PROCESS IDENTIFICATION

& DISCOVERY
 THE BPM LIFECYCLE
…design, analyze, execute and monitor business processes…

Process
identification

Focus of this unit Process

Process architecture
architecture

Conformance
Conformance and
and Process As-is
As-is process
process
performance
performance insights
insights discovery model
model

Process
monitoring and Process
controlling analysis

Executable
Executable Insights
Insights on
on
process
process weaknesses
weaknesses and
and
model
model their
their impact
impact

Process Process
implementation To-be
To-be process
process redesign
model
model
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. PROCESS IDENTIFICATION
2. PROCESS DISCOVERY - BASIC TOOLS
3. PROCESS MODELING - BPMN
BPM LIFECYCLE - IDENTIICATION

Process
identification

Process
Process architecture
architecture

Conformance
Conformance and
and Process As-is
As-is process
process
performance insights
performance insights discovery model
model

Process
monitoring and Process
controlling analysis

Executable
Executable Insights
Insights on
on
process
process weaknesses
weaknesses and
and
model
model their
their impact
impact

Process Process
implementation To-be
To-be process
process redesign
model
model
 Process Identification
What?
1. Define an organization’s business processes
2. Establish criteria to prioritize the management of these processes

Why?
3. Understand the organization
4. Maximize value of BPM initiatives

Output: Process Architecture

○ Captures business processes and their scope
○ Serves as a framework for defining priorities and scope of subsequent BPM phases
(e.g. modelling, redesign and automation).
 Process Identification Steps

1. Designation phase
○ Enumerate main processes
○ Determine process scope: boundaries (horizontal and vertical) and interrelationships (order and
hierarchical)

2. Evaluation phase (Process Selection)

Evaluate processes’
○ Alignment with strategic objectives
○ Health (e.g. performance, compliance, sustainability…)
○ Culture & politics
○ Feasibility to being successfully improved
○ Risk of not improving them

After Davenport (1993)

 Process Enumeration

● There is no “number fits all” - it really depends on organization’s domain

and size
“Most businesses have just three core processes:
- Sell stuff
- Deliver stuff
- Making sure you have stuff to sell and deliver”

● Trade-off:
○ ensuring process scope is manageable, since
○ process scope determines potential impact
 Process Scoping

● Processes are interdependent  Insights into interrelations required

○ Horizontal: upstream – downstream processes
○ Vertical: root (a.k.a. main) processes – sub-processes

● Processes change over time

○ identification should be exploratory and iterative
○ improvement opportunities are time-constrained

Process Architecture
Process Architecture
 Architecture: high level picture of an
organization
General Environmental Influences:
Local and global economies, government regulations,
Suppliers & Partners and social trends Customers & Owners

Your Organization information &

Labor people dividends
Shareholders
Markets

requests for new products

Capital capital
Markets marketing Markets
contacts

sales contacts Customers

Customers
orders
Research technology
Community

products & services

delivered
Vendors
materials support requests

competitive products
Competitors
After Rummler and Brache (1990)
“Process” Architecture
Value chains
The US and world economies,
government regulations, and social trends
Suppliers & Partners Customers & Owners
information
Labor people BPT Delivery & dividends
Shareholders
Markets

Southern US and Central

America
Deliver Packages via Air & Ground Individuals &
Businesses that want
Capital capital on site pickup &
Markets delivery

Manage Outsourced Supply Chain Southern US and Central

Operations America
Research technology
Community Businesses that want
to Outsource Delivery
Operations

Finance Supply Chain Operations Businesses that

need transport
Vendors
financing
materials

competitive products
UPS, FedEx. US & Mexican Postal Services
Components of a Process Architecture

Management
Processes

Customers / Owners
Suppliers / Partners

Core Processes

Support Processes
After Porter
 Core, Management and Support Processes
Management processes Sign
provide direction, rules and Contracts
practices
Establish
Sourcing Plan
Evaluate
Vendors
Procedure Vendors
Process

Core processes
Fill Order Process
generate value as they
are directly linked to Receive Approve Deliver
Fill Order
external customers Order Order Order

Reorder
Supplies
Support processes provide
Stock Process Order
resources to be used by other Supplies Supplies
processes
Receive
Supplies
 Process Architecture Example
Television New Zealand

Strategic Management

Marketing Management Process Management

Programming and Scheduling

Sales
Sales

Content
Content

Packaging and Delivery

Facilities People Technology Finance

 Process Architecture Example
WA Water Corporation
 Process Architecture Example:

