BPM/N

Lunch’n learn#

12/15/2009

# I (Razvan:-) presented these slides at Health Decisions (HD), while I worked there first

as Agile Project Manager/Lead Business Analyst (HD360) and, later, as Business

Transformation Manager (Business Processes and Corporate Training)

I’m interested in#… • learn about putting together flow charts and what all of these silly

icons mean!

• Ideally, the whole team should have these skills at a 101 level

• quick overview of BPMN and modeling a HD business process in

BizAgi (I guess this is our chosen tool)

• walk through some examples showing when you would use the

different types of notations (Gateways, Activities, Data object,

Transactions, events, etc…)

• go over some of the do’s and don’ts

• the basics and best practices

• attend, and then see if it fits into some ideas for management

training

• (re-worded) learn about BPM/N and how it fits in the larger

Business Analysis & Project Management practice

# Referring to interests expressed by the audience, ahead of the Lunch ‘n Learn

In scope…

• Intro to Business Process Management

(BPM)

• Business Process Modeling & Notation

(BPM/N)#

• Some BPMN Examples (PostIt notes

and/or BizAgi)

• Tips and “Best” (Good) Practices

• Applications of BPMN

# Renamed since then as “Business Process Model & Notation”

Out of scope (this time)…

• Details of BPM

• Advanced/complex BPMN

• Overview of the BPMS & BPM/N tools

(except through use of BizAgi)

• Other BPM standards (like BPEL, BAM…)

• BPM and SOA: though, that’d be a

GREAT topic for another discussion!

Intro to BPM: Facts, goals, strategy Some facts:

• Processes are everywhere in a business (often “hidden”), a lot more than we perceive them to be

• Processes are a lot “more” standard than we perceive them to be

• Despite common myths, managing processes increases an organization’s agility

• Better BPM = better business

• From REACTIVE, to PROACTIVE, to PREDICTIVE!!

• Recent CIOs survey:

Implementing BPM = #1 IT strategy

Intro to BPM: Core concepts

BPM as a process (…of processes): – Process (re)Discovery

– Process (re)Design (our focus today!) – Process Execution

– Process Monitoring & Control

– Process (re)Analysis

• Simulation, and What-if scenarios

• Adaptation (loop-back)

– Process (re)Optimization: loop back

• Complex (despite what BPM vendors are saying)!

• Often iterative and incremental

• Almost never sequential

Intro to BPM: Context & Framework

Integration with:

– Business Objectives & Strategy

– Business Rules and Policies

– Operations Management

– Knowledge Management (including document & content management)

– Finance Management

– Time and Schedule Management

– Resource Management

– Risk Management

Predecessors & Related practices (few alive, some lingering, many dead)

• BPR

• WfMC

• Six Sigma

• TQM

• more…

Must be aware of silver-bullet claims, fads

and fashions…

… coming-n-going in repeating cycles

Back to main topic: BPMN

• Core concepts

• Notation

• Examples

• Tips & Best Practices

Business Process Modeling (BPM):

Goals

• Communication & collaboration

(our focus today)

• Feed into other BPM(anagement)

processes

Standards

• BPMN=Business Process Modeling

Notation (1st @ BPMI.ORG, now @ OMG)

• Other BPM standards

– Definition (e.g. XPDL, WfMC…)

– Execution (BPEL)

– Monitoring (BAM)

– more

BPMN: Core concepts

• Process vs. activities

• Process hierarchy

– Activity=Task or Sub-processes

• Process types

– Operations: company’s products/services

– Supporting/infrastructure (e.g. HR, Finance, IT)

– Controlling: setting goals/targets and metrics, monitoring & control…

BMPN: The Notation

Process – Events:

• Start and End

• Intermediate

– Activities • Tasks

• Sub-processes

– Gateways

– Connectors • Sequence flows

• Message flows

• Associations

– Data objects and annotations

+

BPMN Poster

Events • Influence flow:

– Start events

– Intermediate events

– End events

– [R] Interrupting events

• Characteristics: – trigger

• Plain (undefined)

• Conditional (data)

• Timer (time, time-outs)

• Message (receive & send)

• Signal (broadcast)

• Errors/exceptions

• Multiple (complex)

– Outcomes • Activity linked to event

• Attributes & metrics: – Title/name & description

Activity=Task or Sub-process Tasks:

– Atomic • either they happen or they don’t

• … but, interruptible!

