BPMN

There is something of a fracas about the relationship between BPMN and BPDM: is BPMN 'only' a notation or does it have some semantics.

This whole thing was news to the BPMN team as they (including me) were blithely assuming that we were trying to define a language.

Andy our Sales guys is not a professional process engineer, hence we did not design around BPMN.

Level 1 is described as descriptive BPMN, which can be used for high-level modeling with a restricted palette of BPMN constructs.

The open glue layer allows you to easily create rules in a decision table on the business level and link them to the BPMN process model.

We also will like to see development of some standard patterns and best practices that will facilitate BPMN learning.

BPMN for business professionals is just not up to a business level of need.

BPMN envisions mappings that explain how the BPMN constructs and properties map to specific executable process languages.

This split is represented by a diamond (a gate element or gateway in BPMN terminology) with a cross inside it.

BPMN does not provide any separate modeling elements to join or merge several branches in a process model.

As an analysis language to help with the documentation of a business process, I think that BPMN is a very good option.

Furthermore, UML tools are oriented to IT people, while BPMN tools are oriented to business process experts.

The release provides SOA developers tool support for SCA and JAX-WS standards, as well as a BPMN Modeler tool.

Unfortunately, many advanced constructs of BPMN are under-specified and are still being refined by the relevant standardization body.

The emerging standard for specifying processes graphically is the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN).

The abstract concepts do not appear as additional BPMN graphics and they do not appear as additional concepts expressed in the XML . . .

IBM is a major player in the BPM 2. 0 domain and is a strong advocate for the BPMN and BPEL specifications.

There is so much more to managing business processes, and improving them, than BPMN.

This allows traceability from a project order written in Word and saved on a Network-Drive to the BPMN diagram to the technical model.

You first use a BPMN workflow editor to author the BPMN representation of your business process.

The idea of round tripping is the continuous switching between the BPMN analysis model and the executable process.

BPMN 2 must address this problem by introducing an exchange format covering model content as well as graphical layout of the diagrams.

The upper-left section contains a palette of BPMN elements that you can use to configure your workflows.

BPMN is graph based, where as BPEL has a composite structure without transitions that corresponds to a tree.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a standard that lets you express a workflow's business requirements graphically.

Bonita includes a graphical BPMN editor as well as a workflow engine.

Business Process editor to depict diagrams, based on the BPMN notation, representing the flow of activities and events.

BPMN modeling tool should support the definition of business processes by business and information analysts.

In fact, a service architecture could actually be a different view of a BPMN business process.

(IBM, Dave Ings) XPDL defines a modeling language (that partially overlaps with BPMN) and process model exchange format.

BPMN is unique in addressing all these three aspects and is critically needed for driving BPM adoption within business analysts.

(SAP, Ivana Trickovic) BPMN is a graphical notation for modeling business processes ranging from workflows to automated business processes.

In BPMN, events provide an expressive visual language for describing the exceptions that occur in real-world processes.

Also, BPEL Process Execution conformance has been introduced for implementations that support the optional BPMN mapping to BPEL.

The specification provides an underlying model representation for BPMN graphics.

However, unlike flow-charts, it adds sufficient constraints and semantics to make the models valid starting point for implementations.

This support is integrated with the BPMN-based business process modeling support that was the focus of Part 3.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is fast becoming the de facto notation standard for process models.

The upper-right portion is a process whiteboard into which you drag and drop BPMN elements from the palette.

Further, BPMN 2. 0 will be able to leverage organizational directories and other services available in the deployment environment.

The lower-right portion is a details window, which you use to configure individual BPMN elements.

(IBM, Dave Ings) IBM has several tools in its portfolio which already support BPMN.

Both are complementary in that regard and many BPMN models may be executed as BPEL processes.

Finally, it formalizes the execution semantics of BPMN elements, which helps to interpret BPMN process models unambiguously.

Since both BPMN and BPDM are at OMG, it might become a replacement for XPDL as an exchange file format in the future.

(SAP, Ivana Trickovic) BPMN is a modeling language specifically for designing various flavors of business processes.

The project lead now has an action available for the BPMN model to create a development project in SVN.

That means, a BPMN process can be deployed and executed on different environments provided they support BPMN 2. 0 execution semantics.

Generate Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) scripts using the BPMN that access the services from the service registry.

We use BPMN as a notation but we have our own internal representation.

BPMN provides business audiences flow-chart like experience, a metaphor that they are conversant with.

Because no BPMN element is currently selected, the details window in Figure 3 shows attributes of the workflow.

SAP adopted BPMN as its modeling notation for future collaborative processes.

BPMN serves the analysts in drawing analysis diagrams, but it's not executable.

Proposing new specification standards and positioning them with existing standards like WS-BPEL and BPMN.

Another clear example is the complexity to handle human interactions using BPMN with BPEL and BPEL4People extension.

Now you've seen how the simple process of booking a room is represented by BPMN.