Wholesaler
Strategic
Management

Logistics Suppliers
Management Management
Warehouse Demand
Management Management
Process
Management processes group

Direct
Sales Distribution
procurement

Marketing Service
Core processes
Indirect
Finance IT HR
procurement
Support processes
 Process Architecture Example
An insurance company
Strategic
Management

Corporate Investor
Development Relations

Management Processes
Risk Assessment Market
and Management Development

Sales and Marketing

Underwriting Policy Claims

Management Servicing Management

Collections and Disbursement

Asset Management
Core Processes
Finance/ Legal/
Reinsurance IT HR
Treasury Audit

Enabling Processes
 Exercise: Identify process types
These groups of processes are typically performed at a university.
Categorize each process group as core, support or management
Sport Indirect
HR Finance
services procurement

Strategic Teaching
Management IT
award courses

IP Management Marketing

Course Additional
Management services mgt
Language Admission
training
Teaching
Market professional
management courses
Solution: Identify process types
 Selected questions for scoping a process

● If Process Architecture already in place: where does the process fit into
the Process Architecture?
● On what level is the unit of analysis, i.e. end-to-end process, procedure or
operation?
● What are the previous/subsequent processes and what are the interfaces
to them?
● What variants does this process have?
● What underlying processes describe elements of this process in more
detail?
 Various techniques to scope a process
● Identify relevant stakeholders and objectives, e.g. via a Stakeholder-
Objectives Matrix
 Various techniques to scope a process
● Identify relevant context, e.g. via a SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process,
Output, Customers) Diagram
 Various techniques to scope a process
● Identify relevant process boundaries, e.g. via a Case/Function Matrix
 Various techniques to scope a process

● Identify relevant guides and enablers, e.g. via an IGEO

(Input/Guides/Enablers/Outputs) Diagram
 Identify Process Stakeholders

○ Process owner, responsible for the effective and efficient operation of

the process being modeled

○ Primary process participants, i.e. those who are directly involved in

the execution of the process under analysis

○ Secondary process participants, i.e. those who are directly

involved in the execution of the preceding or succeeding processes
 Identify Process Objectives
● Primary (hard) process objectives
○ Time, cost, quality (minimise, maximise)
○ Satisfaction, compliance, flexibility, predictability

● Secondary process objectives

○ To purchase goods, to hire new staff members

● Accompany with appropriate process metrics

● Let involved stakeholders define their priorities

 Guidelines to identify horizontal
boundaries

1. Change of flow object in the process

2. Change of multiplicity of flow object in the process
3. Change of transactional state
4. Process contains logical separation in time
5. Process contains logical separation in space
6. Process contains logical separation in other dimension
7. Follow scope in reference model
8. Based on functions/cases covered
 Typical artifacts for vertical scoping
Value chains
Chains of processes. Stay at a high level. Rule of thumb: 3-7 processes
○ Procure-to-service, Risk management

(Root/Main) Processes
Build up value chains and affect each other. They are abstract
○ Lead-to-quote, Quote-to-order, Order-to-cash

Typical focus of Process enumeration

Subprocesses
Build up processes. They are detailed, involve multiple activities and can be layered on different levels of abstraction
(i.e. sub-subprocesses)
○ Order shipment, invoicing

Process tasks
Build up processes and sub-processes. They are atomic and performed by human beings, IT systems or equipment
○ Approve invoice
Process architecture: hierarchical view

Level 1
Process
Landscape

Process hierarchy
Level 2
Main
Processes
(e.g. BPMN)

Level 3+
Subprocesses, Tasks
(e.g. BPMN)
 Example: Process hierarchy
Insurance company Strategic
Management

Level 1 Corporate Investor

Development Relations
Management processes
Risk Assessment & Management
Marketing & Sales Market Development
Underwriting Policy Claims
Management Servicing Management
Payments Collection and Disbursement
Core processes Assets Management
Support processes
Finance/ Legal/ Reinsurance IT HR
Treasury Audit
 Example: process hierarchy
Insurance company

Strategic Corporate Marketing Investor Process

Level 2 Management development development relations group
Define Design & Define offering Plan
business manage and customer investor
concept & corporate policies value proposition relations
long-term vision Manage Build Process
Define pricing subgroup
Develop knowledge investor
Manage strategy
business relations
strategy change & Define and Manage
improvement manage investor
Manage
Manage channel strategy relations
strategic
partners
initiatives Manage Communicate
investments & with
divestments stakeholders
Management processes
 Develop Define offering and Process
businessstrategy customer value proposition subgroup

