The document discusses business process modeling notation (BPMN) which is an OMG standard for visually representing business processes. It provides an overview of BPMN concepts including flow elements, artifacts, pools and lanes. As an example, it shows a basic order management process diagram. The purpose of process modeling is for documentation, analysis, optimization and preparation for automation through workflow systems.

1. Objectives Learn about: Motivation and methods for modeling business processes

2. Basic concepts of OMGs Business Process Modeling Notation

3. Graphical elements of BPMN

4. Examples for applying concepts and notation

5. Module: Intro to modeling of processes

6. SOA Technologies Services as implementation of activities BPMN Model as base for executable BPEL Process Services as partners to define process interaction Services as implementation of activities BPMN Model as base for executable BPEL Process Services as partners to define process interaction Service layers Service layers

7. Purpose of process modeling Understanding Concentration on the core aspects through simplified views Documentation Understandable definition of how processes work (responsibilities, flow of activities, data)

8. Serves as foundation for communication between analyst/ developer and domain expert/user Analysis/optimization Definition/analysis of key figures (processing time, utilized capacity of resources)

9. Identification/optimization of possible shortcomings or bottlenecks Preparation of Business Process (aka “Workflow”) Management Systems Development of Information Systems Business processes as starting point for development of custom software or customization of packaged software

10. Sights of process modeling Modeling processes does not only consist of defining control flow

11. More information like required data, responsible persons, or utilized resources are required

12. “Enriched” models of control and data flow enable process automation

13. Methods of process modeling Methods of process modeling can be subdivided into functional and technical modeling Functional modeling deals with creating business process models

14. Modeling processes without having sophisticated technical IT-skills e.g. using Event-driven Process Chains (EPC), BPMN

15. Technical modeling deals with creating executable processes (aka “workflows”)

16. Refinement and technical implementation of process models

17. Partly BPMN, WS-Business Process Execution Language Vision Bridging the gap between functional and technical modeling ( = further closing the “Business/IT Gap”)

18. Arbitrary process models can be transformed without loss of information or manual changing/adapting process models

19. Module: Intro to BPMN “ This Version of BPMN does provide a non-normative mapping from BPMN to WS-BPEL, but the BPMN-Specification is known to be incomplete with respect to capturing all the required information for WS-BPEL. So mapping is insufficient in any case.” (BPMN Specification)

20. BPMN Overview Business Process Modeling Notation OMG standard, current version 1.2 (2.0 beta release in August 2009)

21. Business Process Diagram as a standardized graphical representation of business processes

22. Further refinement through properties of visual elements Objectives: Simplicity: Elements that are easy to understand by domain (not: IT!) experts

23. Expressiveness: Further elements to describe “real life” processes in detail

24. Bridging the gap between business process design and implementation

25. Supports a basic mapping to BPEL, no automatic transformation from BPMN to BPEL available (even in theory!)

26. Example Process: Order management

27. BPMN Concepts Extended set of gateways and events Possible to model various situations in control/data flow Element-set is subdivided Flow Elements, Artefacts, Swimlanes, Connecting Objects

28. Modeling collaboration is supported

29. B2B interactions can be modeled explicitly Classification of different types of flow Sequence flow representing control flow

30. Message flow for communication between different process participants

31. BPMN Notation Elements Flow objects Main graphical element to define the actual behavior of the business process

32. Events, Activities, Gateways Connecting objects Interconnecting the flow objects or associating other information Pools and swimlanes Grouping the primary modeling elements

33. Pools, Lanes Artifacts Provide additional information about the process

34. Three standardized artifacts ... but more can be added proprietary (Data Object, Group, Annotation)

35. Core Elements Basic Diagram Flow Elements Activity (Task): Function to be performed

36. Event: Occurs in the processing of the process

37. Gateway: to split/merge the control flow (sequence flow)

38. Connector: Define the order of processing of the elements Example:

39. Core Elements Artifacts Association Serves for annotation of artifacts (e.g. text annotation, data objects) to BPMN objects

40. Can be directed or undirected Text Annotation Provides additional information for the reader of a BPMN diagram

41. Association must be undirected directional Non - directional