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Oracle Case Management Solutions 1st Edition Leon
Smiers (Author) Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Leon Smiers (Author); Manas Deb (Author); Joop Koster (Author);
Prasen Palvankar (Author)
ISBN(s): 9781482223842, 1482223848
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 51.80 MB
Year: 2015
Language: english
Oracle Case
Management
Solutions

Léon Smiers
Manas Deb
Joop Koster
Prasen Palvankar
Oracle Case
Management
Solutions
Oracle Case
Management
Solutions
Léon Smiers
Manas Deb
Joop Koster
Prasen Palvankar
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

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Version Date: 20150813

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4822-2384-2 (eBook - PDF)

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Contents

Foreword..................................................................................................................................xvii
List of Acronyms......................................................................................................................xxi
Preface.....................................................................................................................................xxv
Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................xxix
Authors...................................................................................................................................xxxi

SEcTION I THE CASE FOR CASE MANAGEMENT..................................................1

1 Basics of Case Management..........................................................................................3
1.1 Introduction������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 3
1.2 Unexpected Surprises (or Shocks)............................................................................. 4
1.2.1 “Are You Being Served?”.............................................................................. 4
1.2.2 “Doctor, I Have a Headache…”................................................................... 5
1.2.3 “Look! There’s a Dead Man in the Closet!”.................................................. 7
1.2.4 Goal-Driven, Knowledge Work Freedom, On-Demand Collaboration........ 9
1.3 Handling of Credit Card Rewards Disputes............................................................10
1.4 Case Management: Basics........................................................................................14
1.4.1 What Is Case Management? What Is Adaptive Case Management?............14
1.4.2 Case Management Ecosystem.....................................................................18
1.4.3 Brief History of Case Management............................................................ 20
1.4.4 Formal Definition of (Adaptive) Case Management...................................21
1.4.5 Application of Case Management Solutions............................................... 24
1.5 Creating Case Management Solutions.................................................................... 27
1.5.1 High-Level Solution Architectures............................................................. 27
1.5.2 Build or Buy?............................................................................................. 30
1.5.3 Building a Fit-for-Purpose Case Management Solution...............................33
1.6 ACM and Business Agility..................................................................................... 40
1.7 Summary.................................................................................................................45
2 Adaptive Case Management (ACM)–Related Topics...................................................47
2.1 Introduction�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������47
2.2 Adaptive Systems and ACM................................................................................... 48
2.2.1 Nile Crocodiles and Cuttlefish................................................................... 48
2.2.2 Sense-and-Respond, Anticipate-and-Preempt, and Complex Adaptive
Systems (CAS)........................................................................................... 49
2.2.3 ACM Solutions as Sense-and-Respond (Complex) Adaptive Systems
(SR-CAS)....................................................................................................55

v
vi ◾ Contents

2.3 Dynamic, Production, and Adaptive Case Management (DCM, PCM,

and ACM)............................................................................................................ 61
2.3.1 Basic Debates..............................................................................................61
2.3.2 Digging Deeper into DCM, PCM, and ACM........................................... 63
2.4 Process Management and Case Management: Friends or Foes?.............................. 70
2.4.1 Anatomy of a Journey................................................................................ 70
2.4.2 Process Management vis-à-vis Case Management...................................... 71
2.4.3 Case Management as Part of a BPMS?........................................................76
2.5 Adoption of Case Management: Capability Maturity Considerations.................... 79
2.5.1 “Generalized” BPM................................................................................... 80
2.5.2 Maturity Levels...........................................................................................81
2.5.3 Maturity Model Capabilities...................................................................... 82
2.5.4 Adoption of Case Management: A Case Study........................................... 88
2.5.5 Maturity Is More Than Technology............................................................91
2.6 Making the Business Case for Case Management................................................... 92
2.6.1 General Considerations for Creating and Presenting a Business Case.......... 92
2.6.2 Specific Considerations for a Case Management Business Case................. 94
2.7 Summary................................................................................................................ 97

SEcTION II  CASE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION FRAMEWORK................. 99

3 Case Management Functional Design.......................................................................101
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................101
3.2 Principles for the Solution Design Components....................................................101
3.3 Design Components..............................................................................................102
3.3.1 Design Components Overview.................................................................102
3.3.2 Case Lifecycle Design Category................................................................103
3.3.2.1 Aim............................................................................................103
3.3.2.2 Relation with the Principles.......................................................104
3.3.2.3 Case Management Lifecycle Design Components......................104
3.3.3 Case Information Design Category...........................................................108
3.3.3.1 Aim............................................................................................108
3.3.3.2 Relation with the Principles.......................................................108
3.3.3.3 Case Management Information Design Components................108
3.3.4 Case Interaction Design Category.............................................................112
3.3.4.1 Aim............................................................................................112
3.3.4.2 Relation with the Principles.......................................................112
3.3.4.3 Case Management Interaction Design Components..................113
3.3.5 Case Cross-Functional Design Category...................................................114
3.3.5.1 Aim............................................................................................114
3.3.5.2 Relation with the Principles.......................................................114
3.3.5.3 Case Management Cross-Functional Design Components........114
3.4 Design Template....................................................................................................116
3.5 Conclusion............................................................................................................116
 Contents ◾ vii

4 Case Management Classifications............................................................................. 119

4.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 119
4.2 Forrester Case Management Classifications........................................................... 119
4.3 Common Principles for the Classifications........................................................... 120
4.4 Service Request Classification............................................................................... 120
4.4.1 Context.................................................................................................... 120
4.4.2 Determination......................................................................................... 120
4.4.3 Alignment with Industry Processes...........................................................121
4.4.4 Business Challenges................................................................................. 122
4.4.5 Principles for the Solution........................................................................ 123
4.4.6 Case Management Design Components.................................................. 123
4.4.6.1 Service Request Design Category Overview.............................. 124
4.4.6.2 Case Lifecycle Design Category................................................ 124
4.5 Incident Management Case Classification.............................................................133
4.5.1 Context.....................................................................................................133
4.5.2 Determination......................................................................................... 134
4.5.3 Alignment with Industry Processes.......................................................... 134
4.5.4 Business Challenges................................................................................. 134
4.5.5 Principles for the Solution.........................................................................135
4.5.6 Case Management Design Components...................................................135
4.5.6.1 Incident Management Design Category Overview.....................135
4.5.6.2 Case Lifecycle Design Category.................................................135
4.6 Investigative Case Classification............................................................................143
4.6.1 Context.....................................................................................................143
4.6.2 Determination..........................................................................................145
4.6.3 Alignment with Industry Processes...........................................................145
4.6.4 Business Challenges..................................................................................145
4.6.5 Principles for the Solution.........................................................................145
4.6.6 Case Management Design Components...................................................146
4.6.6.1 Investigative Handling Design Category Overview...................146
4.6.6.2 Case Lifecycle Design Category.................................................146
4.7 Conclusion............................................................................................................153

5 Determine Solution Mapping....................................................................................155

5.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................155
5.2 Techniques Used to Determine the Impact of Functionality onto the
IT Landscape........................................................................................................ 155
5.2.1 Common Reference Architecture Model...................................................155
5.2.2 CORA Model Layering and Capabilities..................................................156
5.2.3 Delivering a Solution with the CORA Model...........................................157
5.3 Perform a Functional Decomposition Using CORA Application Layers...............158
5.3.1 How to Map the Case Management Design Areas onto the
CORA Application Layers........................................................................158
5.3.1.1 Case Lifecycle Design................................................................159
5.3.1.2 Case Interaction Design.............................................................161
viii ◾ Contents

5.3.1.3 Case Management Information Design.....................................162

5.3.1.4 Cross-Functional Design Areas..................................................162
5.4 Determine Required Technology Capabilities.......................................................165
5.4.1 Case Flows and Processes Capabilities......................................................165
5.4.2 Event Handling Capabilities.....................................................................165
5.4.3 Business Rules Capabilities.......................................................................165
5.5 Decide What Technologies to Use.........................................................................168
5.6 Conclusion............................................................................................................168

6 Concluding Remarks.................................................................................................171

SEcTION III ORACLE CASE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES...............173

7 Oracle BPM/ACM.....................................................................................................177
7.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................177
7.2 Oracle BPM/ACM/SOA Suite Overview...............................................................177
7.3 Oracle BPM/ACM Usage Characteristics..............................................................179
7.4 Case Management Lifecycle Functionality with Oracle BPM/ACM......................179
7.4.1 Case Flow and Process Design..................................................................180
7.4.1.1 Case Flow Design with Oracle Adaptive Case Management......180
7.4.1.2 Process Modeling.......................................................................181
7.4.2 Event Design.............................................................................................182
7.4.3 Rules Design.............................................................................................182
7.4.4 Life Cycle Design Product Mapping to Oracle BPM/ACM/SOA Suite.......183
7.4.4.1 Case Flow and Process Mapping................................................183
7.4.4.2 Event Handling Mapping..........................................................185
7.5 Case Management Interaction Functionality with Oracle SOA Suite....................185
7.5.1 Portal Design: 360-Degree View of the Case............................................186
7.5.1.1 Out-of-the Box Functionality via the Oracle BPM/
ACM Portal.............................................................................. 186
7.5.1.2 ADF, Customized Functionality with the Aid of the
Case Management/BPM and Human Task APIs.......................186
7.5.2 Channel Design........................................................................................187
7.6 Case Management Information Functionality with Oracle BPM/ACM/
SOA Suite..............................................................................................................187
7.6.1 Case Execution Data: Detailed Audit Trail...............................................188
7.6.2 Document and Media Design...................................................................189
7.7 Cross-Functional Case Management Capabilities..................................................189
7.7.1 Case Management Integration Functionality with Oracle SOA Suite.......190
7.7.2 Case Management Security Functionality with Oracle.............................190
7.7.2.1 Case Stakeholders.......................................................................190
7.7.2.1 Permissions................................................................................190
7.8 Conclusion............................................................................................................191

8 Siebel ........................................................................................................................193
8.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................193
8.2 Oracle Siebel Overview.........................................................................................193
 Contents ◾ ix

8.2.1
History......................................................................................................193
8.2.2
Horizontal and Verticals...........................................................................194
8.2.3
Configuration versus Customization.........................................................194
8.2.4
Extensions of Functionality.......................................................................194
8.2.5
Siebel Specific Terminology......................................................................194
8.2.6
Market Example: Law Enforcement and Policing
Operations Solution...........................................................................195
8.3 Oracle Siebel Usage Characteristics.......................................................................195
8.4 Case Management Information Functionality with Oracle Siebel.........................198
8.4.1 People Relationship Design and Data Design...........................................198
8.4.2 Document and Media Design.................................................................. 200
8.5 Case Management Life Cycle Functionality with Oracle Siebel............................ 200
8.5.1 Case Flow and Process Design with Oracle Siebel.................................... 200
8.5.1.1 State Model................................................................................201
8.5.1.2 Workflow Management............................................................. 202
8.5.1.3 Assignment Management.......................................................... 202
8.5.1.4 Extending the Life Cycle Management, with the
Law Enforcement and Policing Operations Example................. 202
8.5.2 Rules Design............................................................................................ 203
8.5.3 Event Design............................................................................................ 203
8.5.4 Life Cycle Design Product Mapping to Oracle Siebel and Related
Products................................................................................................... 203
8.6 Case Management Interaction Functionality with Oracle Siebel.......................... 205
8.6.1 Portal and Channel Design...................................................................... 205
8.7 Cross-Functional Case Management Capabilities................................................. 206
8.7.1 Case Management Integration Functionality with Oracle SOA Suite....206
8.7.2 Case Management Roles and Authorization Functionality with
Oracle Siebel............................................................................................ 206
8.8 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 207

9 Oracle Service Cloud.................................................................................................209

9.1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 209
9.2 Oracle Service Cloud Overview............................................................................ 209
9.2.1 History..................................................................................................... 209
9.2.2 Basic Functionality...................................................................................210
9.2.3 Cloud-Based Management and Usage.......................................................210
9.2.4 Extensions of Functionality.......................................................................210
9.3 Oracle Service Cloud Usage Characteristics..........................................................211
9.4 Case Management Interaction Functionality with Oracle Service Cloud..............212
9.4.1 Portal Design............................................................................................212
9.4.2 Channel Design........................................................................................213
9.4.3 Dashboard Design....................................................................................214
9.5 Case Management Information Functionality with the Oracle Service Cloud.......214
9.5.1 Data Design..............................................................................................215
9.5.2 People Relationship Design.......................................................................217
9.5.3 Document and Media Design...................................................................217
x ◾ Contents