Insurance company Develop overall Define offering and

mission statement positioning
Example: Evaluate strategic
options
Develop value
proposition
Main
process
Level 3
process Select long-term Validate value
Business strategy proposition
hierarchy Cordinate functional and Develop
operational strategies new branding
Align functional and
operational strategies
Create
organizational design
Develop
organizational goals
Formulate
business unit strategies
Management processes
 Example: process hierarchy
Insurance company
Level 4

Develop overall Main

mission statement process
Define
current business
Formulate Subprocess
mission
Communicate
mission

Management processes
 The Evaluation Phase
1. Importance
○ Which processes have the greatest impact on the organization‘s strategic goals?
2. Dysfunction
○ Which processes are in the deepest trouble?
3. Feasibility
○ Which process is the most susceptible to successful
process management?

Process Portfolio Management

Hammer, Champy (1993)
Evaluation Example
Process Portfolio of an Australian Retailer
Primary Focus
High
F

D E T

Importance (priority)

C G W Z

I K A N

H P U V X

B J Y M R

L O
Low
Poor Good

0 Process Health 4
Evaluation Example
Process Portfolio of a bank

Praeg (2007)
 The Evaluation Phase: Nasty questions

1. Does an assessment of the importance, dysfuncioning and feasibility

always point to the same processes to actively manage?

2. Should all processes that are dysfunctional, of strategic importance and

feasible to manage be subjected to BPM initiatives?
 Pitfalls of Process Identification
● The purpose of the project is not clear enough leading to
inappropriate scoping of the process.

● The scope of the process is too narrow leading to the fact that later
the identified root-causes are located outside the boundaries of the
process under analysis

● The scope of the process is too wide leading to a process

improvement project that has to be compromised in its lack of detail
 Pitfalls of Process Identification
● The process is identified in isolation to other projects due to poor
portfolio management leading to redundancies and inconsistencies
between these projects
● Involved project members and stakeholders have not been
sufficiently informed about the benefits of the project leading to
limited participation
● The involved project members and stakeholders have not been
carefully selected leading to a very limited source of knowledge
● The business process architect has poor facilitation skills and
cannot resolve emerging conflicts between the project members
and stakeholders.
BPM LIFECYCLE - DISCOVERY
Process
Management Processes

Define Vision Develop Strategy Implement Manage Risk

Strategy

identification Core Processes

Procure Procure Market Deliver

Manage
Customer
Materials Products Products Products
Service

Support Processes

Process architecture Manage Personnel

Manage
Information Manage Assets

Conformance and Process As-is process

performance discovery model
insights

Process Process
monitoring analysis

Executable Insights on
process weaknesses and
model their impact

Process Process
implementation To-be process redesign
model
 TOOLS AND DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Design Principle Tool
Eliminating non-value-added activities and General process chart
measuring process improvement
Understanding process flow and its Process flow diagram and analysis
relationship to infrastructure configuration
Understanding workflow Flowcharting, data-flow diagrams, and
IDEF modeling
Balancing flow and capacity Line balancing
Minimizing sequential processing and Case management
handoffs
Processing work based on its characteristics Scheduling
PROCESS
FLOW CHART
 PROCESS DESIGN – FOUR LEVELS OF WORK
• Task—a specific unit of work required to create an
output.

• Activity—a group of tasks (sometimes called a

workstation) needed to create and deliver an
intermediate or final output.

• Process—a group of activities.

• Value chain—a network of processes.

 PROCESS FLOW CHART

Four charts typically used for process flow

analysis:
● The general process chart
● The process flow diagram
● The process activity chart
● The flowchart
 GENERAL PROCESS CHART
 The general process chart summarizes the current process, the redesigned
process, and the expected improvements from the proposed changes
 This chart characterizes the process by describing the number of activities by
category, the amount of time activities in each category take overall, and the
corresponding percentage of the process total.
PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM

 Shows the movement of materials

 The resulting diagram measures process
performance in units of time and distance.
 The focus of an analysis of a process flow
diagram is on excessive and unnecessary
movements
 The most typical application of process flow
diagrams has been the development of
layouts for production facilities
PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM
PROCESS ACTIVITY CHART

