Process modeling
Process modeling - theory
Definition
What is process modeling?
The description of the sequence of activities executed in a
process from start to end.
Representation: graphical and/or textual
Existing process (AS IS) or new process (TO BE)
Applicable on all kind of environments (production,
administrative, )
Terminology:
Procedure = extensive description of a process.
Flow chart = graphical representation of a process.
= Procesdiagram = flowdiagram = stroomschema =
Work instruction (werkinstructie) = textual description of an
activity.
= SOP: Standard Operating Procedure.
Process modeling - theory
Modeling levels
Level 0-1
Level 2
Level 3
Goal
Overview
Overview - Analysis
Analysis - Manual
Type
Strategical
Tactical
Operational
Board of directors
Head of department;
process owner
Employees
Low
Average
High
Target group
Level of
detail
Level
Terminology
Description
Level 0
Process Map (Enterprise Process Map, Macro
Process Map)
View of the company as a
collection of process domains
FRA: Carte des processus (Carte des macroprocessus)
BEL/HOL: Procesmap
Level 1
Process Domain (Process Area, Main Process)
FRA: Domaine de processus (Zone de processus)
BEL/HOL: Procesdomein
Level 2
Process (Business Process)
FRA: Processus (Processus mtier)
BEL/HOL: Proces, Bedrijfsproces
Level 3
Activity bloc (Sub-process)
FRA: Bloc d'activits (Sous-processus)
BEL/HOL: Activiteitenblok
Level 4
Work instruction
FRA: Instruction de travail
BEL/HOL: Werkinstructie
View of a process domain as a
collection of processes within a
certain area
View of a process as a succession
of activity blocs
View of activity blocs as a
succession of activities
Elaborated description of an
activity as a group of tasks
Process modeling - theory
Modeling levels
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Process A
Activity bloc 1
Activity bloc 2
Activity bloc 3
Activity bloc n
Process B
Process C
Aggregated
Detail
Process modeling in practice
Level 3: activity blocks and activities
1. Define the borders of the process (start and end)
Who is the customer?
What is the input/output?
What are the activity blocs?
2. When elaborating activity blocs into activities, keep the unity of
time-person-place principle in mind.
When a group of tasks is always executed within the same timeframe
(successively, not interrupted), by the same person (or same
function) and in the same place (same work spot), we group those in
one activity.
If one of these three conditions is not fulfilled, we split the steps/tasks
in 2 or more activities.
3. A process model should be visual and shows sequence and
dependency: flow lines go out from the right, in from the left.
Draw the happy flow (main flow) on one line.
Business process modeling
notation
BPMN
Introduction
Definition:
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a
graphical notation to visualize and model processes.
History:
Has been developed by BPMI (Business Process
Management Initiative) as a standard in process modeling.
Start of development: 2002
The BPMN 1.1 OMG Specification, February, 2008.
Business process modeling is used to communicate a
wide variety of information to different audiences.
BPMN is designed to cover many types of modeling and
allows the creation of process segments as well as endto-end business processes, at different levels of fidelity.
BPMN
Use
Full BPMN is best suited for drawing specification level or
technical workflow models in preparation for configuring
an automated workflow facility or business process
management system
A subset of BPMN can be used for business modeling,
this subset is however not yet formally identified!
Used for workflow modeling (level 3)
Level
Also called
Description
Level
0
Process Map, Enterprise
Process Map, Macro Process
Map
View of the company as a collection of
process domains
Level
1
Process Area, Process
Domain, Main Process
View of a process domain as a
collection of processes within a certain
area
Level
2
Business Process, Process
View of a process as a succession of
activity blocs
Level
3
Sub-process, Activity blocs
View of activity blocs as a succession
of activities
Level
4
Work instruction
Elaborated description of an activity
BPMN
Flowchart versus BPMN
Differences/advantages
flowchart notations:
of
BPMN
versus
other
BPMN has several extra symbols which allow to fulfill
easier the customers needs in process modeling.
BPMN allows to represent simple as well as complex
processes and sub-processes in a clear and
unambiguous way, close to reality.
Thanks to the clear symbols, process schemes in BPMN
are easy to read and interpret in a correct way as a
layman in flowcharting.
BPMN
Flowchart versus BPMN
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Modeling of the recruiting of temporary employees:
flowchart
Extra symbols
BPMN
BPMN: easy
modeling of
underlying
processes
BPMN: easy to
understand
Modeling of repeated
activities (loops) is
less complex in
BPMN than the
branching in classic
flowcharting
BPMN
Core set of BPMN elements
The four basic categories of elements are:
Flow objects
Connecting objects
Swimlanes
Artifacts
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Flow object - Events
Overview
An event is something that happens during the course of a
business process. These events affect the flow of the process and
usually have a cause (trigger) or an impact (result).
