Process Master Ltd

  • Decrease font size
  • Default font size
  • Increase font size
Business Process Modeling Notation

Business Process Modeling Notation with ProcessPad

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a key standard for ProcessPad. The BPMN graphics make up a complete process modelling notation to form a Business Process Diagram (BPD).

Process Modeling NotationBPMN allows you to work very simply at a high level or in detail for a full "in-depth" analysis, the level of precision in the diagram depending on the result you want to achieve. A simple diagram can also be enhanced later for a more complete analysis of course.

BPM is in fact bringing together the previously separate areas of Process Modeling, Simulation, Workflow, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), and Business-to-Business (B2B) integration into a single standard. BPMN is a core feature of Business Process Management (BPM).

Why BPMN?

Historically, each vendor provided their own individual notations in their tools and methodologies.
The Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) brought together a consortium of process modeling vendors and consultants to work on a common standard notation and importantly the business user was the target for the standard. Their website is at http://www.bpmi.org/ . The BPMI team consolidated the best ideas from many of the divergent notations on the market into a single notation.

BPMN also includes a key capability: an ability to produce a map from the business-oriented notation to an execution language e.g. BPEL4WS. This creates a new standardized bridge between the business analysis and the IT implementation that was previously handled by ad-hoc methods.

The end users of ProcessPad benefit greatly because the models they develop will be consistent regardless of the process. This greatly aids the communication, collaboration and standardization that ProcessPad offers each customer.

The 'text to mapping' to execution language of ProcessPad provides a bridge that was before handled by Business Analysts directing IT developers  into re-creating process models for input into the appropriate execution tool. Such a manual connection between the business-level model and the IT-level model is error prone and loses traceability between the original requirements and the executed processes. So the possibilities for significant cost savings and efficiencies with ProcessPad look very exciting.

In adopting BPMN as a notation, Process Master developers are bringing their many years of process modeling knowledge into the BPMN arena and allowing both customers and our organization itself to benefit from the opportunities of a standards based platform.

What Is BPMN?

The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a new standard to model business process flows and web services and the first official release to the public was made in May 2004. The notation specification represents more than two years of effort by the BPMI Notation Working Group.

The primary goal of the BPMN standard was to provide a notation that is readily understandable by all business users, from the business user that create the initial drafts of the processes, to the technical developers responsible for implementing the technology and finally, to the Business Process Analyst who will manage and monitor the process improvement.

An equally important goal of BPMN in ProcessPad was to provide an internal model that will enable the generation of XML languages for the execution of business processes e.g. BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services) and BPML (Business Processing Modeling Language). Therefore, the BPMN in ProcessPad creates an important standard bridge between the business process design and process implementation. BPMN was developed with a solid mathematical foundation so that a precise execution language can be produced.

The end result of using BPMN in ProcessPad is a Business Process Diagram (BPD), which shows the flow of activities based on a standard graphical notation. Added on to that is a complete set of documentation that Process Master produces for each process and the XML code it manufacturers for export into almost any (BPM) execution engine – you have the perfect product.

Mapping a BPMN Diagram to Execution Languages

A key goal with BPMN in ProcessPad was to create a bridge from the business-oriented process modeling notation to IT-oriented execution languages. The graphical objects of BPMN, supported by a rich set of object attributes, are readily mappable to our process execution languages which is a defacto standard for process execution.

ProcessPad provides bridges to various execution languages and workflow engines through its unique pluggable architecture as new standards emerge. The aim here it not to be locked in to one standard, but to host any standard, thus delivering exceptional investment protection by making sure that the processes you design today remain relevant in a decades time, no matter what workflow you use.

The Road Ahead

For ProcessPad itself, the plan is to make maintenance versions available, perhaps bi-annually. The goal is also to produce standardized Artifact sets to support vertical and horizontal business markets e.g. insurance, manufacturing, SOX, Basel , HIPPA and finance. In addition, ProcessPad is a good platform for higher-level business modelling which includes, for example, the modeling of business rules and business strategy.
 
[ Back ]