 Use symbols to show key activities

 Gain an understanding of the sequence of
activities in the process
 Considers average activity times only
 Ignores the variation associated with the time
to perform each activity
ACTIVITY SYMBOLS
ACTIVITY SYMBOLS
PROCESS ACTIVITY CHART

SUBJECT: Request tool purchase

Dist (ft) Time (min) Symbol Description
lðo D Ñ Write order
¡ðo D Ñ On desk
75 ¡ ð o D Ñ To buyer
¡ðn D Ñ Examine

¡ = Operation; ð = Transport; o = Inspect;

D = Delay; Ñ = Storage
 FLOW CHARTS
 A fundamental tool for designing and redesigning
processes
 Graphically depict activities, typically in a sidelong
arrangement such that they follow the movement of a
job from left to right through the process.
 Help identify loops in a process
 Show alternative paths in the process, decision points,
and parallel activities.
 Convey additional information, going beyond the
sequence of activities and the logical steps in the
process
 FLOW CHARTS
Order waits
for sales rep.
Operator Orders wait Orders
takes phone to be picked wait for No
order. up. supervisor.

Is order
complete
?

Orders are Supervisor

moved to inspects
supervisor’s orders. Yes
in-box.
Order is
fulfilled.
 “Baseline” Time-Function Map
Order Receive
Customer product product

Process
Sales order

Order
Production Wait
control

Product
Order
Plant A Print

Product
WIP
Warehouse Wait Wait Wait

Product
WIP
WIP
Plant B Extrude

WIP
Transport Move Move

12 days 13 days 1 day 4 days 1 day 10 days 1 day 0 day 1 day

52 days
“Target” Time-Function Map
Order Receive
Customer product product

Process
Sales order

Product
Order
Production
control Wait

WIP

Order
Plant Print Extrude

Product
Warehouse Wait

Product
Transport Move

1 day 2 days 1 day 1 day 1 day

6 days
 How to plan and draw a basic flowchart
 Define your purpose and scope
 Identify the tasks in chronological order
 Organize them by type and corresponding shape, such as
process, decision, data, inputs or outputs
 Draw your chart, either sketching by hand or using a
program
 Confirm your flowchart, walking through the steps with
people who participate in the process. Observe the
process to make sure you haven’t missed anything
important to your purpose.
VALUE-STREAM
MAPPING
 VALUE-STREAM MAPPING

The value stream refers to:

 All value-added activities involved in designing, producing, and delivering
goods and services to customers.
 Known as material- and information-flow mapping
 A management method for analyzing the current state and designing a
future state for the series of events that take a product or service from the
beginning of the specific process until it reaches the customer
 VALUE-STREAM MAPPING

Yasuhiro Monden (1994) identifies three types of operations:

● Non-value adding operations (NVA): actions that should be
eliminated, such as waiting.
● Necessary but non-value adding (NNVA): actions that are
wasteful but necessary under current operating procedures
● Value-adding (VA): conversion or processing of raw materials
via manual labor
 VALUE-STREAM MAPPING

Benefits:
● Reducing or eliminating waste can improve your company’s bottom line. As a
bonus, you discover the root cause and the source of the waste.
● Once wasteful handoffs are identified as part of value stream visualizers, your
teams can consciously improve behavior, culture, communication, and
collaboration.
● Teams discard individual opinions and prioritize based on the customer’s
perspective.
 VALUE-STREAM MAPPING
Common pitfalls:
● From the beginning, keep an eye on the return on investment (ROI).
● Involve experienced people from the business side and product side in
conducting value stream mapping.
● Fear and uncertainty are common symptoms when value stream
mapping is conducted, and so the process of identifying waste can be
intense.
● Improving a step here and a step there will rake in savings for sure.
However, it may not directly translate to a bottom line improvement until
a full walkthrough is completed.
● Don’t rush to use professional charts, tools, and symbols right away.
Restaurant Order Posting and Fulfillment Process
Value
Stream Map
for
Restaurant
Order
Posting and
Fulfillment
Process
VALUE-STREAM MAPPING
 VALUE-STREAM MAPPING

Scoping Out Your Value Stream Map

● Step 1: Form a Team to Create the Lean Value Stream Map
● Step 2: The Kaizen Kick-Off – VSM Planning
● Step 3: The Process Family – VSM Planning
● Step 4: Identifying Similarities
● Step 5: Creating the Current State Map – VSM Planning
● Step 6: Start by Creating the Basic VSM Template
● Step 7: Creating the Future State Map
● Step 8: Creating the VSM Draft Plan
 VALUE-STREAM MAPPING
The Kaizen Kick-Off – VSM Planning
At the kaizen event, the team must complete four important steps:
● Determine the process family.
● Draw the current state map.
● Determine and draw the future state map.
● Draft a plan to arrive at the future state.
 VALUE-STREAM MAPPING