9.6 Case Management Life Cycle Functionality with Oracle Service Cloud................217
9.6.1 Case Flow and Process Design..................................................................218
9.6.2 Rules Design.............................................................................................219
9.6.3 Event Design.............................................................................................219
9.6.4 Life Cycle Design Product Mapping to Oracle Service Cloud.................. 220
9.7 Cross-Functional Case Management Capabilities................................................. 220
9.7.1 Integration............................................................................................... 220
9.7.2 Case Management Roles and Authorization Functionality...................... 220
9.8 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 222

10 Intelligence in Relation to the Case Execution..........................................................223

10.1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 223
10.2 Case Intelligence Design...................................................................................... 223
10.2.1 Intelligence Determined by Rules Design................................................ 224
10.2.2 Intelligence Determined by Event Design................................................ 224
10.2.3 Intelligence Determined by Dashboard Design....................................... 225
10.2.4 Intelligence Information Levels................................................................ 225
10.3 Oracle Intelligence Products................................................................................. 225
10.3.1 Oracle Business Analytic Monitoring....................................................... 225
10.3.1.1 Functionality............................................................................. 227
10.3.1.2 How Does BAM Relate to Case Management?......................... 228
10.3.1.3 Technical Architecture.............................................................. 229
10.3.2 Oracle Event Processing........................................................................... 230
10.3.2.1 Functionality............................................................................. 230
10.3.2.2 How Does CEP Relate to Case Management?...........................231
10.3.3 Oracle Policy Automation........................................................................ 232
10.3.3.1 Functionality............................................................................. 232
10.3.3.2 How Does OPA Relate to Case Management?...........................233
10.3.4 Oracle Endeca Information Discovery..................................................... 234
10.3.4.1 Functionality............................................................................. 234
10.3.4.2 How Does Endeca Information Discovery Relate to
Case Management?....................................................................235
10.3.5 Oracle Real-Time Decisions..................................................................... 236
10.3.5.1 Functionality............................................................................. 236
10.4 Summary.............................................................................................................. 237

11 Concluding Remarks.................................................................................................239

SEcTION IV CASE MANAGEMENT EXAMPLES...................................... 243

12 Mortgage Request Handling.....................................................................................245
12.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................245
12.2 Reading Guide......................................................................................................245
12.3 Mortgage Request and Business Challenges..........................................................245
12.3.1 Mortgage Request.....................................................................................245
12.3.2 Business Challenges................................................................................. 246
 Contents ◾ xi

12.3.2.1 Serving the Customers.............................................................. 246

12.3.2.2 New Regulations....................................................................... 246
12.3.2.3 Minimizing the Probability of Default.......................................247
12.4 Deriving a Solution Based upon the Case Management Solution Framework.......247
12.4.1 Introduction..............................................................................................247
12.4.2 Determine Case Management Classification.............................................247
12.4.3 Determine Functional Components and Needs........................................247
12.4.3.1 Case Flow and Process Design.................................................. 248
12.4.3.2 Case Information Design...........................................................251
12.4.3.3 Case Interaction Design............................................................ 254
12.4.4 Determine Solution Mapping...................................................................255
12.4.4.1 Impact of a Mortgage Request Operating Model on
Solution Capabilities..................................................................255
12.4.4.2 Mapping Mortgage Request Operating Models to
Oracle Products..........................................................................258
12.5 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 262

13 Citizen Services in the Public Sector.........................................................................263

13.1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 263
13.2 Reading Guide..................................................................................................... 263
13.3 Welfare Request and Business Challenges............................................................ 264
13.3.1 Welfare Request Handling....................................................................... 264
13.3.2 Business Challenges................................................................................. 264
13.4 Deriving a Solution Based upon the Case Management Solution Framework........265
13.4.1 Introduction..............................................................................................265
13.4.2 Determine Case Management Classification.............................................265
13.4.3 Determine Functional Components/Needs..............................................265
13.4.3.1 Case Life Cycle Design..............................................................265
13.4.4 Determine Solution Mapping...................................................................271
13.4.4.1 Determine Solution Capabilities................................................271
13.4.4.2 Mapping the Welfare Request to Oracle Products..................... 273
13.5 Conclusion............................................................................................................276

14 From Crime to Court............................................................................................... 277

14.1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 277
14.2 Reading Guide..................................................................................................... 277
14.3 Police Investigation and Business Challenges....................................................... 278
14.3.1 Police Investigation.................................................................................. 278
14.3.2 Business Challenges for the Police Force Related to Crime Investigation.......279
14.3.2.1 Globalization............................................................................ 279
14.3.2.2 Effectiveness of the Police Organization.................................... 280
14.3.2.3 Technology............................................................................... 280
14.3.2.4 Social Values Are Changing Rapidly......................................... 280
14.3.2.5 Adaption to Social and Crime Patterns..................................... 280
14.3.2.6 National Budgets Are Being Reduced........................................281
xii ◾ Contents

14.4 Solution Design Aspects........................................................................................281

14.4.1 Introduction..............................................................................................281
14.4.2 Determine Case Management Classification.............................................281
14.4.3 Determine Functional Components/Needs..............................................281
14.4.3.1 Case Life Cycle Design..............................................................281
14.4.3.2 Case Information Design.......................................................... 284
14.4.3.3 Case Interaction Design............................................................ 285
14.4.4 Deriving a Solution Based upon the Case Management Solution
Framework............................................................................................... 288
14.4.4.1 Full-Blown or Umbrella Type of Solution................................. 288
14.4.4.2 Solution Mapping..................................................................... 290
14.4.4.3 Mapping Police Investigation to Oracle Products...................... 292
14.5 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 294

15 End-to-End Insurance Claim Management..............................................................297

15.1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 297
15.2 Reading Guide..................................................................................................... 297
15.3 Insurance Claims and Challenges......................................................................... 298
15.3.1 Insurance Claims..................................................................................... 298
15.3.2 Business Challenges Related to Insurance Claims.................................... 298
15.3.2.1 Financial................................................................................... 298
15.3.2.2 Customer Facing....................................................................... 299
15.3.2.3 Supporting IT Landscape.......................................................... 299
15.4 Deriving a Solution Based upon the Case Management Solution Framework...... 299
15.4.1 Introduction............................................................................................. 299
15.4.2 Case Management Classification............................................................. 299
15.4.3 Determine Functional Components and Needs....................................... 300
15.4.3.1 Case Life Cycle Design............................................................. 300
15.4.3.2 Rules Design�����������������������������������������������������������������������������301
15.4.3.3 Case User Interface Design�������������������������������������������������������301
15.4.4 Determine Solution Mapping.................................................................. 303
15.4.4.1 Determine Solution Capabilities............................................... 303
15.4.4.2 Mapping the End-to-End Insurance Claim Handling
to Oracle Products.................................................................... 304
15.5 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 307

16 Concluding Remarks.................................................................................................309

SEcTION V TUTORIAL...........................................................................311
17 Oracle BPM/ACM Tutorial.......................................................................................313
17.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................313
17.2 Credit Card Charge Dispute: Use Case.................................................................313
17.2.1 Use Case Design Topics............................................................................313
17.2.2 Use Case Description................................................................................313
17.2.3 Credit Card Charge Dispute Life Cycle Design........................................317
 Contents ◾ xiii

17.2.3.1 Case Flow and Process Design...................................................317

17.2.3.2 Rules Design..............................................................................319
17.2.3.3 Event Design..............................................................................321
17.2.4 Credit Card Charge Dispute Information Design.................................... 322
17.2.4.1 People Relationship Design....................................................... 322
17.2.4.2 Data Design and Document Management Design.................... 323
17.3 Installation and Tutorial Files................................................................................324
17.4 Key Elements of Oracle Adaptive Case Management............................................325
17.4.1 Case..........................................................................................................325
17.4.2 Case Activities.......................................................................................... 326
17.4.2.1 Activity Implementation........................................................... 326
17.4.2.2 Activity Properties..................................................................... 326
17.4.3 Case Data................................................................................................ 326
17.4.3.1 Data Definition......................................................................... 326
17.4.3.2 External Case Data....................................................................327
17.4.4 Case Stakeholders.................................................................................... 328
17.4.5 Case Documents...................................................................................... 328
17.4.6 Rules and Policies.................................................................................... 328
17.4.7 Case Events...............................................................................................329
17.5 Implement the Case with Oracle ACM.................................................................329
17.5.1 Create the Case Management Project........................................................331
17.5.2 Define the Case Properties........................................................................333
17.5.2.1 Title...........................................................................................333
17.5.2.2 Summary...................................................................................333
17.5.2.3 Priority...................................................................................... 334
17.5.2.4 Category................................................................................... 334
17.5.2.5 Due Time................................................................................. 334
17.5.2.6 Milestones................................................................................. 334
17.5.2.7 Outcomes.................................................................................. 334
17.5.3 Define the Data Model.............................................................................335
17.5.3.1 Identify the Case Data Objects..................................................335
17.5.3.2 Define the Case Data Objects................................................... 336
17.5.3.3 Create Data Forms.................................................................... 340
17.5.3.4 Define Flex Fields...................................................................... 341
17.5.4 Content Configuration............................................................................ 343
17.5.5 Define User Events................................................................................... 344
17.5.6 Define the Stakeholders and Permissions................................................. 344
17.5.6.1 Application Roles...................................................................... 344
17.5.6.2 Application Policies....................................................................345
17.5.6.3 Stakeholders...............................................................................345
17.5.6.4 Permission Labels.......................................................................345
17.5.6.5 Define Roles...............................................................................345
17.5.6.6 Define Stakeholders.................................................................. 346
17.5.6.7 Define Permissions.................................................................... 347
17.5.7 Define Case Activities.............................................................................. 348
17.5.7.1 Create a BPMN-Based Activity..................................................350
17.5.7.2 Create a Human Task–Based Case Activity...............................354
xiv ◾ Contents

17.5.8 Define the Rules.......................................................................................356

17.5.8.1 Activity Event Rules...................................................................358
17.5.8.2 Milestone Event Rules................................................................361
17.5.8.3 User Event Rules....................................................................... 362
17.5.9 Resulting Application.............................................................................. 363
17.6 Deploy and Test................................................................................................... 364
17.6.1 Prepare Server for Deployment and Test.................................................. 364
17.6.1.1 Start the Integrated WebLogic Server........................................ 364
17.6.1.2 Enable Development Mode........................................................365
17.6.1.3 Create Test Users........................................................................365
17.6.2 Deploy Case Application.......................................................................... 366
17.6.2.1 Deploy the Case Composite...................................................... 366
17.6.2.2 Deploy Case Data Forms Application....................................... 366
17.6.2.3 Deploy Task Form Applications.................................................367
17.6.3 Create a Case Instance..............................................................................367
17.6.4 Working on the Case............................................................................... 368
17.6.4.1 Case Workspace........................................................................ 369
17.6.4.2 Update Process Roles.................................................................370
17.6.4.3 Grant Investigator Access Permission.........................................371
17.6.4.4 Scenario #1................................................................................373
17.6.4.5 Scenario #2................................................................................374
17.7 Summary...............................................................................................................374
17.A Appendix...............................................................................................................375

18 Siebel Tutorial...........................................................................................................379
18.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................379
18.2 Siebel Implementation Approach...........................................................................379
18.2.1 Choosing the Siebel Solution Type........................................................... 380
18.2.2 Familiarization......................................................................................... 380
18.2.3 Design......................................................................................................381
18.2.3.1 Functional Design......................................................................381
18.2.3.2 Solution Mapping......................................................................385
18.2.4 Implementation.........................................................................................385
18.3 Using the Police Investigation Application........................................................... 386
18.3.1 Storyline.................................................................................................. 387
18.3.2 Recording a Lead..................................................................................... 387
18.3.2.1 Creating the Lead and Entering the Generic
Lead Information.................................................................... 387
18.3.2.2 Entering the Person, Object Location, and Event
Information............................................................................390
18.3.2.3 Recording the Operational Information.................................... 390
18.3.2.4 Adding More Lead Details.........................................................391
18.3.2.5 Provide All Relevant Lead Information in the
Lead 360° Overview..................................................................392
18.3.2.6 Sharing the Lead Information via Lead Export..........................392
 Contents ◾ xv

18.3.3 Recording an Incident...............................................................................393

18.3.3.1 Creating an Incident..................................................................393
18.3.3.2 Working on an Incident.............................................................393
18.3.3.3 Offence Management................................................................ 394
18.3.3.4 Coercive Measures.....................................................................395
18.3.3.5 Incident Overview......................................................................395
18.3.4 Recording a Case..................................................................................... 396
18.3.4.1 Information Held as Part of the Case File................................. 397
18.3.4.2 Assignment of Cases and Ownership........................................ 397
18.3.4.3 Case Serialization...................................................................... 398
18.3.4.4 Evidence Management.............................................................. 399
18.3.4.5 Involved Persons........................................................................ 400
18.3.4.6 Report Out............................................................................... 400
18.4 Conclusion............................................................................................................401
19 Concluding Remarks.................................................................................................403
Appendix A: CORA Model Capabilities........................................................................... 407
Appendix B: A Solution Characteristic............................................................................. 413
Foreword

There were many lessons I learned while doing my MBA in the beginning of the twenty-first cen-
tury. Two of the topics we learned kept puzzling me for a long time:

1. The importance of operational excellence by measuring and then optimizing the individual
elements of a process.
2. The X and Y theory: Can you trust your employees and should you give unlimited freedom
or are employees per definition not to trust and should you therefore install fixed procedures
to support and control them.

Working in the services industry, it seemed that creating operational excellence was not really
applicable since it all depends on the knowledge of the individual, of course supported by frame-
works and best practices. Would it be useful and possible to break up the processes in a consulting
engagement and optimize them accordingly?
In the later case you would also apply more control to the consultant workforce. Would that
bring the best value to the customer, or should one apply the X theory and give full trust and free-
dom to the individual consultant in the hope they will act on the best behalf of the customer with
the highest impact and productivity?
After several years managing P&Ls within our organization, I became convinced that prob-
ably a combination of both theories should apply. On the one hand, industrialize the way of
working, meanwhile preserving the creativity of the individual. As once somebody told, each
tailor uses the same procedures to create a suit; it is the fabric and the elegant touches that make
him/her unique.
For me the big question is how can you facilitate the decision process of the individual,
making sure he or she has all the information required to make the best decision for the
company.
Current technology has finally come to maturity to deal with these questions. Case man-
agement allows you to gather information, industrialized or from creativity to guide knowledge
workers in their decision-making. Not only in guiding but also allowing us to capture the Case in
a structured way, making it possible to learn and adapt our decision making for future cases. In
other words, to really make us a learning organization.
Case management is too often seen as a toolset to allow document handling in the public
space. Case management can bring so much more.
The authors demonstrate in this book that if you want to be leading the digital space, if you
want to provide the best customer experience, you need to start with facilitating the decision

xvii
xviii ◾ Foreword

making process. This is what case management is all about. It is not about registering the
­transaction—it is to allow a better interaction with the end user.
With some great examples, this book will give you a better perspective of the art of the pos-
sible. How you can achieve a superior customer experience. How you can allow your employees
to leverage their creativity to the max, based on thorough information and analysis. Yes, that can
go hand in hand!
In other words, this book gave me the answer to the questions that puzzled me since the
beginning of 2000. Can we further industrialize and optimize the services business while giving
employees the maximum freedom to use their intellect? Yes we can; we call it case management.

Frank Wammes
CTO Application Services Continental Europe
Capgemini, the Netherlands

In 1959, Peter Drucker, an American management consultant whose work contributed to the
foundations of the modern business, coined the term “knowledge worker” to refer to “employ-
ees such as data analysts, product developers, planners, programmers, and researchers who are
engaged primarily in the acquisition, analysis, and manipulation of information as opposed to in
the production of goods or services.”
Fast-forward to today’s modern IT landscapes, case management solutions aim to support the
knowledge worker in his decision-making process and find the way into software vendor product
portfolios. In fact, a business process management (BPM) product is not considered complete
without some support for case management. BPMN 2.0 very well addresses the requirements for
structured and human-centric business processes and has become quite successful for both process
analysis and execution.
However, in situations with a large degree of process variance (a number of channels to
­consider, product groups, regions, etc.) and where new situations must be considered while
the process is running, it has turned out to be quite hard or even impossible to implement in
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). The combinatorial explosion considering all vari-
ants of a process typically ends in bloated process diagrams with many decision gateways and/or
event subprocesses with the process engine in full control of the execution. For an optimal support
of the knowledge worker, the user should be in the driver seat of the business process though.
The upcoming Object Management Group (OMG) standard for case management model and
notation (CMMN) addresses those requirements by providing the ability to “plan” work and in
general follows an event and condition (considering the case data) paradigm rather than a strict
sequence flow model.
This book is a “must read” for people who want to learn more about the area of case manage-
ment and how case management functionality is supported in various Oracle products, including
Oracle BPM Suite. It motivates with real-world examples and goes into details all the way to con-
crete implementation. The case management solution framework (CMSF) carved out in the book
is technology agnostic and applicable in general. The case diagrams of the CMSF are modeled on
CMMN, which makes this book a good complement to the CMMN specification and, thus, is
among the first books using CMMN.
In our roles of Oracle BPM Suite product development and as contributors to the OMG
BPMN 2.0, CMMN 1.0, and DMN 1.0 standards, we welcome this book as it nicely introduces
 Foreword ◾ xix

the field of case management and then shows how the Oracle BPM Suite with its comprehensive
set of functionality from low-level service orchestration and mediation to business processes with
BPMN 2.0 and case management components can be used to implement adaptive case manage-
ment solutions.

Ralf Mueller
Architect
Oracle BPM Suite

Vaishnavi Sashikanth
Vice President
Oracle Product Development

Presently, as machines and software are providing all the necessary means to automate routine
work to their maximum possible extent, automation efficiency is receding in value as a competi-
tive differentiator. Instead, a company’s ability to use its organizational knowledge and experi-
ence to solve customer problems effectively is becoming more and more a favored strategy for
excellence and competitiveness. Knowledge workers, those who actually translate the organiza-
tional knowledge to problem-solving tricks and techniques, need highly flexible work tools that
traditional BPM, with rigid process models, do not provide; event-based adaptive case man-
agement (ACM) approach fills this gap. Of course, the world is typically not black-and-white,
and, as we also see in my own company’s work, most solutions aimed at organizing business
activities naturally demand that there be a combination of case management and traditional
BPM to deliver the right balance of effectiveness and efficiency. This book calls this combination
“Generalized BPM.”
Oracle provides a wide range of software tools to create Generalized BPM solutions, the most
notable being the Oracle Unified BPM Suite, which uses essential features of SOA Suite as its
foundation. ACM, BPM, and SOA are a natural match. Together, they facilitate the next phase in
the evolution of digitization and automation of the next-generation business process management
and derive higher value from SOA services, including better reuse, composability, and manage-
ability. With this combined approach, business process management will no longer be about hard
coding functions in a rigid process model but will rather become an agile platform helping to cope
with continuous business changes and operations improvements.
However, having only the tools does not help with the whole process of taking user require-
ments and building solutions. Adequate and practical guidance on solution design philosophy as
well as solution architecture and the implementation of best practices are necessary for the realiza-
tion of a quality solution. This book, the first of its kind, provides this guidance starting at high-
level considerations through appropriate technology choices from Oracle’s big basket of products
right up to solution design details, thus making the dream of creating business applications to
manage structured and unstructured business activities an achievable one.

Geoffroy de Lamalle
CEO
eProseed
xx ◾ Foreword

In the early years of web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA), I had the pleasure to
work in my role at Oracle with some key architects at leading system integration companies.
Across companies, we started to exchange information and best practices to deliver successful
SOA customer projects, for example, one of the first European Oracle Service Bus or one of the
first Oracle BPEL projects. This group of experts became the “masons of SOA.” Based on the
mission to share knowledge, leading industry experts like Thomas Erl invited us to speak at con-
ferences, for example, the SOA Symposium. We also contribute to SOA Design Patterns or Next
Generation SOA and the SOA Magazine with the Industrial SOA series.
From the early days of web services, we were part of the SOA journey and became more
mature by adopting the service bus technology, orchestration like BPEL, business activity moni-
toring, pattern matching, and API management—all the solutions that became Oracle SOA
Suite. The next step for Oracle was to adopt BPMN as an executable engine in the middleware
portfolio. In 2013, it was obvious to extend BPM Suite with adaptive case management (ACM)
functionality. ACM benefits from the whole Oracle middleware technology stack, including
SOA, traditional BPM, document management, business intelligence, and identity management
solutions.
In my role in Oracle, where I am responsible for Fusion Middleware Partner Adoption in
Europe, Middleast, and Africa, I have the privilege to talk to industry experts as well as to Oracle
product management and product development teams. It is wonderful to see that many of them
contributed to this book. Oracle is organized by key product areas like database, middleware, and
applications. Since more than 10 years, I have focused on the middleware technology set and this
book is an eye opener for me to leverage this technology set as well as a few other Oracle applica-
tion products for different case management solutions. It defines the starting point of an ACM
journey. The solutions framework helps customers to design and classify your project. Based on
the solution characteristics and the functional design, the technology capabilities are determined.
The CORA framework is an excellent tool to determine an ACM solution that fits the use case.
Customers benefit from selecting the right case management solution based on their need from
the broad Oracle portfolio.
Like SOA, ACM, as we can see, continues to evolve. With the rise of the Internet of Things
(IoT), the amount of information explodes. Big data make this information available. Knowledge
workers can leverage ACM systems to make better decision. My daily work and the huge success of
the Oracle Middleware Partner Community is an excellent example for knowledge workers work-
ing on cases—I would like to congratulate all the writers of this book to have achieved another
milestone in our case.

Jürgen Kress
Fusion Middleware Partner Adoption EMEA
List of Acronyms

A2A Application to application

ABC Activity-based costing
ACM Adaptive case management
ADF Application development framework
AIIM Association for Information and Image Management
AP Accounts payable
API Application programming interface
AR Accounts receivables
B2B Business to business
BAM Business activity management
BI Business intelligence
BO Business object
BPEL Business Process Execution Language
BPM Business processes management
BPM Suite Oracle Middleware Suite delivering BPM on top of the SOA Suite (contain-
ing ACM functionality)
BPM/ACM  Combination of business processes management and adaptive case
management
BPMN Business Process Modelling Notation
BPMN 2.0 Business Process Modelling Notation version as defined by OMG
CAS Complex adaptive systems
CDO Case data object
CEP Complex event processing
CES Complex evolving system
CM Case management
CM L1, L2, L3 Case management design levels
CMM Capability maturity model
CMMN Case management model and notation
CMS Content management system
CMSA Case Management Society of America
CMSF Case management solution framework
CORA COmmon Reference Architecture
CQL Continuous Query Language
CQS Continuous query service
CRM Customer relationship management

xxi
xxii ◾ List of Acronyms

CRP Conference room pilot

CSR Customer service representative
CSS Cascading style sheets
CX Customer experience
DCM Dynamic case management
DILO Day in the life of
DO Data object
EAI Enterprise application integration
EDA Event-driven architecture
EDN Event delivery network
ERP Enterprise resource planning
Four-Cs Context, capabilities, collaboration, and coordination
GIS Geographic information system
GPS Global positioning system
H2A Human to application
H2H Human to human
HCM Human capital management
IDE Integrated development environment
INSEAD Business school
J2EE Java 2 Enterprise Edition
JSF Java server faces
KPI Key performance indicators
KRI Key risk indicators
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LOB Line of business
LOV List of values
M&A Mergers and acquisitions
MAF Mobile application framework
MDS Meta data store
MQ Magic Quadrant
MS Microsoft
OA&M Operations, administration, and management
OASIS Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
OEP Oracle event processing
OLAP Online Analytical Processing
OMG Object management group
OOTB Out of the box
OPA Oracle policy automation
Open UI (Siebel related) Open user interface
OPSS Oracle platform security services
Oracle SOA Suite Oracle Middleware Suite delivering service-oriented architecture capabilities
PCM Production case management
PDF Acrobat portable document format (PDF)
PoC Proof of concept
POLE Person, object location, event
PoV Point of view
PWT Package walkthrough
 List of Acronyms ◾ xxiii