Events are circles with open centers to allow internal markers to
differentiate different triggers or results.
There are three types of events, based on when they affect the flow:
Start, Intermediate, and End.
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Events
Overview
Start and most Intermediate events have Triggers that define
the cause for the event. There are multiple ways that these
events can be triggered. End events may define a result.
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Events
Start Events
There are many ways that a business process can be started
(instantiated). The Trigger for a Start event is designed to show
the general mechanism that will instantiate that particular
Process. There are six types of Start Events in BPMN: None,
Message, Timer, Rule (Signal and Multiple).
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Events
Intermediate Events
These Event types indicate the different ways that a process
may be interrupted or delayed after it has started. Each type
of Intermediate event will have a different icon placed in the
center of the Intermediate event shape to distinguish one from
another.
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Events
End Events
A BPMN modeler can define the consequence of reaching an End
event. This will be referred to as the End event result.
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Events
In practice
Events can be used in the normal process flow:
They represent things that happen during the process.
Events can also be attached to the boundary of an
activity:
They indicate that the activity should be interrupted when
the Event is triggered.
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Events
In practice
Link Events can be used for Off-Page connectors.
Link Events can be used as Go-To objects.
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Activities
Overview
This symbol can be atomic or non-atomic (compound).
Atomic: Activities
Atomic
Non-atomic & expanded)
Non-atomic:
Sub-processes (collapsed
Both are represented by rounded rectangles.
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Activities
Markers for an activity or sub-process
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Markers
Loops
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Markers
Loops
Until loop in Sub-process:
While loop in Sub-process
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Markers
In practice
Position of the marker:
In the collapsed sub-process the marker is placed next to the +symbol.
In the expanded sub-process the marker is repeated.
The symbol for a collapsed sub-process and also the loop-marker
are frequently used, the other markers are not widespread in use and
can be avoided.
23
Gateways
Overview
A Gateway is used to control the divergence and convergence
of Sequence flow. Thus, it will determine branching, forking,
merging, and joining of paths. Internal markers will indicate the
type of behavior control.
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Gateways
Exclusive gateways (XOR)
Exclusive gateways (Decisions) are locations within a business process
where the Sequence flow can take two or more alternative paths.
The Exclusive decision has two or more outgoing Sequence flow, but
only one of them may be taken during the performance of the
Process. There are two types of Exclusive decisions:
Data-based:
Event-based:
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Gateways
Inclusive gateways (OR)
This Decision represents a branching point where alternatives are
based on conditional expressions contained within outgoing
Sequence flow. However, in this case, the true evaluation of one
condition expression does not exclude the evaluation of other
condition expressions. Since each path is independent, all
combinations of the paths may be taken, from zero to all.
However, it should be designed so that at least one path is taken.
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Gateways
Parallel gateways (AND)
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Parallel gateways provide a mechanism to synchronize parallel
flow and to create parallel flow. These Gateways are not
required to create parallel flow, but they can be used to clarify
the behavior of complex situations where a string of Gateways
are used and parallel flow is required.
In this case you have to
wait for both Activity C and
D to be finished, before
you can start Activity F.
Gateways
In practice
To be clear and understandable, it is recommended to limit the
use of Gateways to these three:
A Gateway controls the process flow, thus if the flow does not
need to be controlled, a Gateway is not needed.
A Gateway splits the process into different flows. It can be
recommended to repeat the Gateway when the different flows
merge, if it is necessary for the understanding.
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Connecting objects
Sequence flows
A Sequence flow is used to show the order that
activities will be performed in a Process.
Regular Sequence Flow:
Default Sequence Flow:
Conditional Sequence Flow: The diamond shape is used
to relate the behavior to a Gateway (also a diamond)
that controls the flow within a Process.
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Connecting objects
Sequence flows: in practice
1.
Sequence Flows only connect Activities, Events and
Gateways.
2.
A Sequence Flow cannot cross a Pool boundary or a
Sub-Process boundary.
3.
Avoid using the Conditional Sequence Flow, but use
one of the 3 frequently used Gateways in
combination with Regular Sequence Flows.
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Connecting objects
Message flows
A Message flow is used to show the flow of messages between
two participants that are prepared to send and receive them. In
BPMN, two separate Pools in the Diagram will represent the two
participants (e.g., business entities or business roles).
