1. Marlon Dumas marlon.dumas ät ut . ee
MTAT Business Process Management (BPM) (for Masters of IT) Lecture 2: Introduction to BPMN
Marlon Dumas
marlon.dumas ät ut . ee

2. How to engage in BPM? Process identification Process discovery (as-is)
Process analysis
Process redesign (to-be)
Process implementation
Process monitoring/controlling
Process Modeling Tools
Process Management Systems

3. Purposes of Process Modeling
Communication, simulation, activity-based costing…
Detailed Models including
Data types, conditions, data mappings, fault handling…
Integration, testing, deployment…

4. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
OMG Standard, supported by many tools:
Bizagi Process Modeller
Signavio (
TIBCO Business Studio (free download, quite large)
IBM Websphere Business Modeler
ARIS
Oracle BPA
Business Process Visual Architect (Visual Paradigm)
Progress Savvion Business Modeller

5. BPMN from miles…
A BPMN process model is a graph consisting of four types of elements (among others):

6. Order Management Process in BPMN First Try
This simple Order Management process is triggered by the reception of a purchase order from a customer. The purchase order has to be checked against the stock re the availability of the product(s) requested. Depending on stock availability the purchase order may be confirmed or rejected. If the purchase order is confirmed, the goods requested are shipped and an invoice is sent to the customer.
In this diagram, plain gateways are used to denote points were the flow of control splits into multiple paths, and point where multiple paths converge into a single one. We can note that the first gateway in this diagram, denotes a point where one among multiple paths needs to be chosen. Meanwhile, the second gateway denotes a point where two distinct paths need to be executed in parallel. Intuitively, it would make sense to distinguish between these two cases, that is, the case where one among many paths is chosen, and the case where multiple parallel paths are taken. In BPMN, this is shown by means of icons in the gateways. An “x” symbol in a gateway with multiple outgoing arcs indicates that one of multiple paths is taken. Such gateways are called exclusive gateways (remember that the “x” stands for exclusive). Meanwhile, a “+” symbol in a gateways with multiple outgoing arcs denotes that multiple parallel paths are executed. So the above diagram should be re-written as shown later…

7. A little bit more on Gateways …
Exclusive Decision / Merge
Indicates locations within a business process where the sequence flow can take two or more alternative paths.
Only one of the paths can be taken.
Depicted by a diamond shape that may contain a marker that is shaped like an “X”.
Parallel Fork / Join
Provide a mechanism to synchronize parallel flow and to create parallel flow.
Depicted by a diamond shape that must contain a marker that is shaped like a plus sign.

8. Revised Order Management Process
It is worth emphasizing here that activities located in two parallel paths do not need to be performed simultaneously. For example, “Send invoice” and “Ship goods” need not occur both at the same time, although due to a cosmic coincidence, they could happen at the same time. Instead, it might happen that first the invoice is sent and later the goods are shipped. Or things may happen in the reverse order.

9. BPMN Exercise: Simplified Insurance Claim Registration
When a claim is received, it is first checked whether the claimant has a valid insurance policy. If not, the claimant is informed that the claim is rejected due to an invalid policy.
Otherwise, the severity of the claim is evaluated. Based on the outcome (simple or complex claims), relevant forms are sent to the claimant. Once the forms are returned, they are checked for completeness.
If the forms are complete, the claim is registered in the Claims Management system and the evaluation of the claim may start. Otherwise, the claimant is asked to update the forms. Upon reception of the updated forms, they are checked again.

10. Process Modelling Viewpoints
Who?
Organization
What?
Function
When?
Process
Which?
Data / Service / Product
The Functional perspective, indicates What tasks/function are happening in the process?
The Control-flow perspective, indicates when should an activity be performed, that is, in what order should activities and events occur?
The resource perspective (also called organisational perspective) indicates Who performs which activity?
Finally, the data perspective indicate which data are necessary to perform each activity and which data are produced by each activity in the process?