REST Representational state transfer

RFID Radio frequency identification
RTD Real-time decisions
SAAS Software as a Service
SCA Service composite architecture
SCM Supply chain management
SI System integrator
SLA Service level agreement
SOA Service-oriented architecture
SOAP Simple object access protocol
SQL Sequential Query Language
SR Sense and respond
SR-CAS Sense and respond complex adaptive systems
STP Straight through processing
T&Cs Terms and conditions
TCO Total cost of ownership
TEI Total elemental interactions
UI User interface
VIP Very important person
WF Workflow
XLS Microsoft Excel
XML EXtensible Markup Language
Preface

“A crop farmer, motivated by the success of his friend’s chicken farm, decided to ‘grow’
­chickens himself. He tilled and fertilized his land nicely and ‘planted’ eggs in the soil. When
no chickens emerged from the ground, utterly frustrated, he sent some soil sample to his
regional agricultural office who promptly tested the soil and advised the farmer to increase the
watering frequency…”. I (Manas Deb) had once read a little narrative along these lines where
the author was trying to illustrate (albeit using an absurd example) the difference between
“doing the right thing” and “doing things right”—the difference between “effectiveness” (the
former) and “efficiency” (the latter). Effectiveness is related to how useful some work is while
efficiency is a measure of how well a “given task” is done. It is conceivable that a given task is
not very useful for the ultimate goal; this was the case with the actions of this crop farmer or
the regional agricultural office. At their simplest definition, effectiveness and efficiency may
be seen as “­perpendicular” concepts; that is, one can be achieved without worrying about the
other and that one does not necessarily lead to the other. However, it should be immediately
obvious to a sane mind that a simultaneous achievement of both effectiveness and efficiency
would be highly desirable in most situations. The real question then is “How difficult is it
to attain high effectiveness at high efficiency simultaneously?”—this is an “optimization”
problem.
Tempted by the efficiency of machines that resulted from the various chapters of the Industrial
Revolution and due to the fact that efficiency is relatively easy to measure and improve in most
situations, we are often inclined to exclusively focus on it especially when trying to boost orga-
nizational performance. Is this enough? Say, we are trying to improve customer service. Rapid
access to customer care representative (CSRs) or some helpful information is surely a good thing,
but will they relieve the customer’s agony when he or she is faced with a complex issue? Probably
not. On the other hand, if the CSR is able to quickly navigate through the details of the customer
complaint and is able to come up with creative solutions to resolve the issue, then that would
certainly be a rewarding experience for the customer resulting in customer loyalty and competi-
tive advantage for the company. Such actions (of the CSR) require the benefit of their experience
and knowledge. Peter Drucker, one of the most notable management gurus of modern time, had
been discussing the nature and importance of “knowledge work” since 1954. In his 1999 book,
Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Drucker notes, “The most valuable assets of a 20th-
century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st-century institu-
tion, whether business or nonbusiness, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.” So,
how can we help knowledge workers do their jobs better?

xxv
xxvi ◾ Preface

Knowledge work is typically directed toward the nonroutine, that is, where not all work
activities are preordained and require the use of human experience either acquired through
formal education or on-the-job learning. Often, collaboration of peers or consultation with
subject matter experts features as one of the ways to resolve complex issues. A knowledge
worker requires more flexibility in the way work activities are selected and sequenced. Timely
and proactive supply of helpful information can guide and facilitate a knowledge worker’s
performance. A traditional business process management (BPM)–based application has a
fully predefined process model that captures the details of all work activities, logic for their
sequencing, information about process worker assignments to specific tasks, and the necessary
business rules. Such applications handle routine work very well but fall short in supporting
knowledge work. In fact, even small deviations from the routine path are treated as “excep-
tions,” that is, singled out as special cases typically dealt with by human experts at relatively
higher costs; this strategy may be workable when the number of exceptions are small, however,
from the description of knowledge work that we just provided, knowledge work modeled via
traditional BPM is guaranteed to generate excessive amount of exceptions. Clearly, we need
another approach to handle nonroutine knowledge-based work. This is where the idea of case
management comes in.
In case management, instead of a fully predefined process model, work is organized more
loosely under the umbrella of a “case” (as opposed to a “process”) using “events,” “phases,”
“milestones,” and “activity lists” where some of these may be “mandatory” and the rest are
selected by the case workers (who are essentially playing the roles of knowledge workers).
Details of case progression are recorded in a “case folder” and case workers refer to this folder
to learn about the history of the case progression and to decide what actions to undertake
next. In certain implementations of case management, case workers can also add new activities
or invite additional participants for contribution in the middle of a case progression—this is
often termed as “adaptive” case management (ACM). One the other hand, if the case worker’s
flexibility to choose activities to be executed in a given case is limited to preset lists of available
activities, then this variant is termed as “production” case management (PCM). Of course, it is
conceivable that some of the case activities can be well described by processes (as in traditional
BPM); conversely, starting from a process, we may find that certain process activities are better
handled as cases; these hybrid solutions, which are likely to be quite common, is what we have
termed here as “Generalized BPM.”
While the idea of case management has been around for a long time and case workers have
utilized things like paper trails, phone calls, and e-mails to manage the case progression, in recent
years, with the increasing maturity of event-based application architecture, content management,
real-time decision management, and supporting technology platforms, it is now possible to create
comprehensive case management applications. Since a large portion of business activities contain
some level of unpredictability and knowledge work, especially in the high-value-add situations,
this technical feasibility of creating case management solutions has now pushed the interest in
case management to a significantly high level. As can be expected, where case management is
applicable, it brings higher efficacy, but how do we maintain high efficiency as well? Also, how do
we continue to benefit from our knowledge of traditional BPM even in the presence of unpredict-
able knowledge work? In other words, how do we conceptualize, architect, and build Generalized
BPM solutions that achieve the right balance of flexibility and efficiency and evolution and trans-
formation of human behavior and expectations? The book is dedicated to this exploration, both
from theoretical and practical points of view, starting with key concepts and observed examples
to solution architectures and specific implementation strategies. While we have chosen a set of
 Preface ◾ xxvii

Author
runs out
of time Review
feedback
New
findings

Create blueprint
Find publisher Investigate Write material Finish book
and setup author
team

Draft Book delivered

We go for Contract
Change in finished at publisher
the book! signed
structure

Figure P.1 The writing process of case management with Oracle Technologies.

Oracle technology products for the implementation examples, the rest of the book is technology
platform–agnostic and, thus, should be helpful for anyone interested in going deeper into case
management applications.
Looking back in retrospect, now that the book is finished, we realized that the writing pro-
cess of our book was actually a case on its own. Figure P.1 gives a high-level overview of the activ-
ities, milestones, and events that formed the process of writing this book. The overall process is
predictable: A set of high-level activities aimed at delivering a book. The process of writing this
book started with creating a blueprint and finding authors. Once the team was composed, we all
decided to go for it. This was the first milestone in the process. Then we started looking at where
to publish our book. We were supported by the Oracle Publishers Program, which brought us in
contact with different publishers. Different proposals were sent to the recommended publishers.
Taylor & Francis Group were enthusiastic about the proposal and the contract was signed with
them, marking the next milestone. A continuous loop of investigations, discussions with experts,
writing, and reviewing took place followed by a one-and-a-half-year-long quest. Some unpredict-
able events occurred during this period that made us deviate from the desired path. New findings
during the investigation and some of the review feedback from our esteemed reviewers made us
change the content and the structure of the script. As this book was written next to our day-to-
day busy jobs and in different time zones, our jobs required us to rearrange the writing priorities.
At the same time we also had an arrangement with our publisher to deliver the book within a
certain timeframe. The investigate and write material phases were the milestones accomplished
next, in which the draft material was delivered. The last set of activities dealt with finishing the
book, aligning the different book parts, getting all the pictures together, and reviewing the lan-
guage. The final milestone was reached where the book was delivered to the publisher, and the
case was closed.
xxviii ◾ Preface

In order to support this book a website has been created, see: http://oraclecasemanagement-
solutions.com/. At this website code examples that are used in this book and errata on the book
material are provided. From time-to-time insightful blogs on the topic of Case Management with
Oracle technologies will also be posted at this site. If an error is found in the book or more infor-
mation is needed, we request the reader to contact us via the website.

Léon Smiers
Manas Deb
Prasen Palvanker
Joop Koster
Acknowledgments

This book required a lot of insight and energy from many of our learned colleagues. Our sincere
thanks to all those who were involved in reviewing, discussing, challenging, cowriting, and testing
the book material even if we somehow missed to list them here explicitly. Since the book covers
knowledge from three areas—architecture, industry, and Oracle technology—we needed support
from a variety of people in different phases of the book writing process. We are especially indebted
to them for giving us their tremendous support despite us being grumpy at times!
In the architecture area, we would like to thank Joost van der Vlies (think about meta-model!!)
and Theo Elzinga for extensive (typically nightly) discussions on the case management solution
framework. We thank Danilo Smiedel for collaboration on the generalized BPM maturity model
and the ACM adoption case study. We gratefully acknowledge Tom Barrett for doing a very
thorough review of the case management solution framework! We also enjoyed our discussions
with Sybren de Hartog and Tim Arkin around the patterns. Last, but not the least, it was always
a pleasure discussing with Roeland Loggen different aspects of case management.
In the example area in the book, we required specific industry knowledge in mortgage, pub-
lic sector, police and insurance area. We thank Onur Balcak and Nicholas Kitson for numerous
discussions around case management and the mortgage and insurance industry. Special thanks
go to Hans Telgen for all the knowledge he brought in for the police and the public sector cases.
Jeroen van Essen did a tremendous job contributing to the police case information! We thank
Peter Kuijvenhoven and Maurice Vuijk for enriching our insurance knowledge.
In the Oracle technology area, we thank Ruben Spekle for collaborating on Oracle Service
Cloud. We thank Hans Telgen, again, for his Siebel knowledge and for his help with the tutorial
material. We also thank Martijn van der Kamp, Steven Boon, Jon Petter Hjulstad, and Alexander
van der Woude for discussing and reviewing the material.
Thanks to Joost Smiers and Roeland Jansen for checking the book contract.
In the writing and finalization phase a special thanks goes out to Hiske van Haren for review-
ing all the material and removing all the Denglish (Dutch-English) in the work.
We would like to thank the publishing team at Taylor & Francis Group, specifically John
Wyzalek and Jessica Vakili, for their patience, cooperation, and help with the book delivery.
A last thanks is for all the coffee places in Cape Town, Shanghai, Rotterdam, Utrecht,
Terschelling, Leeds, London, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Saigon, Hanoi, San Francisco, Santa Cruz,
Sydney, Osaka, and Tokyo for providing the right amount of caffeine and atmosphere to write
this book.

xxix
Authors

Léon Smiers works as a solution architect for Capgemini, The

Netherlands, in the area of Oracle technology and architecture,
where he is one of the leading Oracle specialists. He has done a
lot of work and research in the field of integration and new tech-
nologies, like RFID, SOA, EDA, BPM, and case management, on
which he wrote articles and presented in international conferences.
Currently Léon is setting up Solution Architectures for large Oracle-
based projects and is Oracle BPM Thought Leader for Capgemini.
Léon is coinventor of the Common Reference Architecture mode
or CORA model (www.coramodel.com), which helps in getting
control over the IT landscape in hybrid environments and deliv-
ers a predictable, repeatable, and risk-aware solution design. Based upon his close cooperation with
Oracle product management and field experiences, Léon was awarded the Oracle ACE title in 2010.

Dr. Manas Deb is president and COO of eProseed, a well-­recognized

Oracle technology partner. Previously he was a senior director in the
Fusion Middleware/SOA and BPM Suite products group at Oracle
HQ, where he had been leading outbound product management
globally with a special focus on strategic customer engagements.
Dr. Deb has worked in the software industry for more than 25 years,
most of which was spent in business development, sales enablement,
product development and management, and on architecting and
leading many enterprise-level application development and b­ usiness
integration projects in a wide variety of industries. Dr. Deb has coau-
thored three other books on SOA and BPM and has been a speaker
in many industry conferences. Dr. Deb attended postgraduate studies at The University of Texas at
Austin. He has a PhD in computer science and applied mathematics, and an MBA.

xxxi
xxxii ◾ Authors

Joop Koster is an experienced Oracle solution architect, CRM,

and front-office consultant. He is one of the founding fathers of
the Capgemini t-Police solution (https://www.capgemini.com/
public-sector/transform-police-t-police), which entails a stan-
dardized solution for the police force. He has 15 years of IT
consulting experience and more than 10 years of (management)
experience in the printing industry. He is familiar with front-
office and contact center, multichannel customer interaction,
and CRM technologies. He has a broad experience in marketing,
sales and services processes and technologies, and has worked in
both B2B and B2C environments.