Example:
31
Connecting objects
Message flows: in practice
A message Flow can connect to the boundary of the Pool or to an
object within the pool.
Message Flows are not allowed between object within a single pool.
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Connecting objects
Associations
An Association is used to associate information with Flow Objects. Text
and graphical non-Flow Objects can be associated with the Flow Objects.
An Association can be used to associate Artifacts and Activities.
Associations are used to show how data is input to and output from Activities.
Text Annotations can be Associated with objects.
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Swimlanes
Overview
BPMN uses the swimlanes concept to partition and organize
activities.
The two types of swimlanes are:
Pools represent organizations, e.g. your own company, a supplier or
a shipping partner.
Lanes are organizational sub-structures of pools, representing
departments or roles, for instance.
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Swimlanes
Pools: in practice
Pools represent participants in an interactive Business Process
Diagram.
A participant may be a business role (e.g., buyer or seller) or
may a business entity (e.g., MBIUS)
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
( = a Process is fully contained within a Pool)
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Swimlanes
Lanes: in practice
Lanes are used to organise and categorise activities and
represent sub partitions for the objects within a Pool.
They often represent organization roles (e.g. Manager, Associate)
or departments (e.g. Finance, HR), but can represent any desired
Process characteristic.
Sequence Flow can cross
Lane boundaries.
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Artifacts
Overview
37
Artifacts provide the capability to show information
beyond the basic flow-chart structure of the Process.
There are currently three standard Artifacts in BPMN:
Additional Artifacts may be standardized in later versions.
Modelers and Modeling Tools can add new Artifacts to a
diagram.
Specific industries or markets may have their own set of Artifacts.
Their shapes must not conflict with existing shapes.
Artifacts
Text Annotations
Text Annotations are a mechanism for a modeler to provide
additional information for the reader of a Process flow.
Text Annotations can be connected to a specific object on the
flow with an Association.
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Artifacts
Data objects
Data Objects are considered Artifacts because they
do not have any direct effect on the Sequence Flow
or Message Flow of the Process, but they do
provide information about what activities require
to be performed and/or what they produce.
Data Objects are Artifacts that are used
to show how data and documents are
used within a Process.
Data Objects can be used to define
inputs and outputs of activities.
Data Objects can be given a state
that shows how a document may be
changed or updated within the Process.
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Artifacts
Groups
Groups: a grouping of activities that does not affect the
Process Flow. The grouping can be used for
documentation or analysis purposes. Groups can
also be used to identify the activities of a distributed
transaction that is shown across Pools.
Groups are Artifacts that are used to highlight certain
sections of a Diagram without adding additional
constraints for performance as a Sub-Process would.
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BPMN
In practice
In process modeling there is often more than one best
solution. The most important is:
to model according the agreed conventions.
that the process flow is understandable.
that the process flow represents the actual (or future)
process.
You can model in a horizontal direction as well as in a
vertical. If the client has no preferences, we model in a
horizontal direction (for practical reasons).
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BPMN
In practice
Never change the size of the BPMN-symbols.
Use preferably for the Activity name: font Arial - font
size 10pt.
Chose a title for an activity that fits in the symbol,
preferably on maximum 4 lines.
The margins within a symbol can be adjusted, if
necessary.
(for Visio: Format - Text - Text Block: Margins left
& right)
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BPMN
In practice
43
Do not write anything inside an Event or Gateway
symbol.
See next slide.
Comments and remarks can be added through Text
Annotations - font Arial - font size 8pt.
BPMN
In practice
44
The question/rule/choice/condition linked with a Gateway
can be mentioned:
In the Activity preceding the Gateway.
As Text Annotation associated with the Gateway.
On the Sequence Flow preceding the Gateway.
(preferably)
(to be avoided)
The description of the different outputs of a Gateway are
written on the Sequence Flows resulting from the Gateway.
BPMN
In practice
When an activity is executed by different functions at
the same time, do not extend the activity over several
lanes, but use the AND-Gateway to split the flow over
the lanes.
When the convention is to put departments or services
as Lanes, you can add the dimension of rolls or
function by coloring the Activities.
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BPMN in MS VISIO
Using BPMN with MS Visio
Opening the BPMN-stencil
BPMN-stencil is needed to use elements in MS Visio
Get the BPMN-stencil in the directory you store it
File - Shapes - Open Stencil - select BPMN Stencil
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Using BPMN with MS Visio
Getting started
Drag and drop the elements on your Visio document
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Using BPMN with MS Visio
Example
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