Introducing BPMN

• It started when the Business Process Management Institute (BPMI, now member of Object Management Group - OMG) developed and XML process execution language called BPML.
• Later, BPML was replaced by BPEL as the target execution language.
• In 2001 the Notation Working Group is formed, consisting of 35 companies and organizations.
• Then in 2004 BPMN 1.0 was released and would be adopted as OMG standard in 2006.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is the new standard to model business process flows and web services.

The first goal of BPMN is to provide a readily understandable notation to all business users. This includes the business analysts that create the initial drafts of the processes to the technical developers responsible for implementing the technology that will perform those processes.

The second, equally important goal is to ensure that BPML and BPEL languages designed for the execution of business processes can be visually expressed with a common notation.
BPMN has become a core enabler for a new initiative in the Enterprise Architecture world – Business Process Management (BPM) which is concerned with managing change to improve business processes.

BPMN Basics
BPMN defines a Business Process Diagram (BPD) by using a flowcharting technique to create a network of graphical objects, which are activities and the flow controls that define their order of performance.
A BPD consists of a set of graphical elements chosen to be distinguishable from each other and to utilize shapes that are familiar to most modelers.
One of the drivers for the development of BPMN is to create a simple mechanism for creating business process models, while at the same time being able to handle the complexity inherent to business processes. The approach taken to handle these two conflicting requirements was to organize the graphical aspects of the notation into specific categories. This provides a small set of notation categories so that the reader of a BPD can easily recognize the basic types of elements and understand the diagram.

The four basic categories of elements are:

• Flow objects
  • Event. An Event is represented by a circle and is something that “happens” during the course of a business process. These Events affect the flow of the process and usually have a cause (trigger) or an impact (result). There are three types of Events, based on when they affect the flow: Start, Intermediate, and End.
    Start events indicate where a process begins.
    Intermediate events occur after a process has been started and before the process is ended.
    End events indicate where the process ends.
  • Activity. An Activity is represented by a rounded-corner rectangle and is a generic term for work that company performs. An Activity can be atomic or nonatomic (compound). The types of Activities are: Task and Sub-Process. The Sub-Process is distinguished by a small plus sign in the bottom center of the shape.
  • Gateway. A Gateway is represented by the familiar diamond shape and is used to control the divergence and convergence of Sequence Flow. Thus, it will determine traditional decisions, as well as the forking, merging, and joining of paths. Internal Markers will indicate the type of behavior control.
• Connecting Objects (The Flow Objects are connected together in a diagram to create the basic skeletal structure of a business process. There are three Connecting Objects that provide this function.)

  

  • Sequence Flow. A Sequence Flow is represented by a solid line with a solid arrowhead and is used to show the order (the sequence) that activities will be performed in a Process.
  • Message Flow. A Message Flow is represented by a dashed line with an open arrowhead and is used to show the flow of messages between two separate Process Participants (business entities or business roles) that send and receive them. In BPMN, two separate Pools in the Diagram will represent the two Participants.
  • Association. An Association is represented by a dotted line with a line arrowhead and is used to associate data, text, and other Artifacts with flow objects. Associations are used to show the inputs and outputs of activities.
• Swimlanes (The concept of swimlanes is a mechanism to organize activities into separate visual categories in order to illustrate different functional capabilities or responsibilities. BPMN supports swimlanes with two main constructs.)

  

  • Pool. A Pool represents a Participant in a Process. It is also acts as a graphical container for partitioning a set of activities from other Pools. Pools are used when the diagram involves two separate business entities or participants and are physically separated in the diagram. The activities within separate Pools are considered self-contained Processes. Thus, the Sequence Flow may not cross the boundary of a Pool. Message Flow is defined as being the mechanism to show the communication between two participants, and, thus, must connect between two Pools (or the objects within the Pools).
  • Lane. A Lane is a sub-partition within a Pool and will extend the entire length of the Pool, either vertically or horizontally. Lanes are used to organize and categorize activities. Lanes are more closely related to the traditional swimlane process modeling methodologies. Lanes are often used to separate the activities associated with a specific company function or role. Sequence Flow may cross the boundaries of Lanes within a Pool, but Message Flow may not be used between Flow Objects in Lanes of the same Pool.
    

• Artifacts (BPMN was designed to allow modelers and modeling tools some flexibility in extending the basic notation and in providing the ability to additional context appropriate to a specific modeling situation, such as for a vertical market (e.g., insurance or banking). Any number of Artifacts can be added to a diagram as appropriate for the context of the business processes being modeled. The current version of the BPMN specification pre-defines only three types of BPD Artifacts.)
  • Data Object. Data Objects are a mechanism to show how data is required or produced by activities. They are connected to activities through Associations.
  • Group. A Group is represented by a rounded corner rectangle drawn with a dashed line The grouping can be used for documentation or analysis purposes, but does not affect the Sequence Flow.
  • Annotation. Annotations are a mechanism for a modeler to provide additional text information for the reader of a BPMN Diagram.

BPMN Modeling Guideline

• Chronological approach – process models should be oriented on a time line
• Processes generally begin with triggering events and flow through to significant business results
• All tasks or activities are assigned to roles that are meaningful to people in the business
• A complete model should display how objects or data (or both) are transferred and where they are going
• A process can be modeled in a hierarchical fashion (e.g., with Sub-Processes)
• Establish organization standards or guidelines for developing models and naming model elements
• Establish standards for versioning methods associated at the process model and artifact level to provide requirement traceability

These general guidelines help the people who are reading a process diagram to quickly and correctly understand who is doing what and when.

Final Word

Modeling with BPMN is essential to understanding and communicating business processes across the enterprise. BPMN provides a powerful augmentation to other modeling techniques such as relational data modeling, application and system design with UML, XML schema design, and network architecture design. These modeling techniques enable a firm to understand and design its enterprise architecture, which enables it to react to change quicker, and in a safer manner.

You can find below my sources of inspiration for this article:

www.bpmi.org
www.bpmn.org