Prasen Palvankar is a director of product management at Oracle

and currently leads development of industry solutions using
Oracle’s various PaaS offerings. Prior to taking on this role in
February 2015, he was the product manager for Oracle Adaptive
Case Management, Business Activity Monitoring, and Oracle
Business Rules products in the Oracle BPM Suite product family.
Prasen has more than 20 years of work experience in all aspects
of software application development such as consulting, solu-
tion and enterprise architecture, business integration and process
management, and advanced training development and delivery.
THE CASE FOR CASE I
MANAGEMENT

Introduction
Case management is a particular style of business activity management that has attracted signifi-
cant attention in recent years. In the traditional business process management (BPM) discipline,
all work activities, their execution sequences, and the rules governing them are predesigned via a
“process model.” A “process worker” interacts with an executable form of the process model and is
mainly concerned with handling a subset of these work activities, and the process model guaran-
tees the desired outcome of the whole process when the relevant activities are completed. All situ-
ations, known or unknown, that are not covered by the process model are tagged as “exceptions”
and are handled in a special manner, typically outside the main process and often by humans.
In case management, where a case is some problem to be solved or a transaction to be com-
pleted, the primary goal is to reach a resolution for the case. The actual (case) work activities, their
execution sequences and the involvement of case participants (i.e., the “case workers”), etc., while
kept within what is permissible and reasonable, are secondary to the ultimate goal attainment (i.e.,
resolution of the case). Thus, case management provides a more flexible work activity management
framework than traditional BPM; in its “adaptive” variation, adaptive case management (ACM)
even provides the ability to modify work lists and case participant lists. In many instances, for
example, those involving unstructured and knowledge work, turns out to be a better paradigm to
manage business activities.
In the first section of this book, we provide a general treatise on case management, using
mostly nontechnical verbiage, to cultivate an appreciation for case management philosophy and
discipline. Chapter 1, titled “Basics of Case Management,” establishes the usefulness of the case
management discipline through a series of day-to-day work examples and sketches out what a basic
case management system would look like, and then provides a historical background, discusses
formal definitions, and illustrates typical industry applications of case management. The chapter
concludes with a short discourse on how case management helps with increasing business agility.
Chapter 2, titled “Adaptive Case Management (ACM)–Related Topics,” explores several
concepts that are interesting when considering the “adaptive” aspect of ACM. These concepts
include sense-and-respond, anticipate-and-preempt, and the characteristics of complex adaptive
systems (CAS), and indicate how case management style of problem solving in fact mimics the
way humans solve problems on a day-to-day basis. Often a bit philosophical, these discussions are
2 ◾ Oracle Case Management Solutions

aimed at helping case management system solution architects better imagine the overall solution
characteristics in a manner best suitable for target unstructured and knowledge work. A small
discussion on the case management system classifications like dynamic case management (DCM)
and production case management (PCM) along with ACM is presented here as well with the goal
to help solution architects pick the most appropriate style of case management system for their
problem at hand. Next, case management is compared and contrasted with essentials of BPM. A
notion of “Generalized BPM” that combines capabilities of both is then introduced as an approach
likely to find broader usefulness in capturing business activities that display both structured and
unstructured aspects. A “capability maturity model” for Generalized BPM is also discussed. The
chapter ends with a short discourse on considerations relevant to the creation of business cases for
case management.
Chapter 1

Basics of Case Management

1.1 Introduction
Home proponit, sed Deus disponit (or in English: Man proposes, but God disposes) first appeared
in a published work in the collection named Die Imitaione Christi (or The Imitation of Christ)
by Thomas Kempis in the early 1400s. The Imitation of Christ is claimed to be the second most
read Christian text after The Bible, and the quote itself is well known and well appreciated by all
regardless of their religious beliefs. A secular interpretation of the quote would simply state that
we (the humans) cannot foresee it all. Hence, the wiser among us must “plan for the unplanned”!
The fact that uncertainty could hit our otherwise planned activities is not limited to our personal
lives—the same is true in many business situations. Clearly, some suitable strategy has to be in
place if organizations want to track and improve business activities that include unplanned actions.
Uncertainty is not the only variable introducing complexity in managing business activities.
We can be certain that there has always been a standing struggle between two distinct work pat-
terns: those that can be done by preset “routine” activities requiring relatively low skills typically
perfected by mere practice and those that require “knowledge work” performed by experienced
personnel requiring some level of freedom in a way how the activities are chosen and executed.
Routine work can be made highly efficient and often automated, thus speeding up the work and
driving down the cost. Routine work is also more easily managed, monitored, and improved than
knowledge work since knowledge work involves a variety of “loosely connected” tasks undertaken
in sequences that depend on the evolving context of the business problem. Thus, predetermined
routine work patterns are simpler and preferred in many ways; however, they have limited capabil-
ity of handling complex contextual variation and emergent events—knowledge work pattern is
much better suited in these situations.
If we took a close look at the nature of work that businesses perform, we would find that a
significant portion of the business activities are not of routine and deterministic type; instead, they
are either done by knowledge workers or contain some nondeterministic characteristics. Work
flow (WF) and business process management (BPM) have been traditionally used as the cho-
sen disciplines to handle preset deterministic routine work. The necessary technology, solution,
architecture, and practices supporting WF and BPM are now quite mature. Unfortunately, they
do not provide a suitable approach to design, implement, and execute business applications that
are knowledge work driven and need to handle uncertainties due to emergent events. This is the

3
4 ◾ Oracle Case Management Solutions

job of “case management” where work is done (i.e., the case is progressed) primarily to achieve a
set of goals for the ultimate benefactors, for example, customers. A customer may contact a busi-
ness with a request for resolution of a complaint that he or she may have about a product or a
service, which may lead to starting of a “case” with the goal of delivering the requested resolution
satisfactorily. The “case owners” and “case workers” will progress the case via completing certain
milestones by arranging their activities best suited for achieving the goal of the case. We will be
delving into more details of what a case is made of, how it is progressed, how work during the case
progression is “adapted” when necessary, etc., later in this chapter and throughout the rest of the
book as opportunities arise. First, let us look at a few real-life problems where it should be obvious
that the solutions to the problems involve dealing with unpredictable or knowledge work.

1.2 Unexpected Surprises (or Shocks)

1.2.1 “Are You Being Served?”
Sometime in the 1970s a customer in Fairbanks, Alaska, walked into a Nordstrom store, returned a
tire, and got some refund. Ordinarily this would sound like nothing special unless of course the store,
in this case, Nordstrom, was an “apparel and shoes” store and did not sell tires! Founded in 1901,
Nordstrom is now a large fashion retail chain and prides itself in providing extraordinary customer
care and experience; “A relentless drive to exceed expectation” is a quote from the “About Us” page at
their website (shop.nordstrom.com). While there are many variations that exist as to the exact details
of the aforementioned tire incident (and the curious reader is welcome to do some fun research). The
“tire refund” tale has become legendary in the realm of high-quality customer service. In fact, there
is a well-established perception in the buyer community that Nordstrom staff is knowledgeable and
is keen on providing a lasting positive buying experience to their customers whether it is to find the
right product, arrange custom orders, or provide insight into latest fashion trends. Corporate resolve
to serve customers excellently must be matched by the knowledge and freedom of action of the cus-
tomer care people that are needed in order to handle tricky customer situations. Exceeding customer
expectation is generally not trivial. However, a pleasantly surprised customer often becomes a loyal
follower of the brand, providing the company a strong source of competitive advantage. In fact, a
company’s reputation as a bad customer service provider can cost them dearly in many ways and
really fast with today’s customers constantly posting reviews online, which prospects almost always
look into before making buying decisions; bad reviews are posted and shared much more frequently
compared to good reviews. Companies serious about healthy growth and margin therefore take the
delivery of good customer service very seriously and sometimes employ interesting and creative means
to recover from bad service delivery. Take, for example, the Canadian health care company “Nurse
Next Door.” As reported in an online article by Justin Martin accessed at cnn.com in January/2014
(http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fsb/0709/gallery.where_customers_come_first.fsb/) when this
company fails to deliver good service it delivers a “humble pie,” which is a real fresh-baked apple pie,
to the affected customer with an apology note. The company estimated that the value of customer
retention via this innovative and proactive is the range of 60–70 times the cost of apology.
Are you being served? was a highly popular (and remains popular to date to select audiences)
British sitcom (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/areyoubeingserved/; accessed December/2013) that
ran from 1972 to 1985. Set in the early-twentieth-century culture and etiquette and the day-to-day
on goings at Grace Brothers, a fictional department store in London, the episodes of this sitcom
humored viewers by parodying customer service and innuendo filled exchanges among the shop
 Basics of Case Management ◾ 5

floor workers across gender and class lines. Often, the customers in this sitcom were put in awk-
ward and unpleasant situations by the doings of the shop floor employees and the customer would
vow never to come back to the store. This was fine since it was a sitcom and the only goal there was
is to provide entertainment to the viewing audience. Had this been a real store, it would have had
to close its doors rather rapidly with such bad customer service.
In fact, in the real world the task of acquiring and retaining customers is a very big deal to com-
panies. It is rather expensive to acquire new customers, and companies spend significant resources
to marketing their products and services. By certain accounts (http://economicsofadvertising.
com/?page_id=44; accessed January/2014) in the United States, advertising alone could range
between 2% and 5% of GDP (depending on whether nontraditional advertising is included in the
estimate) with top spenders such as financial and health care industries spending above 30% of
their sales in ads (http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Advertising.html; accessed January/2014).
Thus, once acquired, sensible companies that aspire to continue to sell to the existing customer
base would put in the extra effort by providing quality customer service to retain the customers.
Business dictionary (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/customer-capital.html;
accessed January/2014) defines “customer capital” as “the value of relationship that a firm holds
with its customers, and which is reflected in their loyalty to the firm and/or its products.” Customer
capital is one of the three components of intellectual capital (the other two being human capital
and structural capital) and is a measure of customer intimacy that a firm develops in its customer
base and is a major contributor to firm’s sustained competitive advantage (Jan Duffy, Measuring
customer capital, Strategy and Leadership, 28(5), 10–15, 2000). If you have ever received a fair and
smooth claims settlement from an insurance company, you are likely to stay with that company
even if their premiums are higher; if you have had a pleasant experience at a clinic, you are far
more likely to stick to them even if the charges there are higher; if you have felt that one of your
investment bankers is going the extra mile to protect and grow your investment, you will probably
channel all your life savings to him/her—examples of customer satisfaction as a result of superior
customer service and the obvious benefits to the firms delivering those services are easy to find in
all walks of life. Figure 1.1 provides a qualitative relationship between the ability to provide supe-
rior customer service, customer capital, and sustained competitiveness of firms stating essentially
that the better the customer service the higher the competitive advantage generating customer
loyalty. Superior customer service is particularly important and often a positive differentiator in
mature markets. As we had remarked earlier in this chapter, in order to exceed the customer’s
expectation on the customer service front all those that are involved in providing the service must
have the required knowledge and adequate freedom to exercise their judgment (based on their
knowledge) to take a few nonstandard steps, if necessary.

1.2.2 “Doctor, I Have a Headache…”

A middle-aged man shows up at a hospital with severe headache due to high blood pressure. The
check-in clerk does the necessary paperwork, and the patient sees the doctor in due course. In
many instances, such a visit would end in the doctor conducting some basic investigations, ask-
ing a few pertinent questions, and prescribing a set of common medicines, and all will be well.
However, in this particular instance, during the basic investigation phase, the assisting nurse
reports to the doctor that while the patient’s blood pressure is little high it seems unlikely that
the headache might have been caused by it (typically, high blood pressure may cause some head-
aches in situations of hypertensive crisis, i.e., systolic pressure higher than 180 and/or diastolic
pressure higher than 110 but not when the blood pressure is only mildly high; ref.heart.org).
6 ◾ Oracle Case Management Solutions

High
Customer capital; competitive advantage
Low

Low High
Customer satisfaction (due to customer service)

Figure 1.1 Customer capital, customer service, and competitiveness of firms.

