I wrote here already that it’s common for what business considers a business process to become several process pools in BPMN - look at process patterns “internal order” or “incoming processor”. In both examples the “client” process posts a task into DB and process to wait message from the “server” process that the task is completed.

The diagrams are valid but here is the caveat: server should know the client internals - namely the event on the client side. It’s ok if the server deals with a single client but what if not?

» read the rest

Some organization develops and then executes some plans.

1. Anti-pattern: planning and execution in one process

Planning will last until all plan items will be executed - this is no good. » read the rest

It ain’t a classic blog post but rather a rolling-out story. No one knows how it will go neither who is the killer

The reader of this blog Crisitan submitted a comment asking how to model “state machine”-like processes:

Here is my made-up story: we are trying to model and implement a computerized system for handling the lifecycle of some licence obeying the rules below.

The Ministry of Energy of some country issues licences for oil exploration and production to applying oil companies. Oil companies must get a licence before they may legally produce or explore for oil in that country. When companies get a licence from ministry, they are said to own the licence. In order to get the licence, a company must first apply for it via ministry. Any licence application gets reviewed by ministry staff and, if application is approved, it results in the issuance of the licence. A licence has an Issue Date and an Expiry Date. Every time Expiry Date is moved forward, it does so at most one year at a time, but it may be moved forward repeatedly thru the Renew Licence function of the system.

» read the rest

Depicting process interactions with external stakeholders is a standard stumbling block for BPMN newcomers.

A typical example:

Fig.1

There are a whole bunch of errors: » read the rest

Question #1 of BPMN-based process analysis: what are we going to do - Command or Respond?

• Command means using orchestration only, i.e. model within a single BPMN pool.
• Respond means providing handlers for events raised by external entities (clients, partners, government agencies), internal services and/or enterprise software systems.

» read the rest

Basic BPMN Assumptions:

1. All information is stored
2. Organization has a mechanism of tasks assignation and transfer
3. Every task is accompanied by appropriate instruction
4. Every task has standard duration and there is a way to control it

2. Organization Has a Mechanism of Tasks Assignation And Transfer

Time after time students bring diagrams like this to my BPMN training:

» read the rest

Let’s consider a fairly typical business process:

1. Сustomer requests a proposal.
2. We prepare and send the proposal.
3. Customer makes a decision.
4. In a positive case a contract is concluded.

The first version of the process diagram: » read the rest

This pattern is less common than e.g. «Internal Order» yet it’s used quite often - probably once per each two BPMN classes.

Examples:

• Purchase by Tender
• Competitive Hiring

Simplified diagram depicts the essence of the pattern: » read the rest

In the previous post we considered a message from external entity that needs to be processed to determine which process instance it should be routed to. But at least there were no incertainity about which process template (process type) the message corresponds: client requests a credit card from a clerk (credit card issuance process),  CV arrives to Human Resources (enrollment process), payment notification reaches Finance (sales process).

Now let’s consider more complicated case: documents arrive to the company’s post address by traditional mail. They don’t reach process participant’s desk directly but go to the general administration office. » read the rest

Let’s consider the credit card issuance process:

Fig. 1. Credit card issuance with a “passive” task “Issue card”.

Business scenario: after the card is manufactured, the client must come to the bank branch within 45 days and request it. Now look at the task “Issue card”: if the average client comes in for the card after 10 days and the branch issues 100 cards per day then 1000 of these tasks will queue into bank clerk’s task list. » read the rest