When your team is "walking the flow," be sure to gather high-value

information from employees, including:
● Cycle time or processing time
● Changeover time
● Reliability of equipment
● First pass yield
● Quantities
● Number of operators and shifts
● Hard copy information
● Electronic information
● Inventory levels
● Queue or waiting times
VALUE-STREAM MAPPING
VALUE-STREAM MAPPING
 VALUE-STREAM MAPPING

Creating the Future State Map

● What is the takt time?
● Are there bottlenecks or constraints?
● Where can inventory (or queue time) be reduced or
supermarkets used?
● Where can you improve flow?
● What other improvements are required?
SERVICE SYSTEM
MAPS
 SERVICE SYSTEM MAPS

• In service applications, flowcharts generally

highlight the points of contact with the
customer and are often called service
blueprints or service system maps.
• Service system map focuses on customer/provider
interaction
 SERVICE SYSTEM MAPS
 Service system mapping (SSM) is an extension of traditional
flowcharting
 Goals:
 To build shared and consistent perceptions of the customers’ experience with
the entire core process
 To identify all points of contact between the business process and its
customers
 To provide the basis for developing an economic model of the business
 To identify opportunities for improving the effectiveness of the business
process
 To provide a framework for designing business processes
 To aid in pinpointing control points and strategic performance measures
SERVICE SYSTEM MAPS

 Benefits:
 Improved communication
 Market research focus
 Operations design and process management
 Application of information technology
 Critical performance measures focus
 SERVICE SYSTEM MAPS
 The template consists of two main elements:
 Horizontal bands (organize activities in terms of the different
“players” in a process)
 End user or customer band
 Frontline or distribution channel band
 Backroom activity band
 Centralized support or IS band
 Vendor or supplier band
 Process segments (sets of activities that represent a sub-
process; that is, a segment produces a well-defined output
given some input)
SERVICE SYSTEM MAPS
Example of a SSM with horizontal bands.
SERVICE SYSTEM MAPS

Example of a SSM with horizontal bands and process segments.

 SERVICE SYSTEM MAPS
The major steps:
1. Establish boundaries for the service and decide on the level
of detail needed.
2. Identify and determine the sequence of customer and
service actions and interactions. A flowchart can be a useful
tool for this.
3. Develop time estimates for each phase of the process, as
well as time variability.
4. Identify potential failure points and develop a plan to prevent
or minimize them, as well as a plan to respond to service
errors.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
 SERVICE BLUEPRINT

 Three levels of interaction

Level 1: Activities under the control of the customer
Level 2: Interaction between the customer and service
provider
Level 3: Activities performed invisibly to the customer
 Each level has different management issues
SERVICE BLUEPRINT
 SERVICE BLUEPRINT
Personal Greeting Service Diagnosis Perform Service Friendly Close

Level Customer arrives

for service. Customer departs
#1
(3 min)

F
Determine Notify Customer pays bill.
specifics. customer (4 min)
Warm greeting (5 min)
and obtain No and recommend
an alternative
F
service request.
(10 sec) provider.
Standard Can F
Level request. (7min)
service be
#2 (3 min) done and does Notify
Direct customer customer No customer the
to waiting room. approve? car is ready.
(5 min) (3 min)

F F F F
Yes Yes
Perform
Level required work. F Prepare invoice.
#3 (varies) (3 min)
SERVICE BLUEPRINT
 Business Process
Model and Notation
(BPMN)
● BPMN 2.0 is an international standard for business process modeling
● Developed by Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI)
● Supported by numerous tools: bpmn.org lists over 70 tools
● Both for conceptual and executable models
 Components of a modeling language
Process models describe sequences of business activities from start to finish

Modelling Language

Vocabulary

Syntax Semantics Notation

 Components of a modeling language

Modelling Language

Vocabulary

Syntax Semantics Notation

Vocabulary: set of modeling elements of the

language (BPMN: activities, gateways, events…)
 Components of a modeling language

Modelling Language

Vocabulary

Syntax Semantics Notation

Syntax: set of rules to govern how these elements

can be combined (BPMN: start events only have
outgoing sequence flows whereas end events only
have incoming sequence flows).
 Components of a modeling language

Modelling Language

Vocabulary

Syntax Semantics Notation

Semantics: bind these elements, including their textual

descriptions, to a precise meaning (in BPMN: activities
model something actively performed during the
business process, while XOR gateways model
exclusive decisions and simple merging points).
 Components of a modeling language

Modelling Language

Vocabulary

Syntax Semantics Notation

Notation: set of graphical symbols for the visualization

of the elements (in BPMN: labeled rounded boxes to
depict activities and the circles with a thin border to
depict start events).
 BPMN Goal
 The primary goal of BPMN is to provide a notation that is readily
understandable by all business users,
 business analysts that create the initial drafts of the processes,
 technical developers responsible for implementing the
technology that will perform those processes,
 business people who will manage and monitor those processes.
 Thus, BPMN creates a standardized bridge for the gap between the
business process design and process implementation.
 THE HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF BPMN
 The BPMN 1.0 specification was released to the public in May 2004.
 The BPMN 1.1 version was published in January 2008
 The BPMN 1.2 was published in 2010
 Version 2.0 was published in January 2011
 The addition of a Choreography diagram.
 The addition of a Conversation diagram.
 Non-interrupting Events for a Process.
 Event Sub-processes for a Process
 BPMN 2.0.2, released in December 2013
 PROS AND CONS
Pros
 Standard notation
 Model concepts and/or implementation of business process
 Models high-level process concepts
 Notation is not complex
Cons
 Limited complexity
 Process/conversation oriented
 Very high level
 Cannot see details of tasks or data
 BPMN
Based on popular graphical flowcharts:
- Core set of notation elements
- Each core element has various subtypes

A BPMN process model is a graph consisting of four types of core

elements:

start end
activity event gateway sequence
flow
SIMPLE BPMN PROCESS DIAGRAM
 Let’s start modelling…
Order-to-cash
 A typical order-to-cash process is triggered by the receipt of a
purchase order from a customer.
 The purchase order has to be checked against the stock regarding
the availability of the item(s) requested.
 Depending on stock availability the purchase order may be
confirmed or rejected.
 If the purchase order is confirmed, an invoice is emitted and the
goods requested are shipped.
 The process completes by archiving the order or if the order is
rejected.
BPMN core elements

Activities capture work performed in a process

○ Different types of activities

activity

Events represent the process’ triggers (start

event) and outcomes (end event).
○ Different types of events
start end
event event
 A little bit more on events…

A start event triggers a new process instance start

by generating a token that traverses the event
sequence flow (“tokens source”)

An end event signals that a process instance has end

completed with a given outcome by consuming event
a token (“tokens sink”)
BPMN core elements

Gateways capture forking and joining paths in the

control flow.
gateway ○ Different types of gateways

Sequence flows represent the order in which

sequence activities and events will be performed.
flow They can be assigned a condition to distinguish
between alternative branches.
○ Different types of flows
A little more on gateways: XOR Gateway
An XOR Gateway captures decision points (XOR-
split) and points where alternative flows are merged
(XOR-join)
condition

XOR-split  takes one outgoing branch

¬ condition

XOR-join  proceeds when one incoming branch

has completed
A little more on gateways: AND Gateway
An AND Gateway provides a mechanism to
create and synchronize “parallel” flows.

AND-split  takes all outgoing branches

AND-join  proceeds when all incoming

branches have completed
OR Gateway
An OR Gateway provides a mechanism to create
and synchronize n out of m parallel flows.

cond1

OR-split  takes one or more branches

condn
depending on conditions

OR-join  proceeds when all active incoming

branches have completed
 Business Objects in BPMN
A Data Object captures an artifact required (input)
Purchase Invoice
order
or produced (output) by an activity.
Emit ○ Can be physical or electronic
invoice

A Data Store is a place containing data

objects that must be persisted beyond the
Oracle CRM Client info duration of a process instance.

Retrieve client It is used by an activity to store (as output)

information
or retrieve (as input) data objects.
 BPMN Text Annotations
A Text Annotation is a mechanism to provide additional text information to the
model reader
○ Doesn’t affect the flow of tokens through the process

Includes packaging For blocked invoices

Clear vendor
Ship goods
line items
 Resources
Active resources:
○ Process participant
○ Software system
○ Equipment

Resource class:
A group of (active) resources that are interchangeable, e.g. a
role, an organizational unit or the whole organization.
 BPMN Elements – Pools & Lanes
Pool
• Captures a resource class. Generally used to model a business party (e.g. a whole
company)
• A Pool is the graphical representation of a Participant in a Collaboration.
• It also acts as a “swimlane” and a graphical container for partitioning a set of
Activities from other Pools
• Pool MAY have internal details, in the form of the Process that will be executed
• Pool MAY have no internal details, i.e., it can be a "black box."
Pool
 BPMN Elements – Pools & Lanes
Lane
 Captures a resource sub-class within a resource class by partitioning a pool.
 Generally used to model departments (e.g. shipping, finance), internal roles (e.g.
Manager, Associate), software systems (e.g. DBMS, CRM) or equipment (e.g.
Manufacturing plant)
 Lane (Swimlane) is a sub-partition within a Process
 Extend the entire length of the Process
 Lanes are used to organize and categorize Activities

Lane
Pool

Lane
Lane
Lane
 BPMN Elements – Start Message Event
The start message event triggers a process by the receipt of a message
when an incoming message flow is connected to the event

Message

Message
received
 BPMN Elements – Message Flow
A Message Flow represents a flow of information or materials between
two process parties (Pools)
Message

A Message Flow can connect:

• directly to the boundary of a Pool  captures a message to/from that party
• to a specific activity or event within that Pool  captures a message that triggers a
specific activity/event within that party

Pool 2

Pool 2
Receive
Pool 1

Pool 1
Send Receive
Send
 Pools, Lanes and Message Flows: syntax
1. The Sequence Flow cannot cross the boundaries of a Pool
2. Both Sequence Flow and Message Flow can cross the boundaries of Lanes
3. A Message Flow cannot connect two flow elements within the same pool
 When are messages sent or received?
• A Send activity will send the outgoing message upon activity
completion
• A Receive activity won’t start until the incoming message has been
received

Pool 2

Pool 2
Receive
Pool 1

Pool 1
Send Receive
Send

Note: the order of the message flows w.r.t. an activity is irrelevant, the
above rules always hold
 Process (or Orchestration) Diagram
Models a single business party and can be:
Public view (black box)

Auctioning Service
Private view (white box)
Auctioning Service Conduct auction

Send auction Send auction Send auction

creation creation completion
confirmation confirmation notification
Auction
begins
 One more guideline…

● Start modeling with one single “white-box” pool

○ Initially, put the events and tasks in only one pool – the pool of the party
who is running the process
○ Leave all other pools “black-boxed”
○ Once you have modeled this way, and once the process diagram inside the
white-box pool is complete, you can model the details (events and tasks) in
the other pools if that is useful.
 Collaboration Diagram
Models a global business process between at least two business
parties (each modelled by a Pool)
Send delivery
notification
Seller

Send auction Send

Send
Private
creation payment
payment ack.
request details

process
Auction Auction
creation Auction completion
request creation notification
confirmation Goods
Payment sent
Payment
Auctioning Service

details notification
Conduct auction acknowledgement
Delivery
Send auction Send auction Send auction acknowledgement
creation creation completion
confirmation confirmation notification
Auction
begins

Auction
Bid Bid
completion
acknowledgement
notification
Bidder

Public
process
BPMN Main Elements - Recap
Flow Objects Connections

Activity
Message Association
Gateway

Event
Flow

Pools & lanes Artifacts

Pool

Data Data
Object Store
Lane
 Process Modelling Viewpoints
Organization
Who?
Lanes &
Pools
What?
Tasks When?
Events Flows
Gateways

Which?

Data Objects,
Stores
Data / Materials
ADVANCED
PROCESS
MODELING
 ACTIVITIES
● Work that is performed
within a Business Process.
● Activity can be atomic or
non-atomic (compound)
● High-level, so does not
describe the activity detail
(not the job of BPMN)
● Three types: Task, Sub-
process, and Transaction
Process decomposition

An activity in a process can be decomposed into a “sub-process”

Expanded Sub-process

Collapsed
Task
Sub-process

Activities
Use this feature to:
1. Improve understanding by breaking down large models
2. Identify parts that should be:
■ repeated
■ executed multiple times in parallel
■ interrupted, or
■ compensated
 Guidelines: Modeling levels
Use sub-processes when the model becomes too large:
○ Hard to understand
○ Increased error probability

Level 1 – start with value chain

Level 2 – add main decisions and handoffs (lanes)
Level 3+ – add procedural aspects:
○ Parallel gateways
○ Data objects, data stores
○ Exception handling
○ And as much detail as is relevant