This information causes the doctor to look for other symptoms. She notices, among other things,
that the patient is exhibiting occasional speech disability. Using her years of education and work
experience, the doctor suspects a possible brain tumor and proceeds with the diagnosis activities
and treatments accordingly. What could have been a common case of headache suddenly involves
sophisticated tests like CT scans and MRI, and upon confirmation of the existence of a tumor
requires complicated chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery as part of the treatment. From a general
practitioner adequate in dealing with most common headache complaints, a headache due to brain
tumor will now involve a group of collaborating radiation experts, specialized oncologists, and
neurosurgeons that are now required to handle the treatment of this patient.
More than 10% of the overall human population complain about headaches and in the major-
ity of the cases they are the “vanilla-type” that are easily diagnosed and are generally treatable by
common medicines. However, on occasions, there are situations that are similar to the aforemen-
tioned one and require vast amounts of specialized knowledge and myriads of activities including
cross-discipline collaboration that need to be adjusted based on the result of a previous diagnosis
or the reaction of the patient to a particular treatment regimen. Being experts in their trade, these
collaborators are also granted a lot of freedom as they pick the next best action during the diag-
nosis or treatment phases. Coordination of such a wide variety of activities is not easy, and given
the large number of participants, many and possibly large financial transactions, and potential
liability issues and activities must also be tracked for immediate and future reference. It is not hard
to imagine that management of the complexity of such activities will grow rapidly as the amount
of collaboration increase and as the level of freedom granted to the collaborators gets high unless,
of course, a suitable framework is put in place to enable and track these activities; Figure 1.2
states this concern graphically.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
country was thrown on the defensive. On the east the possession of
Montreal or Kingston would cut off all Canada above from support
by the sea, which would be equivalent to ensuring its fall. “I shall
continue to exert myself to the utmost to overcome every difficulty,”
wrote Brock, who gave such emphatic proof of energetic and
sagacious exertion in his subsequent course. “Should, however, the
communication between Montreal and Kingston be cut off, the fate
of the troops in this part of the province will be decided.”[93] “The
Montreal frontier,” said the officer selected by the Duke of
Wellington to report on the defenses of Canada, “is the most
important, and at present [1826] confessedly most vulnerable and
accessible part of Canada.”[94] There, then, was the direction for
offensive operations by the United States; preferably against
Montreal, for, if successful, a much larger region would be isolated
and reduced. Montreal gone, Kingston could receive no help from
without; and, even if capable of temporary resistance, its surrender
would be but a question of time. Coincidently with this military
advance, naval development for the control of the lakes should have
proceeded, as a discreet precaution; although, after the fall of
Kingston and Montreal, there could have been little use of an inland
navy, for the British local resources would then have been
inadequate to maintain an opposing force.

Results of the Northern Campaign

[While control was more vital and the forces stronger on Lake
Ontario than on either Erie or Champlain, no naval action of
consequence occurred there in 1813 or in fact throughout the war.
Yeo, the British commander, was enjoined by Admiralty orders to
take no risks; and the American Commodore Chauncey, with no such
justification, adopted a similar policy. Hence the important fleet
actions of the war were in other waters—Perry’s victory of September
10, 1813, on Lake Erie, and Macdonough’s victory on Lake
Champlain a year later. The first sentence in the paragraph following
refers to a raid on Buffalo, December 30, 1813.—Editor.]
With this may be said to have terminated the northern campaign
of 1813. The British had regained full control of the Niagara
peninsula, and they continued to hold Fort Niagara, in the State of
New York, till peace was concluded. The only substantial gain on the
whole frontier, from the extreme east to the extreme west, was the
destruction of the British fleet on Lake Erie, and the consequent
transfer of power in the west to the United States. This was the left
flank of the American position. Had the same result been
accomplished on the right flank,—as it might have been,—at
Montreal, or even at Kingston, the center and left must have fallen
also. For the misdirection of effort to Niagara, the local commanders,
Dearborn and Chauncey, are primarily responsible; for Armstrong[95]
yielded his own correct perceptions to the representations of the first
as to the enemy’s force, supported by the arguments of the naval
officer favoring the diversion of effort from Kingston to Toronto.
Whether Chauncey ever formally admitted to himself this
fundamental mistake, which wrecked the summer’s work upon Lake
Ontario, does not appear; but that he had learned from experience is
shown by a letter to the Secretary of the Navy,[96] when the squadrons
had been laid up. In this he recognized the uselessness of the heavy
sailing schooners when once a cruising force of ships for war had
been created, thereby condemning much of his individual
management of the campaign; and he added: “If it is determined to
prosecute the war offensively, and secure our conquests in Upper
Canada, Kingston ought unquestionably to be the first object of
attack, and that so early in the spring as to prevent the enemy from
using the whole of the naval force that he is preparing.”
In the three chapters which here end, the Ontario operations have
been narrated consecutively and at length, without interruption by
other issues,—except the immediately related Lake Erie campaign,—
because upon them turned, and upon them by the dispositions of the
government this year were wrecked the fortunes of the war. The year
1813, from the opening of the spring to the closing in of winter, was
for several reasons the period when conditions were most propitious
to the American cause. In 1812 war was not begun until June, and
then with little antecedent preparation; and it was waged half-
heartedly, both governments desiring to nip hostilities. In 1814, on
the other hand, when the season opened, Napoleon had fallen, and
the United States no longer had an informal ally to divert the efforts
of Great Britain. But in the intervening year, 1813, although the
pressure upon the seaboard, the defensive frontier, was undoubtedly
greater than before, and much vexation and harassment was
inflicted, no serious injury was done beyond the suppression of
commerce, inevitable in any event. In the north, on the lakes
frontier, the offensive and the initiative continued in the hands of the
United States. No substantial reinforcements reached Canada until
long after the ice broke up, and then in insufficient numbers. British
naval preparations had been on an inadequate scale, receiving no
proper professional supervision. The American Government, on the
contrary, had had the whole winter to prepare, and the services of a
very competent naval organizer. It had also the same period to get
ready its land forces; while incompetent Secretaries of War and of
the Navy gave place in January to capable men in both situations.
With all this in its favor, and despite certain gratifying successes,
the general outcome was a complete failure, the full measure of
which could be realized only when the downfall of Napoleon revealed
what disaster may result from neglect to seize opportunity while it
exists. The tide then ebbed, and never again flowed. For this many
causes may be alleged. The imbecile ideas concerning military and
naval preparation which had prevailed since the opening of the
century doubtless counted for much. The entrusting of chief
command to broken-down men like Dearborn and Wilkinson was
enough to ruin the best conceived schemes. But, despite these very
serious drawbacks, the strategic misdirection of effort was the most
fatal cause of failure.
There is a simple but very fruitful remark of a Swiss military
writer, that every military line may be conceived as having three
parts, the middle and the two ends, or flanks. As sound principle
requires that military effort should not be distributed along the
whole of an enemy’s position,—unless in the unusual case of
overwhelming superiority,—but that distinctly superior numbers
should be concentrated upon a limited portion of it, this idea of a
threefold division aids materially in considering any given situation.
One third, or two thirds, of an enemy’s line may be assailed, but very
seldom the whole; and everything may depend upon the choice made
for attack. Now the British frontier, which the United States was to
assail, extended from Montreal on the east to Detroit on the west. Its
three parts were: Montreal and the St. Lawrence on the east, or left
flank; Ontario in the middle, centering at Kingston; and Erie on the
right; the strength of the British position in the last-named section
being at Detroit and Malden, because they commanded the straits
upon which the Indian tribes depended for access to the east. Over
against the British positions named lay those of the United States.
Given in the same order, these were: Lake Champlain, and the shores
of Ontario and of Erie, centering respectively in the naval stations at
Sackett’s Harbor and Presque Isle.
Accepting these definitions, which are too obvious to admit of
dispute, what considerations should have dictated to the United
States the direction of attack; the one, or two, parts out of the three,
on which effort should be concentrated? The reply, as a matter of
abstract, accepted, military principle, is certain. Unless very urgent
reasons to the contrary exist, strike at one end rather than at the
middle, because both ends can come up to help the middle against
you quicker than one end can get to help the other; and, as between
the two ends, strike at the one upon which the enemy most depends
for reinforcements and supplies to maintain his strength. Sometimes
this decision presents difficulties. Before Waterloo, Wellington had
his own army as a center of interest; on his right flank the sea,
whence came supplies and reinforcements from England; on his left
the Prussian army, support by which was imminently necessary. On
which flank would Napoleon throw the weight of his attack?
Wellington reasoned, perhaps through national bias, intensified by
years of official dependence upon sea support, that the blow would
fall upon his right, and he strengthened it with a body of men sorely
needed when the enemy came upon his left, in overwhelming
numbers, seeking to separate him from the Prussians.
No such doubt was possible as to Canada in 1813. It depended
wholly upon the sea, and it touched the sea at Montreal. The United
States, with its combined naval and military strength, crude as the
latter was, was at the beginning of 1813 quite able in material power
to grapple two out of the three parts,—Montreal and Kingston. Had
they been gained, Lake Erie would have fallen; as is demonstrated by
the fact that the whole Erie region went down like a house of cards
the moment Perry triumphed on the lake. His victory was decisive,
simply because it destroyed the communications of Malden with the
sea. The same result would have been achieved, with effect over a far
wider region, by a similar success in the east.
 27. Lessons of the War with Spain[97]

The Possibilities of a “Fleet in Being”

