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Introduction
This tutorial introduces business process modeling using the BPMN process modeling standard. This session will show how BPMN can support different methodologies as well as different modeling goals (e.g., orchestration and choreography), using actual business processes as examples. Sample business models will also be presented and explored to illustrate the main concepts and notational conventions. Two short exercises (on paper) will give students the feel of modeling with the major BPMN elements.
Topics
BPMN Background Basic Concepts Exercise #1 Modeling Concepts Orchestration, Choreography, and Workflow Exercise #2 Summary
What is BPMN?
BPMN provides a mechanism to generate an executable Business Process (BPEL) and XPDL from the business level notation
A Business Process developed by a business analyst can be exported to an executable format and directly applied to a BPM engine
BPMN Positioning
Audiences
Business Analysts Process Designers System Architects Software Engineers
Purposes
Modeling
Methodology Agnostic
Methodologies provide guidance as to the purpose and level of detail for modeling
Topics
BPMN Background
Basic Concepts
Exercise #1 Additional Concepts Orchestration, Choreography, and Workflow Exercise #2 Summary
Core set of modeling elements that enable the easy development of simple Business Process Diagrams that will look familiar to most Business Analysts
A Pool is a swimlane and a graphical container for partitioning a set of activities from other Pools A Lane is a sub-partition within a Pool and will extend the whole length of the pool, either vertically or horizontally
Data Objects are not flow objects (I.e., connected through Sequence Flow), but they do provide information about how documents and data objects are used and updated within a Process Text Annotations are a mechanism for a modeler to provide additional information for the reader of a BPMN diagram
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An activity is work that is performed within a business process. An activity can be atomic or non-atomic (compound). The types of activities that are part of a Process Model are Sub-Process and Task. Activities have rounded rectangles and can be performed only once.
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A Task is an atomic activity that is included within a Process. A Task is used when the work in a Process is not broken down to a finer level of Process Model detail There are specialized types of Tasks for sending and receiving, user-based Tasks, service Tasks, etc.
User Task
Markers or icons can be added to Tasks to help visually identify the type of Task. Fill colors can also be added to Tasks
Service Task
Manual Task
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A Sub-Process is a compound activity that is included within a Process. It is compound in that it can be broken down into a finer level of detail (a Process) through a set of sub-activities. Sub-Processes enable hierarchical Process design. For a collapsed version of a Sub-Process, The details of the Sub-Process are not visible in the Diagram. A plus sign in the lower-center of the shape indicates that the activity is a Sub-Process and has a lower-level of detail. For an expanded version of a Sub Process, the details (a Process) are visible within its boundary. There are two types of Sub-Processes: Embedded and Independent (Re-usable).
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An Event is something that happens during the course of a business process. These Events can affect the flow of a Process and usually have a trigger or a result. They can start, interrupt, or end a flow. Events are circles, the type of boundary determines the type of Event.
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Start Events indicate where a Process will begin There are different Triggers that indicate the specific circumstances under which the Process is started
None This is used to mark the start of Sub-processes, or when the start is undefined Message - This is used to communicate between processes Signal This is used to communicate between processes within the same enterprise and have registered to receive the alert Multiple Any one of the Start Event Triggers included in a Multiple Start Event definition will start the the Process
Message
Timer
Rule Link
Signal
Multiple
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Intermediate Events may occur after a Process has been started and before the Process is ended. It indicates where in the Process flow the Event will occur, and if it is a Catch or Throw Event. There are different Triggers that indicate the specific circumstances under which the Intermediate Event will occur and enable the Process flow to continue. If it is a Catch Event, the Event will respond to the Trigger, if it is a Throw the Trigger sends the Event. Multiple Any one of the Intermediate Event Triggers included in a Multiple Start Event definition will start the Process. Intermediate Events can be placed in the normal flow of the Process, or attached to the boundary of an Activity or collapsed Subprocess to indicate departure from the normal flow to exception flow of the Process.
Rule
Link
Signal
Error
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Events that are placed within the process flow represent things that happen during the normal operation of the process. The Event can represent a response to the Event Trigger (i.e. receipt of a message, timer expiration, etc.), and will be in the Catch mode. The Event represents the creation of an Event Trigger (i.e. sending a message, or a signal), when it is a Throw Event.
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Events that are attached to the boundary of an activity (or SubProcess) indicates that the activity (Sub-Process) should be interrupted when the Event is triggered. The interrupted flow pattern can be used for error handling, business exception handling and compensation.
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Message Link
Signal
Error
Cancel
Terminate
Multiple Compensation 19
Exclusive OR
Data-Based
Event-Based
Inclusive OR
Gateways are modeling constructs that are used to define the control points in the process flow where the Sequence Flows converge or diverge. There are different types of Gateways, each supporting a specific control logic; the Gateway types are indicated with a marker in the center of the Gateway symbol. All Gateways both split and join (merge) Sequence Flows. If the process flow does not need to be controlled, then a Gateway is not needed.
Parallel (AND)
Complex
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Exclusive Gateways are decision points within a business process where the Sequence Flow can take two (2) or more alternative paths. Only one of the possible outgoing paths can be taken when the process is performed. Exclusive Gateways can also be used to merge Sequence Flows. There are two (2) types of decision mechanisms supported:
Data (e.g., Condition Expressions) Event (e.g., receipt of a message, timer trigger, or signal)
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Exclusive Choice
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This type of Gateway represents a decision point in the process flow where the decisions on what alternate path to take are based on events that happen at that point in the Process, rather than on condition expressions. The Multiple Intermediate Event is used to identify this Gateway. The Events that follow the Gateway determine the chosen path, the first Event that triggers is selected. Exclusive Choice
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Simple Merge
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Multiple Choice
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Synchronizing Merge
Multiple Choice Gateway
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Parallel Split
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Synchronization
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A Sequence Flow is used to show the order that activities will be performed in a Process.
An Association is used to associate data, information, and artifacts with flow objects.
A Message Flow is used to show the flow of messages Processes that are prepared to send and receive them.
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A Sequence Flow is used to show the order that activities will be performed in a Process. The source and target must be one of the following flow objects: Events, Activities, and Gateways. A Sequence Flow cannot cross a Sub-Process boundary or a Pool boundary.
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A Message Flow is used to show the flow of messages between two Participants of a Process. In BPMN, separate Pools are used to represent the Participants. A Message Flow can connect to the boundary of the Pool or to an object within the Pool. Message Flow are not allowed between objects within a single Pool.
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BPMN uses the concept known as swimlanes to help partition and/organize activities There are two main types of swimlanes: Pool and Lane
Pools represent Participants in an interactive (B2B) Business Process Diagram Lanes represent sub-partitions for the objects within a Pool
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Pools represent Participants in an interactive (B2B) Business Process Diagram A Participant may be a business role (e.g., buyer or seller) or a business entity (e.g., HP or OMG) A Pool may be a black box or may contain a Process Interaction between Pools is handled through Message Flow Sequence Flow cannot cross the boundary of a Pool (i.e., a Process is fully contained within a Pool)
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Artifacts provide the capability to show information beyond the basic flow-chart structure of the Process There are currently three standard Artifacts in BPMN: Data Objects, Groups, and Annotations A tool can extend BPMN by defining new Artifacts such as Document Objects
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Groups are Artifacts that are used to highlight certain sections of a Diagram without adding additional constraints for performance as a Sub-Process would Groups can be used to categorize elements for reporting purposes Groups are not constrained by restrictions of Pools and Lanes
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Topics
BPMN Background
Basic Concepts
Exercise #1 Modeling Concepts Orchestration, Choreography, and Workflow Exercise #2 Summary
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In this exercise you will given a set of short answer questions that cover the basic BPMN elements Some questions will require a written answer and some will require a (simple) drawn answer
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What is the difference between a Task and a Sub- Process? What are the main restrictions for Sequence Flow? How do Associations affect the main flow of a Process? What are the rules for Message Flow connections?
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Why do the different behaviors of the Gateways share the same basic diamond shape? Whats the difference between Exclusive and Inclusive Gateways? Draw the synchronization of two parallel paths.
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Draw a Task with a timeout and the follow-up to the timeout Draw a timed delay in a process
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How can Artifacts be used to enhance the information content of a BPMN diagram? What do Lanes generally represent? And what can they represent? What do Pools represent?
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Draw two ways that data can be output from one Task and then input into another Task.
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Draw two ways that data can be output from one Task and then input into another Task
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Topics
BPMN Background
Basic Concepts
Exercise #1 Modeling Concepts Orchestration, Choreography, and Workflow Exercise #2 Summary
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Processes can be developed hierarchically, with multiple levels through Sub-Processes Sequence Flow cannot cross a Sub-Process boundary Message Flow and Associations can cross SubProcess boundaries
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Orchestration: Workflow, internal processes, private processes contained within one Pool Choreography: Collaboration, global processes, B2B processes
Defined by the interaction between Pools
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Workflow
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BPMN Modeling Concepts Exercises #2, Create a Process for Placing Circuit and Service Orders
In this exercise you will read text descriptive information about a process and will map the process in process modeling tool. The process is a sample circuit service ordering process. This process provides business units within a large organization, with over 2300 branch offices, the ability to place orders (with approved Telco vendors) for the installation of data network services which connects the enterprise to the Internet and/or WAN. For example ordering T3 line from AT&T to be installed at a branch office. In a normal day there are several hundreds of instances of this process created. Concentrate on the basic flow of the Process After the business unit submits the order request, it is then reviewed for automatic approval.
Requests with the appropriate expense and accounts payable(A/P) codes, and installation sites outside the organizations SONET Ring Services are automatically approved and the orders placed with the vendor. The Asset Management group and the Service Delivery Group (responsible for the branch site) are notified. Requests with missing or invalid expense and A/P codes are routed to be reworked to correct the problem and resubmitted. Requests whose installation sites are in the SONET Ring services domain are routed to the Capacity Assessment Group; if there is enough available capacity the request is processed and the circuit is provisioned and the Asset Management Group is notified.
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BPMN Modeling Concepts Exercises #2, Create a Process for Placing Circuit and Service Orders
Once the circuit/service is installed and tested the Order Management Group and Asset Management Group are notified of the order fulfillment, and the circuit/service asset information is sent to the Order Management Group.
The Order Manager assigned to the order validates and confirms the asset information provided by the vendor is correct and consistent with the provisioned service. The Order Manager updates the Order information with the provisioned information and the work is routed to an assigned Asset Manager for verification and update of the Enterprise Asset Management system. The Order Management group notifies the Business Unit Contact to inform them of the installation.
The Order Management Group can cancel an order that has been placed with the vendor (with no penalty) if the cancellation request is within the period the vendors schedule allows.
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BPMN Modeling Concepts Exercises #2, Create a Process for Placing Circuit and Service Orders
[Answer]
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