Key Points

References

Key Concepts

BPM - Business Process Modeling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Model_and_Notation

Lucidchart diagrams

https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/solutions/it/architects

Has templates, libraries for UML and BPM diagrams

free account for 3 online projects only 

https://app.lucidchart.com/user/145292726#/

jmswt

Enterprise Architecture certification prep course from eacoe.org

BPM diagrams can simplify design models for parties 

BPM diagram basics - examples

m Design#BPMmodelingmethods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Model_and_Notation#Scope

BPM wikipedia

https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/diagrams-for-dummies-a-BPMN-tutorial

BPM tutorial

https://camunda.com/bpmn/

Camuda BPM

https://www.visual-paradigm.com/tutorials/how-to-create-bpmn-diagram/

Visual Paradigm BPM

https://www.google.com/search?q=bpmn+diagram+example&sxsrf=ALeKk00DbfW
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Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a well-known modeling standard to use in business process modeling. It’s often created to aid business process analysis, business process improvement or reengineering. BPMN visualizes business processes from the beginning to the end, showing the sequence of process activities and the information flow between the participants.

sample BPM for an application for leave shows:

• start and end points for the process
• swim lanes for the actors
• process events, actions and decision points ( gateways )
• events used often to model asynchronous processing.
  synchronous processing shown as standard message flows between actions ( or process blocks )
• artifacts produced or consumed by process blocks or actions
• if useful, related data stores can be referenced from the process blocks as input, output or both arrows
• complex processes can be simplified using off page connectors that define related processes

Purpose of BPMN Diagram

BPMN symbols are so simple that they can be understood by everyone, including business analysts who create and improve business processes, technical developers who implement the process changes, business managers who are monitoring changes, and even non-technical people like stakeholders who want to understand how the future process will look like. BPMN is an effective communication tool as it provides a common and simple visual language for specifying business processes, which eliminates miscommunication between the different parties.

Understanding BPMN Diagrams

In BPMN, the processes are described using diagrams with a series of graphic elements. Such a visual presentation makes it easy for users to understand the logic of a process. BPMN has been primarily developed to design and read both simple and complex diagrams of business processes.

For that, the BPMN standard classifies the graphic elements by categories: as a result, the elements are easily recognized by the users who work with business process diagrams.

BPMN symbols

There are five basic categories of BPMN elements. Each of them represents a unique aspect of the business process.

Swimlane

Swimlanes are graphical containers that represent participants of a process. There are two types of swimlanes — pools, and lanes.

Flow Elements

Flow elements are elements that connect to form business workflows. Flow elements are the primary elements that define the behavior of a process.

There are three kinds of flow elements: Events, Activities, and Gateways.

Connecting Objects

Flow objects are not isolated, but rather connected to form a flow. The connectors that connect the flow objects are called connecting objects.

There are four kinds of connecting objects: Sequence flows, message flows, associations and data associations.

Data

Data is mainly information needed or produced when executing a business process.

There are four kinds of data: Data objects, data inputs, data outputs and data stores.

BPMN Notation

Camunda BPMN summary

https://camunda.com/bpmn/reference/

BPMN-symbols-camunda.com-BPMN 20 Symbol Reference.pdf

BPMN Tutorial

Real Life BPMN book excerpt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U7lZ010xqalgxCtmM_CyFvvFBqHyan2q/view?usp=sharing

Covers all the concepts

Defines process models, events, abstractions, interfaces

instead of diagrams DSL models 

• flexible, understandable, extendable, abstractions, interfaces
• groovy expando models with bound property listeners for events
• clarifies dynamic behavior with messaging sequences
• add non-functional features where needed as annotations
• models decisions and gateways as well
• supports RDD with decentralized intelligence
• JEPL supports async, event-driven flows
• processing relations:  composition, association, collaboration
• model actors, objects, resources
• name paths - happy and alternate scenarios
• automate with workflow engine
• automate rules with decision engine
• thoughts on goal, incentive-based dynamic optimizations on:
  • decisions
  • workflow
• more

UML mappings for BPM 

The BPM diagrams are easily consumed by a broader audience than UML diagrams.

The advantage of UML diagrams is the easy mapping to software constructs ( modules, classes ( or actors ), methods and events )

At a simple level, a BPM diagram may:

1. be contained by a subsystem class or the requirements test case
2. the swim lanes map to known actor classes
3. the process blocks or actions map to methods
4. the events map originate from asynchronous event producers in a process and show links to the event listeners ( usually a dotted line ) 
5. the pre-process setup for a BPM would include the registration of the event listeners for an event 
6. the related data sources to the actor classes can be mapped as a request - response collaboration association for independent data sources ( services ) 
   or mapped as a composition for internal state ( with a hidden persistence service assumed )

Potential Value Opportunities

Potential Challenges

Candidate Solutions

JBPM - process workflow toolkit and runtime engine for Java environments

https://www.jbpm.org/

https://docs.jboss.org/jbpm/release/7.45.0.Final/jbpm-docs/html_single/

jBPM is a toolkit for building business applications to help automate business processes and decisions.

jBPM originates from BPM (Business Process Management) but it has evolved to enable users to pick their own path in business automation. It provides various capabilities that simplify and externalize business logic into reusable assets such as cases, processes, decision tables and more.

• Eclipse-based developer tools to support the modeling, testing and debugging of processes

• Remote API to jBPM engine as a service (REST, JMS, Remote Java API)

• Integration with Maven, Spring, OSGi, etc.

can be combined with Drools

jBPM is not just an isolated jBPM engine. Complex business logic can be modeled as a combination of business processes with business rules and complex event processing. jBPM can be combined with the Drools project to support one unified environment that integrates these paradigms where you model your business logic as a combination of processes, rules and events.

Step-by-step guide for Example

sample code block

Recommended Next Steps

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