[Admiral Cervera left the Cape Verde Islands on April 29, 1898. After
touching at Martinique on May 11, he coaled at Curaçao on the 15th,
and entered Santiago on the 19th.
On news of Cervera’s arrival at Martinique, Sampson’s squadron
from Porto Rico and Schley’s Flying Squadron from Hampton Roads
converged on Key West. Sampson had his full strength in the
approaches to Havana by the 21st and Schley was off Cienfuegos, the
chief southern port of Cuba, on the 22d.
“We cannot,” writes Admiral Mahan, “expect ever again to have an
enemy so entirely inapt as Spain showed herself to be; yet, even so,
Cervera’s division reached Santiago on the 19th of May, two days
before our divisions appeared in the full force they could muster
before Havana and Cienfuegos.”[98]—Editor.]
As was before said, the disparity between the armored fleets of the
two nations was nominally inconsiderable; and the Spaniards
possessed one extremely valuable—and by us unrivalled—advantage
in a nearly homogeneous group of five[99] armored cruisers, very fast,
and very similar both in nautical qualities and in armament. It is
difficult to estimate too highly the possibilities open to such a body of
ships, regarded as a “fleet in being,” to use an expression that many
of our readers may have seen, but perhaps scarcely fully understood.
The phrase “fleet in being,” having within recent years gained
much currency in naval writing, demands—like the word “jingo”—
preciseness of definition; and this, in general acceptance, it has not
yet attained. It remains, therefore, somewhat vague, and so
occasions misunderstandings between men whose opinions perhaps
do not materially differ. The writer will not attempt to define, but a
brief explanation of the term and its origin may not be amiss. It was
first used, in 1690, by the British admiral Lord Torrington, when
defending his course in declining to engage decisively, with an
inferior force, a French fleet, then dominating in the Channel, and
under cover of which it was expected that a descent upon the English
coast would be made by a great French army. “Had I fought
otherwise,” he said, “our fleet had been totally lost, and the kingdom
had lain open to invasion. As it was, most men were in fear that the
French would invade; but I was always of another opinion, for I
always said that whilst we had a fleet in being, they would not dare to
make an attempt.”
A “fleet in being,” therefore, is one the existence and maintenance
of which, although inferior, on or near the scene of operations, is a
perpetual menace to the various more or less exposed interests of the
enemy, who cannot tell when a blow may fall, and who is therefore
compelled to restrict his operations, otherwise possible, until that
fleet can be destroyed or neutralized. It corresponds very closely to “a
position on the flank and rear” of an enemy, where the presence of a
smaller force, as every military student knows, harasses, and may
even paralyze, offensive movements. When such a force is extremely
mobile, as a fleet of armored cruisers may be, its power of mischief is
very great; potentially, it is forever on the flank and rear, threatening
the lines of communications. It is indeed as a threat to
communications that the “fleet in being” is chiefly formidable.
The theory received concrete and convincing illustration during
the recent hostilities, from the effect exerted—and justly exerted—
upon our plans and movements by Cervera’s squadron, until there
had been assembled before Santiago a force at once so strong and so
numerous as to make his escape very improbable. Even so, when a
telegram was received from a capable officer that he had identified
by night, off the north coast of Cuba, an armored cruiser,—which, if
of that class, was most probably an enemy,—the sailing of Shafter’s
expedition was stopped until the report could be verified. So much
for the positive, material influence—in the judgment of the writer,
the reasonable influence—of a “fleet in being.” As regards the moral
effect, the effect upon the imagination, it is scarcely necessary more
than to allude to the extraordinary play of the fancy, the
kaleidoscopic effects elicited from our own people, and from some
foreign critics, in propounding dangers for ourselves and ubiquity for
Cervera. Against the infection of such tremors it is one of the tasks of
those in responsibility to guard themselves and, if possible, their
people. “Don’t make pictures for yourself,” was Napoleon’s warning
to his generals. “Every naval operation since I became head of the
government has failed, because my admirals see double and have
learned—where I don’t know—that war can be made without running
risks.”
The probable value of a “fleet in being” has, in the opinion of the
writer, been much overstated; for, even at the best, the game of
evasion, which this is, if persisted in, can have but one issue. The
superior force will in the end run the inferior to earth. In the
meanwhile, however, vital time may have been lost. It is conceivable,
for instance, that Cervera’s squadron, if thoroughly effective, might,
by swift and well-concealed movements, have detained our fleet in
the West Indies until the hurricane of September, 1898, swept over
the Caribbean. We had then no reserve to replace armored ships lost
or damaged. But, for such persistence of action, there is needed in
each unit of the “fleet in being” an efficiency rarely attainable, and
liable to be lost by unforeseen accident at a critical moment. Where
effect, nay, safety, depends upon mere celerity of movement, as in
retreat, a crippled ship means a lost ship; or a lost fleet, if the body
sticks to its disabled member. Such efficiency it is probable Cervera’s
division never possessed. The length of its passage across the
Atlantic, however increased by the embarrassment of frequently
recoaling the torpedo destroyers, so far overpassed the extreme
calculations of our naval authorities, that ready credence was given
to an apparently authentic report that it had returned to Spain; the
more so that such concentration was strategically correct, and it was
incorrect to adventure an important detachment so far from home,
without the reinforcement it might have received in Cadiz. This
delay, in ships whose individual speed had originally been very high,
has been commonly attributed in our service to the inefficiency of the
engine-room force; and this opinion is confirmed by a Spanish
officer writing in their “Revista de la Marina.” “The Americans,” he
says, “keep their ships cruising constantly, in every sea, and therefore
have a large and qualified engine-room force. We have but few
machinists, and are almost destitute of firemen.” This inequality,
however, is fundamentally due to the essential differences of
mechanical capacity and development in the two nations. An
amusing story was told the writer some years ago by one of our
consuls in Cuba. Making a rather rough passage between two ports,
he saw an elderly Cuban or Spanish gentleman peering frequently
into the engine-room, with evident uneasiness. When asked the
cause of his concern, the reply was, “I don’t feel comfortable unless
the man in charge of the engines talks English to them.”
When to the need of constant and sustained ability to move at high
speed is added the necessity of frequent recoaling, allowing the
hostile navy time to come up, it is evident that the active use of a
“fleet in being,” however perplexing to the enemy, must be both
anxious and precarious to its own commander. The contest is one of
strategic wits, and it is quite possible that the stronger, though
slower, force, centrally placed, may, in these days of cables, be able to
receive word and to corner its antagonist before the latter can fill his
bunkers. Of this fact we should probably have received a very
convincing illustration, had a satisfactory condition of our coast
defenses permitted the Flying Squadron to be off Cienfuegos, or even
off Havana, instead of in Hampton Roads. Cervera’s entrance to
Santiago was known to us within twenty-four hours. In twenty-four
more it could have been communicated off Cienfeugos by a fast
despatch boat, after which less than forty-eight would have placed
our division before Santiago. The uncertainty felt by Commodore
Schley, when he arrived off Cienfuegos, as to whether the Spanish
division was inside or no, would not have existed had his squadron
been previously blockading; and his consequent delay of over forty-
eight hours—with the rare chance thus offered to Cervera—would not
have occurred. To coal four great ships within that time was probably
beyond the resources of Santiago; whereas the speed predicted for
our own movements is rather below than above the dispositions
contemplated to ensure it.
The great end of a war fleet, however, is not to chase, nor to fly, but
to control the seas. Had Cervera escaped our pursuit at Santiago, it
would have been only to be again paralyzed at Cienfuegos or at
Havana. When speed, not force, is the reliance, destruction may be
postponed, but can be escaped only by remaining in port. Let it not,
therefore, be inferred, from the possible, though temporary, effect of
a “fleet in being,” that speed is the chief of all factors in the
battleship. This plausible, superficial notion, too easily accepted in
these days of hurry and of unreflecting dependence upon machinery
as the all in all, threatens much harm to the future efficiency of the
navy. Not speed, but power of offensive action, is the dominant
factor in war. The decisive preponderant element of great land forces
has ever been the infantry, which, it is needless to say, is also the
slowest. The homely summary of the art of war, “To get there first
with the most men,” has with strange perverseness been so distorted
in naval—and still more in popular—conception, that the second and
more important consideration has been subordinated to the former
and less essential. Force does not exist for mobility, but mobility for
force. It is of no use to get there first unless, when the enemy in turn
arrives, you have also the most men,—the greater force. This is
especially true of the sea, because there inferiority of force—of gun
power—cannot be compensated, as on land it at times may be, by
judiciously using accidents of the ground. I do not propose to fall
into an absurdity of my own by questioning the usefulness of higher
speed, provided the increase is not purchased at the expense of
strictly offensive power; but the time has come to say plainly that its
value is being exaggerated; that it is in the battleship secondary to
gun power; that a battle fleet can never attain, nor maintain, the
highest rate of any ship in it, except of that one which at the moment
is the slowest, for it is a commonplace of naval action that fleet speed
is that of the slowest ship; that not exaggerated speed, but uniform
speed—sustained speed—is the requisite of the battle fleet; that it is
not machinery, as is often affirmed, but brains and guns, that win
battles and control of the sea. The true speed of war is not headlong
precipitancy, but the unremitting energy which wastes no time.
For the reasons that have been given, the safest, though not the
most effective, disposition of an inferior “fleet in being” is to lock it
up in an impregnable port or ports, imposing upon the enemy the
intense and continuous strain of watchfulness against escape. This it
was that Torrington, the author of the phrase, proposed for the time
to do. Thus it was that Napoleon, to some extent before Trafalgar,
but afterward with set and exclusive purpose, used the French Navy,
which he was continually augmenting, and yet never, to the end of
his reign, permitted again to undertake any serious expedition. The
mere maintenance of several formidable detachments, in apparent
readiness, from the Scheldt round to Toulon, presented to the British
so many possibilities of mischief that they were compelled to keep
constantly before each of the French ports a force superior to that
within, entailing an expense and an anxiety by which the emperor
hoped to exhaust their endurance. To some extent this was Cervera’s
position and function in Santiago, whence followed logically the
advisability of a land attack upon the port, to force to a decisive issue
a situation which was endurable only if incurable. “The destruction
of Cervera’s squadron,” justly commented an Italian writer, before
the result was known, “is the only really decisive fact that can result
from the expedition to Santiago, because it will reduce to impotence
the naval power of Spain. The determination of the conflict will
depend throughout upon the destruction of the Spanish sea power,
and not upon territorial descents, although the latter may aggravate
the situation.” The American admiral from before Santiago, when
urging the expedition of a land force to make the bay untenable,
telegraphed, “The destruction of this squadron will end the war;” and
it did.
 28. The Santiago Blockade[100]

Our battle fleet before Santiago was more than powerful enough to
crush the hostile squadron in a very short time if the latter attempted
a stand-up fight. The fact was so evident that it was perfectly clear
nothing of the kind would be hazarded; but, nevertheless, we could
not afford to diminish the number of armored vessels on this spot,
now become the determining center of the conflict. The possibility of
the situation was twofold. Either the enemy might succeed in an
effort at evasion, a chance which required us to maintain a distinctly
superior force of battleships in order to allow the occasional absence
of one or two for coaling or repairs, besides as many lighter cruisers
as could be mustered for purposes of lookout, or, by merely
remaining quietly at anchor, protected from attack by the lines of
torpedoes, he might protract a situation which tended not only to
wear out our ships, but also to keep them there into the hurricane
season,—a risk which was not, perhaps, adequately realized by the
people of the United States.
It is desirable at this point to present certain other elements of the
naval situation which weightily affected naval action at the moment,
and which, also, were probably overlooked by the nation at large, for
they give a concrete illustration of conditions, which ought to
influence our national policy, as regards the navy, in the present and
immediate future. We had to economize our ships because they were
too few. There was no reserve. The Navy Department had
throughout, and especially at this period, to keep in mind, not merely
the exigencies at Santiago, but the fact that we had not a battleship in
the home ports that could in six months be made ready to replace
one lost or seriously disabled, as the Massachusetts, for instance, not
long afterwards was, by running on an obstruction in New York Bay.
Surprise approaching disdain was expressed, both before and after
the destruction of Cervera’s squadron, that the battle fleet was not
sent into Santiago either to grapple the enemy’s ships there, or to
support the operations of the army, in the same way, for instance,
that Farragut crossed the torpedo lines at Mobile. The reply—and, in
the writer’s judgment, the more than adequate reason—was that the
country could not at that time, under the political conditions which
then obtained, afford to risk the loss or disablement of a single
battleship, unless the enterprise in which it was hazarded carried a
reasonable probability of equal or greater loss to the enemy, leaving
us, therefore, as strong as before relatively to the naval power which
in the course of events might yet be arrayed against us. If we lost ten
thousand men, the country could replace them; if we lost a
battleship, it could not be replaced. The issue of the war, as a whole
and in every locality to which it extended, depended upon naval
force, and it was imperative to achieve, not success only, but success
delayed no longer than necessary. A million of the best soldiers
would have been powerless in face of hostile control of the sea.
Dewey had not a battleship, but there can be no doubt that that
capable admiral thought he ought to have one or more; and so he
ought, if we had had them to spare. The two monitors would be
something, doubtless, when they arrived; but, like all their class, they
lacked mobility.
When Cámara started by way of Suez for the East, it was no more
evident than it was before that we ought to have battleships there.
That was perfectly plain from the beginning; but battleships no more
than men can be in two places at once, and until Cámara’s movement
had passed beyond the chance of turning west, the Spanish fleet in
the Peninsula had, as regarded the two fields of war, the West Indies
and the Philippines, the recognized military advantage of an interior
position. In accepting inferiority in the East, and concentrating our
available force in the West Indies, thereby ensuring a superiority
over any possible combination of Spanish vessels in the latter
quarter, the Department acted rightly and in accordance with sound
military precedent; but it must be remembered that the Spanish
Navy was not the only possibility of the day. The writer was not in a
position to know then, and does not know now, what weight the
United States Government attached to the current rumors of possible
political friction with other states whose people were notoriously
sympathizers with our enemy. The public knows as much about that
as he does; but it was clear that if a disposition to interfere did exist
anywhere, it would not be lessened by a serious naval disaster to us,
such as the loss of one of our few battleships would be. Just as in the
maintenance of a technically “effective” blockade of the Cuban ports,
so, also, in sustaining the entireness and vigor of the battle fleet, the
attitude of foreign Powers as well as the strength of the immediate
enemy had to be considered. For such reasons it was recommended
that the orders on this point to Admiral Sampson should be
peremptory; not that any doubt existed as to the discretion of that
officer, who justly characterized the proposition to throw the ships
upon the mine fields of Santiago as suicidal folly, but because it was
felt that the burden of such a decision should be assumed by a
superior authority, less liable to suffer in personal reputation from
the idle imputations of over-caution, which at times were ignorantly
made by some who ought to have known better, but did not. “The
matter is left to your discretion,” the telegram read, “except that the
United States armored vessels must not be risked.”
When Cervera’s squadron was once cornered, an intelligent
opponent would, under any state of naval preparedness, have seen
the advisability of forcing him out of the port by an attack in the rear,
which could be made only by an army. As Nelson said on one
occasion, “What is wanted now is not more ships, but troops.” Under
few conditions should such a situation be prolonged. But the reasons
adduced in the last paragraph made it doubly incumbent upon us to
bring the matter speedily to an issue, and the combined expedition
from Tampa was at once ordered. Having in view the number of
hostile troops in the country surrounding Santiago, as shown by the
subsequent returns of prisoners, and shrewdly suspected by
ourselves beforehand, it was undoubtedly desirable to employ a
larger force than was sent. The criticism made upon the inadequate
number of troops engaged in this really daring movement is
intrinsically sound, and would be wholly accurate if directed, not
against the enterprise itself, but against the national
shortsightedness which gave us so trivial an army at the outbreak of
the war. The really hazardous nature of the movement is shown by
the fact that the column of Escario, three thousand strong, from
Manzanillo, reached Santiago on July 3d; too late, it is true,
abundantly too late, to take part in the defense of San Juan and El
Caney, upon holding which the city depended for food and water; yet
not so late but that it gives a shivering suggestion how much more
arduous would have been the task of our troops had Escario come up
in time. The incident but adds another to history’s long list of
instances where desperate energy and economy of time have wrested
safety out of the jaws of imminent disaster. The occasion was one
that called upon us to take big risks; and success merely justifies
doubly an attempt which, from the obvious balance of advantages
and disadvantages, was antecedently justified by its necessity, and
would not have been fair subject for blame, even had it failed.
The Navy Department did not, however, think that even a small
chance of injury should be taken which could be avoided; and it may
be remarked that, while the man is unfit for command who, on
emergency, is unable to run a very great risk for the sake of decisive
advantage, he, on the other hand, is only less culpable who takes
even a small risk of serious harm against which reasonable
precaution can provide. It has been well said that Nelson took more
care of his topgallant masts, in ordinary cruising, than he did of his
whole fleet when the enemy was to be checked or beaten; and this
combination of qualities apparently opposed is found in all strong
military characters to the perfection of which both are necessary.
 29. “Fleet in Being” and “Fortress Fleet”[101]