This will increase the learning curve for BPMN modeling and might hinder a further adoption.

To introduce you to BPMN, I'll use the room-booking process at a hotel's front desk as an example.

In this case, since BPMN addresses multiple constituencies, there are multiple dimensions of compliance.

BPMN is a standard optimized for designing business processes.

The specification itself contains one such mapping between BPMN and BPEL.

Q. What's the relationship between BPMN and deployment environments?

For the latter, the BPMN 2. 0 execution semantics have been aligned with the BPEL execution semantics.

Furthermore, we are considering using BPMN 2. 0 as the interoperability standard within our business process modeling tools portfolio.

BPMN 2. 0 fixes this by specifying both the modeling semantics as well as the execution semantics.

People of different background participated to BPMN.

It has also been proposed as an interchange format for BPMN 1. 1. processes.

Similar to BPMN, EPCs use the same rule symbols to open and close branches in the process flow.

Model the process using Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN).

(Oracle, Manoj Das) The most important aspect of BPMN is the impact it has on process development lifecycle.

The BPMN 2. 0 proposal includes an optional mapping of a BPMN subset to BPEL which is restricted to block-structured flows without cycles.

He is currently the chair of the OASIS BPEL4People technical committee and is the IBM project lead for the BPMN 2. 0 development team.

The links can also be used to show KPIs measured in the jBPM engine on a BPMN level.

We want to share our experience, gain new ideas by discussions, and help BPMN to get adopted the right way.

In fact, more often than not, if [his BPMN users] have already made their BPM runtime decision, it is BPEL.

If we are creating Participants directly from business process elements, it is convenient to use Participant from BPMN element.

As a result, BPDM has a robust abstract metamodel supporting the BPMN modeling concepts.

Addressing this shortcoming will have a positive impact on BPMN adoption in future.

As we saw above, BPMN is good for analysts, but it isn't executable.

By nature, XPDL is graph based, so it fits with BPMN much better.

It also helps provide an introduction to the BPMN editor and tooling.

If BPMN becomes widely supported, as seems possible, it will make people's process design skills portable.

BPMN 2. 0 is notable as a unifying standard for the workflow community.

I do think that for each process language, a BPMN subset can be defined that matches well with that language.

As noted above BPMN 2. 0 will define a specific exchange format and over time we expect the industry to migrate towards it.

(SAP, Ivana Trickovic) BPMN 2. 0 provides capabilities needed for modeling human-user interactions and workflow processes.

Fallacy #2: Business users can easily learn BPMN and use all its features.

Currently, version 2. 0 of BPMN is in the works, with IBM and other vendors working to create the standard.

We described this in more detail in our book and committed an example to the official BPMN example document.

BPMN 2. 0 can be used on three different levels - descriptive, analytical and executable.

This also means we'll need BPMN 2. 0 constructs that are part of the descriptive or level 2 palette.

However, for the uninitiated, can you give a quick overview of BPMN?

In this section we'll give you a brief overview of BPMN.

(IBM, Dave Ings) The draft BPMN 2. 0 specification defines four compliance points.

BPMN 1. 0 defined a standard for modeling business processes and many of the well-defined workflow patterns.

The executable design language for one is BPEL 2. 0 and for the other is BPMN 2. 0 (ported from XPDL).

The notation chosen for the summary can vary, though you should be careful about using BPMN as that may imply precision that is not there.

Now we know the meaning of the individual BPMN 2. 0 constructs let's walk through the full process model.

This is perfectly fine, this is how BPMN should be.

(SAP, Ivana Trickovic) SAP believes that adoption of BPMN 2. 0 is the immediate next goal.

This is exactly why the mapping BPMN to BPEL is hard and has so many limitations.

BPMN has a lot of attributes put in there just for BPEL generation, and these are generally ignored.

XPDL 2. 0 is explicitly designed to fit with BPMN.

Some folks think that BPMN is good enough for IT and it should be good enough for business professionals.

BPMN 2. 0 is also fairly compact, and convenient.

It can also map into Business Process Executable Language for Web Service (BPEL4WS).

(IBM, Dave Ings) In IBM's view there are four key goals for BPMN 2. 0.

She is the SAP project lead for the BPMN 2. 0 development team.

The problem isn't that BPMN, as a notation, is too hard. It is that too many people think that BPM starts and stops with BPMN!

(IBM, Dave Ings) OMG, the Object Management Group, is the standards body that is sponsoring the development of BPMN 2. 0.

BPMN representation of this simple process (which I drew using Bonita's workflow editor) is shown in Figure 1

BPM Suites based on BPMN do provide a more agile implementation style in which business and developers collaborate on process automation

BPMN, Business Process Modeling Notation

o Features such as enhanced BPMN support, enhanced Office integration

Aid Design Method of Operational View based on BPMN

Now, let's look at how a business analyst would create a Job Application business process definition using BPMN