11. Organisational Elements in Process Models
Two basic abstractions:
Resource: Human actor or equipment (e.g. printer) that is required to perform an activity
Resource class: Set of resources with shared characteristics, e.g. Clerk, Manager, Insurance Officer
A resource class may be a:
Role (skill, competence, qualification) Classification based on what a resource can do or is expected to do.
Group (department, team, office, organizational unit) Classification based on the organization’s structure.

12. Resource Modelling in BPMN
In BPMN, resource classes are captured using:
Pools – independent organizational entities, e.g.
Customer, Supplier, East-Tallinn Hospital, Tartu Clinic
Lanes – resource classes in the same organizational space and sharing common systems
Sales Department, Marketing Department
Clerk, Manager, Engineer

13. Lanes and Pools – Notation

14. Order Management Process with Pools
The Order Management process now includes the customer as a process participant…
The Order Management process is started when a customer places a purchase order. The purchase order has to be checked against the stock re the availability of the product(s). Depending on stock availability the purchase order may be confirmed or rejected. If the purchase order is confirmed, the goods requested are shipped and an invoice is sent to the customer. The customer makes then makes the payment.
Note that pools can be left partially unspecified.

15. Order Management Process with Lanes
The process now includes two departments within the supplier organization…The purchase order received by the Sales & Distribution department has to be checked against the stock. The order details are sent to the Warehouse department that returns an availability notification. If the purchase order is confirmed, the Warehouse department collects the shipping details from the customer and ships the goods. The Sales & Distribution department sends an invoice to the customer who then makes the payment.

16. BPMN Exercise: Lanes, Pools
Claims Handling process at a car insurer
A customer submits a claim by sending in relevant documentation. The Customer Service department checks the documents for completeness and registers the claim. The Claims Handling department picks up the claim and first checks the insurance policy. Then, an assessment is performed. If the assessment is positive, a garage is phoned to authorise the repairs and the payment is scheduled (in this order). In any case (whether the outcome is positive or negative), an is sent to the customer to notify the outcome.

17. BPMN Information Artifacts
Data Objects are a mechanism to show how data is required or produced by activities.
Are depicted by a rectangle that has its upper-right corner folded over.
Represent input and output of a process activity.
Data stores are containers of data objects that need be persisted beyond the duration of a process instance
Associations are used to link artifacts such as data objects and data stores with flow objects (e.g. activities).
Data Store

18. Order Processing Model with Artifacts
The Purchase Order document serves as an input to the stock availability check. Based on the outcome of this check, the status of document is updated, either to “approved” or “rejected”.
We include here the relevant documents in the process model.

19. BPMN Exercise 3: Artifacts
When a claim related to a major car accident is evaluated, a clerk first retrieves the corresponding car accident report in the Police Reports database. If the report is retrieved, it is attached to the claim file. The claim file and the police report serve as input to a claims handler who calculates an initial claim estimate. Then, an “action plan” is created based on a “checklist”. Based on the action plan and the initial claims estimate, a claims manager negotiates a settlement with the customer. After this negotiation, the claims manager makes a final decision, updates the claim file to record this decision, and sends a letter to the claimant to inform him/her of the decision.
Please depict all relevant documents in the model.

20. BPMN Main Elements - Recap
Connections
Swimlanes
Flow Objects
Artifacts
Data Store

21. BPMN Flow Elements – Recap

22. What’s wrong with this model?X

23. BPMN Gateways Exclusive merge Proceed when one branch has completed
Exclusive (XOR)
Exclusive decision take one branch
Exclusive merge Proceed when one branch has completed
Parallel (AND)
Parallel split take all branches
Parallel join proceed when all incoming branches have completed
Inclusive (OR)
Inclusive decision take one or several branches depending on conditions
Inclusive merge proceed when all active incoming branches have completed

24. Example: OR gateways

25. How can we fix this model?

26. Exercise Model the following fragment using OR gateways:
When a claim is received, it is registered. After registration, the claim is classified leading to two possible outcomes: simple or complex. If the claim is simple, the policy is checked. For complex claims, both the policy and the damage are checked independently.
Check also the self-test quiz available at: