BPMN Method and Style: A Levels-based Methodology for BPM Process Modeling and Improvement Using BPMN 2.0

Creating business process models that can be shared effectively across the business - and between business and IT - demands more than a digest of BPMN shapes and symbols. It requires a step-by-step methodology for going from a blank page to a complete process diagram. It also requires consistent application of a modeling style, so that the modeler's meaning is clear from the diagram itself. Author Bruce Silver explains not only the meaning and proper usage of the entire BPMN 2.0 palette, but calls out the working subset that you really need to know. He also reveals the hidden assumptions of core concepts left unexplained in the spec, the key to BPMN's deeper meaning.

The book addresses BPMN at three levels, with primary focus on the first two. Level 1, or descriptive BPMN, uses a basic working set of shapes and symbols to meet the needs of business users doing process mapping. Level 2, or analytical BPMN, is aimed at business analysts and architects. It takes advantage of BPMN's expressiveness for detailing event and exception handling, key to analyzing and improving process performance and quality. Level 3, or executable BPMN, is brand new in BPMN 2.0. Here the XML underneath the diagram shapes becomes an executable design can be deployed to a process engine to automate the process. The method and style detailed in the book aligns these three levels, facilitating business-IT collaboration throughout the process lifecycle.

Inside the book you'll find discussions, illustrated with over 100 examples, about:

The questions BPMN asks, and does not ask The meaning of basic concepts like starting and completing, sending and receiving, waiting and listening Subprocesses and hierarchical modeling style The five basic steps in creating Level 1 models Event and exception-handling patterns Branching and merging patterns Level 2 modeling method Elements of BPMN style: element usage and diagram composition

Bruce Silver, well-known BPM industry analyst and consultant, is founder and principal at BPMessentials, the leading provider of BPMN training, and a participant in the BPMN 2.0 development team in OMG. He also writes the popular blog BPMS Watch, which covers the world of BPMN and BPM Suites, and is the author of the BPMS Report series of detailed product evaluations.