aspects must be taken into account. (1) Process models from the old BPE platform have to be converted to the target process definition language on the target BPE platform. (2) Existing Business Process Management (BPM) applications must be integrated via new BPE platform interfaces. (3) Process instances and process instance data state must be migrated. For each of these points an appropriate migration strategy must be chosen. This paper describes the migration methodology which was applied for the BPE platform renewal in Credit Suisse.

Today, enterprises operate a large number of applications providing critical support to the business. These applications form, when taken together, the application landscape, which can be seen as an important asset, providing essential support to business processes, but sometimes also acting as a limiting factor. Important quality attributes depend not only on architecture and implementation of specific applications. The support an application landscape can deliver to business also depends on how the applications are integrated in the landscape. This article focuses on failure propagation in an application landscape, which affects the availability at which the applications offer their specific services. We applied metrics we introduced in [LS1] for evaluating failure propagation aspects in an application landscape on two proposals stakeholders from a large bank created to limit failure propagation. The evaluation was targeted at the subset of the landscape application supporting private banking, specifically the one located on the mainframe. This subset of the application landscape consists of 255 applications, organized into 75 subdomains, which are themselves organized into 18 domains. Together, the applications amount to about 12 millions lines of PL/1 code.

Tetrahydrobiopterin, the cofactor required for hydroxylation of aromatic amino acids regulates its own synthesis in mammals through feedback inhibition of GTP cyclohydrolase I. This mechanism is mediated by a regulatory subunit called GTP cyclohydrolase I feedback regulatory protein (GFRP). The 2.6 Å resolution crystal structure of rat GFRP shows that the protein forms a pentamer. This indicates a model for the interaction of mammalian GTP cyclohydrolase I with its regulator, GFRP. Kinetic investigations of human GTP cyclohydrolase I in complex with rat and human GFRP showed similar regulatory effects of both GFRP proteins.

Background: Dihydroneopterin triphosphate (H2NTP) is the central substrate in the biosynthesis of folate and tetrahydrobiopterin. Folate serves as a cofactor in amino acid and purine biosynthesis and tetrahydrobiopterin is used as a cofactor in amino acid hydroxylation acid nitric oxide synthesis. In bacteria, H2NTP enters the folate biosynthetic pathway after nonenzymatic dephosphorylation; in vertebrates, H2NTP is used to synthesize tetrahydrobiopterin. The dihydroneopterin triphosphate epimerase of Escherichia coli catalyzes the inversion of carbon 2' of H2NTP.Results: The crystal structure of the homo-octameric protein has been solved by a combination of multiple isomorphous replacement, Patterson search techniques and cyclic averaging and has been refined to a crystallographic R factor of 18.8% at 2.9 Angstrom resolution. The enzyme is a torus-shaped, D-4 symmetric homo-octamer with approximate dimensions of 65 x 65 Angstrom. Four epimerase monomers form an unusual 16-stranded antiparallel beta barrel by tight association between the N- and C-terminal beta strands of two adjacent subunits. Two tetramers associate in a head-to-head fashion to form the active enzyme complex.Conclusions: The folding topology, quaternary structure and amino acid sequence of epimerase is similar to that of the dihydroneopterin aldolase involved in the biosynthesis of the vitamin folio acid. The monomer fold of epimerase is also topologically similar to that of GTP cyclohydrolase I (GTP CH-1), 6-pyrovoyl tetrahydropterin synthase (PTPS) and uroate oxidase (UO), Despite a lack of significant sequence homology these proteins share a common subunit fold and oligomerize to form central beta barrel structures employing different cyclic symmetry elements, D-4, D-5, D-3 and D-2, respectively. Moreover, these enzymes have a topologically equivalent acceptor site for the 2-amino-4-oxo pyrimidine (2-oxo-4-oxo pyrimidine in uroate oxidase) moiety of their respective substrates.

The enzyme 6-pyruvoyl tetrahydropterin synthase (PTPS) catalyses the second step in the de novo biosynthesis of tetrahydrobiopterin, the conversion of dihydroneopterin triphosphate to 6-pyruvoyl tetrahydropterin. The Zn and Mg-dependent reaction includes a triphosphate elimination, a stereospecific reduction of the N5-C6 double bond and the oxidation of both side-chain hydroxyl groups. The crystal structure of the inactive mutant Cys42Ala of PTPS in complex with its natural substrate dihydroneopterinetriphosphate was determined at 1.9 A resolution. Additionally, the uncomplexed enzyme was refined to 2.0 A resolution. The active site of PTPS consists of the pterin-anchoring Glu A107 neighboured by two catalytic motifs: a Zn(II) binding site and an intersubunit catalytic triad formed by Cys A42, Asp B88 and His B89. In the free enzyme the Zn(II) is in tetravalent co-ordination with three histidine ligands and a water molecule. In the complex the water is replaced by the two substrate side-chain hydroxyl groups yielding a penta-co-ordinated Zn(II) ion. The Zn(II) ion plays a crucial role in catalysis. It activates the protons of the substrate, stabilizes the intermediates and disfavours the breaking of the C1'C2' bond in the pyruvoyl side-chain. Cys A42 is activated by His B89 and Asp B88 for proton abstraction from the two different substrate side-chain atoms C1', and C2'. Replacing Ala A42 in the mutant structure by the wild-type Cys by modelling shows that the C1' and C2' substrate side-chain protons are at equal distances to Cys A42 Sgamma. The basicity of Cys A42 may be increased by a catalytic triad His B89 and Asp B88. The active site of PTPS seems to be optimised to carry out proton abstractions from two different side-chain C1' and C2' atoms, with no obvious preference for one of them. Kinetic studies with dihydroneopterin monophosphate reveal that the triphosphate moiety of the substrate is necessary for enzyme specifity.