– Types: • Manual tasks

• User tasks (with the help of a “device”)

• Automatic tasks

– Single-pass or Looped

– Attributes & metrics: – Title/name & description

– Duration

– Costs

– Risks

– Owner, persons responsible

– Data & Knowledge requirements (indirect)

– Dependencies (indirect, through connections)

A Sub-processes:

- an activity decomposed into lower level activities

Gateways • Flow-diagrams on steroids

• Among the most complex elements of BPMN

• Hence, the “most mis-used” elements in BPMN

Flow elements

• Sequence flows: between tasks and events

– [basic]

– Conditional

– Default

• Message flows: between processes/pools

– White box (to/from tasks/events)

– Black box (between process boundaries)

• Data objects “flow” (not really a flow)

Other elements

• Pools (organizations): – B2B

– Communicating through Message Flows

• Swimlanes (roles w/in organizations): – Communicating through Sequence Flows

• Phases (timeline): – Each process as at least one (declared or implied)

phase

• Groups: – Logical grouping (even across pools), primarily for

clarity and reporting

Examples (using the whiteboard and/or BizAgi)

• Simple cases

• Complex cases

• HD360# examples

# HD360 was the application/toolset that we developed @ HD in 2008-09

Tips & Best Practices: Do+Don’t (1/2)

• Know the process type and your perspective (for modeling): – operations, support, control

… but don’t mix them [though, I don’t 100% agree with this one]

• Use naming conventions for processes and activities: – [object] action + subject

– Example: [Site Coordinator] Enroll(s) Subject

…but don’t overdue it: • Example: Enroll Subject process (or activity)

• Break-down complex processes: – Process \ Sub-process \ Task

– Example: Design Study = Identify clinical data + Design CRFs + …

… but, don’t overdue it: optimal = up to 3 levels (there are exceptions, depending on point-of-view)

• Use gateways the way they were meant to be used: – Know what each gateway does (or, is supposed to do)

– Split-gateways matched by Joint-gateways: unwise shortcuts create ambiguity!

… but don’t abuse it: splitting when no split is required

Tips & Best Practices: Do+Don’t (2/2) • Work agile

– right level (just-enough-details) – especially, not down to technical spec level (not BPM)!

– right time (don’t detail until there’s value in doing that)

• KISS – BPMN (just like UML) is very (quite) complex, but we don’t need

it ALL

– Pick and choose, but be consistent

• Patterns – Take advantage of them

– Implies, becoming familiar with (learn about) them [again, not all – don’t listen to academics!]

• Ask, collaborate

• If you still don’t know where to start…

… make a list of the activities & players (actors)!

Q&A

Summary

• While extremely valuable, BPM is quite a complex

framework (despite what vendors say)

• Modeling is at the root of all other BPM processes

(execution, monitoring & control, analysis, optimization,

etc.)

• BPMN is the most recognized and accepted standard for

modeling business processes

• While (good) modeling of business processes cannot

guarantee success, not modeling them (well) can

guarantee failure

• Managing processes is a critical piece in the

organizational efficiency puzzle

I’m interested in…

• learn about putting together flow charts and what all of these silly

icons mean!

• Ideally, the whole team should have these skills at a 101 level

• quick overview of BPMN and modeling a HD business process in

BizAgi (I guess this is our chosen tool)

• walk through some examples showing when you would use the

different types of notations (Gateways, Activities, Data object,

Transactions, events, etc…)

• go over some of the do’s and don’ts

• the basics and best practices

• attend, and then see if it fits into some ideas for management

training

• (re-worded) learn about BPM/N and how it fits in the larger Business

Analysis & Project Management practice

What’s next?

What would you want it to be?

– …

– …

– …