The Port Arthur Squadron in the Russo-Japanese War

[At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in February, 1904,

Russia had three armored cruisers at Vladivostok, another at
Chemulpo, Korea, and seven battleships, six cruisers, and a torpedo
flotilla at Port Arthur. Three of the Port Arthur ships were badly
damaged by torpedo attack on February 8, and the cruiser at
Chemulpo was destroyed on the next day. Togo lost two of his six
first-class battleships by running into a mine field off Port Arthur on
May 15. In an attempt to escape to Vladivostok on August 10, the
Port Arthur squadron lost a battleship and several cruisers; the
remainder were sunk in the course of the Port Arthur siege. This
lasted from May 27 to January 1, 1905. Even before February 8,
1904, the Japanese had begun transporting their troops to Korea;
and after the fall of Port Arthur they were able to throw their full
strength against General Kuropatkin in the decisive battle of
Mukden, February 24, 1905.—Editor.]
I have been led, on an occasion not immediately connected with
Naval Strategy, to observe that errors and defeats are more obviously
illustrative of principles than successes are. It is from the records of
the beaten side that we are most surely able to draw instruction. This
is partly due to the fact that the general or admiral who is worsted
has to justify himself to his people, perhaps also to his Government.
The naval practice of court-martialing a defeated captain or admiral
has been most productive of the material which history, and the art
of war, both require for their treatment. Even failing a court-martial,
defeat cries aloud for explanation; whereas success, like charity,
covers a multitude of sins. To this day Marengo is the victory of
Napoleon, not of Desaix; and the hazardous stretching of the French
line which caused the first defeat is by most forgotten in the ultimate
triumph. The man who has failed will of his own motion bring out all
that extenuates failure, or relieves him from the imputation of it. The
victor is asked few questions; and if conscious of mistakes he need
not reveal them. More can be found to criticize Kuropatkin and
Rozhestvensky than to recognize either their difficulties or their
merits. Probably few, even in this naval audience, knew, or have
noted, that on the day preceding that on which two Japanese
battleships, the Hatsuse and Yashima, were sunk by Russian mines,
not a Japanese scout was in sight, to notice the Russian vessel
engaged in the work which resulted so disastrously to its foes. On
that day, during that operation, no Japanese vessel was visible to the
lookouts at Port Arthur.
For the reasons advanced, I turn at first, and more particularly, to
the Russian naval action for illustration of principles, whether shown
in right or wrong conduct; and here I first name two such principles,
or formulation of maxims, as having been fundamental, and in my
judgment fundamentally erroneous, in the Russian practice. These
are mental conceptions, the first of which has been explicitly stated
as controlling Russian plans, and influencing Russian military ideas;
while the second may be deduced, inferentially, as exercising much
effect. The first, under the title of “Fortress Fleet,” is distinctly
Russian; realized, that is, in Russian theory and practice, though not
without representation in the military thought of other countries.
The second is the well known “Fleet in Being;” a conception
distinctly English in statement and in origin, although, like the first,
it finds reflection in naval circles elsewhere. I shall not at this point
define this conception “Fleet in Being.” I shall attempt to do so later,
by marking its extreme expression; but to do more will require more
space than is expedient to give here, because full definition would
demand the putting forward of various shades of significance, quite
wide in their divergence, which are attributed to the expression
—“Fleet in Being”—by those who range themselves as advocates of
the theory embraced in the phrase.
It is, however, apt here to remark that, in extreme formulation, the
two theories, or principles, summed up in the phrases, “Fortress
Fleet” and “Fleet in Being,” are the antipodes of each other. They
represent naval, or military, thought polarized, so to say. The one
lays all stress on the fortress, making the fleet so far subsidiary as to
have no reason for existence save to help the fortress. The other
discards the fortress altogether, unless possibly as a momentary
refuge for the vessels of the fleet while coaling, repairing, or
refreshing. The one throws national defense for the coast lines upon
fortifications only; the other relies upon the fleet alone for actual
defense. In each case, co-operation between the two arms, fleet and
coast-works, is characterized by a supremacy of one or the other, so
marked as to be exclusive. Co-ordination of the two, which I conceive
to be the proper solution, can scarcely be said to exist. The relation is
that of subjection, rather than of co-ordination. [Here a distinction is
drawn between compromise, which implies concessions and a
middle course between divergent purposes, and the proper method
best expressed by the word adjustment, which signifies
concentration on a single purpose and co-ordination of all means to
that end.]
It is worthy of your consideration whether the word “compromise”
does not really convey to your minds an impression that, when you
come to design a ship of war, you must be prepared to concede
something on every quality, in order that each of the others may have
its share. Granting, and I am not prepared to deny, that in effect each
several quality must yield something, if only in order that its own
effectiveness be ensured, as in the case of the central defense force
just cited, is it of no consequence that you approach the problem in
the spirit of him who divided his force among several passes, rather
than of him who recognizes a central conception to which all else is
to minister? Take the armored cruiser; a fad, I admit, with myself.
She is armored, and she is a cruiser; and what have you got? A ship
to “lie in the line?” as our ancestors used to say. No, and Yes; that is
to say, she may on a pinch, and at a risk which exceeds her powers. A
cruiser? Yes, and No; for, in order to give her armor and armament
which do not fit her for the line, you have given tonnage beyond what
is needed for the speed and coal endurance proper to a cruiser. By
giving this tonnage to armor and armament you have taken it from
other uses; either from increasing her own speed and endurance, or
from providing an additional cruiser. You have in her more cruiser
than you ought to have, and less armored vessel; or else less cruiser
and more armored ship. I do not call this a combination, though it is
undoubtedly a compromise. You have put two things together, but
they remain two, have not become one; and, considering the
tonnage, you have neither as much armored ship, nor as much
cruiser, as you ought to have. I do not say you have a useless ship. I
do say you have not as useful a ship as, for the tonnage, you ought to
have. Whether this opinion of one man is right or wrong, however, is
a very small matter compared with the desirability of officers
generally considering these subjects on proper lines of thought, and
with proper instruments of expression; that is, with correct
principles and correct phraseology.
As an illustration of what I am here saying, the two expressions,
“Fortress Fleet” and “Fleet in Being,” themselves give proof in their
ultimate effect upon Russian practice and principle. Fortress Fleet
was a dominant conception in Russian military and naval thought. I
quote with some reserve, because from a daily newspaper,[102] but as
probably accurate, and certainly characteristic of Russian theory, the
following: “Before his departure from Bizerta for the Suez Canal,
Admiral Wirenius, in command of the Russian squadron, remarked
that the Russian plan was to make Port Arthur and Vladivostok the
two most important arsenals in the empire, each having a fleet of
corresponding strength,”—corresponding, that is, to the fortress,
—“depending upon it as upon a base.” The distribution would be a
division in the face of the probable enemy, Japan, centrally situated,
because the design has reference primarily to the fortress, not to
naval efficiency. The conception is not wholly erroneous; if it were,
the error would have been detected. It has an element of truth, and
therein lies its greatest danger; the danger of half or quarter truths. A
fleet can contribute to the welfare of coast fortresses; especially when
the fortress is in a foreign possession of the nation. On the other
hand, the Fleet in Being theory has also an element of truth, a very
considerable element; and it has been before the naval public,
explicitly, for so long a time that it is impossible it was not known in
Russia. It was known and was appreciated. It had a strong following.
The Russian Naval General Staff clamored for command of the sea;
but in influence upon the government, the responsible director and
formulator of national policy, it did not possess due weight. Not
having been adequately grasped,—whether from neglect, or because
the opposite factor of Fortress Fleet was already in possession of
men’s minds,—it was never able to secure expression in the national
plans. There was compromise, possibly; both things, Fleet in Being
and Fortress Fleet, were attempted; but there was not adjustment.
The fortress throughout reduced the fleet, as fleet, to insignificance
in the national conceptions. What resulted was that at Port Arthur
the country got neither a fortress fleet, for, except the guns mounted
from it, the fleet contributed nothing to the defense of the place; nor
yet a Fleet in Being, for it was never used as such.
 It is interesting to observe that this predominant conception of a
fortress fleet reflects national temperament; that is, national
characteristics, national bias. For, for what does Fortress Fleet
stand? For the defensive idea. For what does Fleet in Being stand?
For the offensive. In what kind of warfare has Russia most
conspicuously distinguished herself? In defensive. She has had her
Suvarof, doubtless; but in 1812, and in the Crimea, and now again, in
1904–1905, it is to the defensive that she has inclined. In virtue of
her territorial bulk and vast population, she has, so to say, let the
enemy hammer at her, sure of survival in virtue of mass. Militarily,
Russia as a nation is not enterprising. She has an apathetic bias
towards the defensive. She has not, as a matter of national, or
governmental, decision, so grasped the idea of offense, nor, as a
people, been so gripped by that idea, as to correct the natural
propensity to defense, and to give to defense and offense their proper
adjustment in national and military policy.
In these two well-known expressions, “Fortress Fleet” and “Fleet in
Being,” both current, and comparatively recent, we find ourselves
therefore confronting the two old divisions of warfare,—defensive
and offensive. We may expect these old friends to exhibit their well-
known qualities and limitations in action; but, having recognized
them under their new garb, we will also consider them under it,
speaking not directly of offensive and defensive, but of Fortress Fleet
and Fleet in Being, and endeavoring, first, to trace their influence in
the Russian conduct....
Why then was the fleet stationed in Port Arthur? Because,
expecting the Japanese attack to fall upon Port Arthur, the purpose
of the Russian authorities was not to use the fleet offensively against
the enemy’s navy, but defensively as a fortress fleet; defending the
fortress by defensive action, awaiting attack, not making it. That is,
the function of the fortress was conceived as defensive chiefly, and
not as offensive. Later, I hope to show that the purpose, the raison
d’être, of a coast fortress is in itself offensive; because it exists chiefly
for the purpose of sheltering a fleet, and keeping it fit to act
offensively. For the present, waiving the point, it will be sufficient to
note that the conception of the fleet by the Russians, that it should
act only in defense, led necessarily to imperfect action even in that
respect. The Port Arthur division virtually never acted offensively,
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