Decomposition drivers:
○ Logical: group elements meaningfully (e.g. common business object)
○ Structural: up to 30 nodes (activities, events, gateways)
 Value chain modelling

Chain of (high-level) processes an organization performs in order to

achieve a business goal, e.g. deliver a product or service to the market.
Business
process

“is predecessor
of”
Linking value chains with process models
Process
model for
this process
is available
 Process Reuse
By default, a sub-process is “embedded” into its parent process (i.e. it is stored
within the same file)

In order to maximize reuse, it is possible to “extract” the sub-process and store it

as a separate file in the process model repository

Such a sub-process is called “global” model, and is invoked via a “call” activity

(normal) Call
activity activity
 Sub-processes: Syntax
Sequence flows cannot cross sub-process boundaries
○ Use start/end events

Message flows can cross sub-process boundaries

○ To indicate messages emanating from/incoming into the sub-process

Start with at least one start event

○ If multiple, first occurring will trigger the sub-process

Finish with at least one end event

○ The sub-process will complete once all tokens have reached an end
event. May need an (X)OR-split after sub-process to understand what
end event(s) have been reached
ACTIVITIES
 Block-structured repetition: Loop Activity

BPMN also provides the loop activity construct to allow the repetition of a task or
sub-process
Task Sub-process
Loop Loop
Parallel repetition: Multi-instance activity

Provides a mechanism to indicate that an activity is executed multiple

times concurrently

Multi-Instance Multi-Instance
Task Sub-process

Useful when the same activity needs to be executed for multiple

entities or data items, such as:
○ Request quotes from multiple suppliers
○ Check the availability for each line item in an order separately
○ Send and gather questionnaires from multiple witnesses in the context of an
insurance claim
 Uncontrolled Repetition: Ad-hoc
sub-process
● Contains activities to be executed in arbitrary order and number of times
● May define order of sub-set of activities by sequence flow
● Can be used in an early version of a process diagram Completion
condition
when the order of execution is still unknown
Until all KPIs reviewed
 Activity compensation
● Rollback of completed process activities
● May be used as part of an exception handling procedure

● Triggered by throwing Compensate event

● Compensation Handler (a catching Compensate event + a Compensate

activity) performs the rollback

Compensation
handler

130
 EVENTS HANDLING

In BPMN, events model something instantaneous happening

during the execution of a process

They affect the process flow:

○ Start
○ Intermediate
○ End
BPMN event types

Start Intermediate End

Untyped Event – Indicates that an instance of the

process is created (start) or completed (end),
without specifying the cause for creation/completion Catching

Start Message Event – Indicates that an instance

of the process is created when a message is
received

End Message Event – Indicates that an instance of

the process is completed when a message is sent

Intermediate Message Event – Indicates that an

event is expected to occur during the process. The
event is triggered when a message is received or
sent

132
Comparison with sending/receiving tasks

= Receive
invoice
Invoice
received

Invoice
= Send invoice

sent

Invoice
= Send invoice

sent

≠
Receive
invoice
Invoice
received
 Temporal events
Start Intermediate End

Start Timer Event – Indicates that an instance of the

process is created at certain date(s)/time(s), e.g. start
process at 6pm every Friday

Intermediate Timer Event – Triggered at certain date(s)/

time(s), or after a time interval has elapsed since the
moment the event is ³enabled´ (delay)
Message and timer events

Start Intermediate End

Catching Throwing

Untyped: indicate start point,

state changes or final states.

Message: Receiving and

sending messages.

Timer: Cyclic timer events,

points in time, time spans or
timeouts.
Events handling
START EVENTS
INTERMEDIATE EVENTS
END EVENTS
 Process abortion
Exceptions are events that deviate a process from its “normal” course

The simplest form of exception is to notify that there is an exception

(negative outcome)

This can be done via the Terminate end event: it forces the whole
process to abort (“wipes off” all tokens left behind, if any)
 Exception handling
Handling exceptions often involves stopping a sub-process and performing a special activity

Types of exceptions for an activity (task/sub-process):

Internal: something goes wrong inside an activity, whose

execution must thus be interrupted. Handled with the Error
event

External: something goes wrong outside the process, and the

execution of the current activity must be interrupted. Handled
with the Message event

Timeout: an activity takes too long and must be interrupted.

Handled with the Timer event

All these events are catching intermediate events. They stop the enclosing activity and
start an exception handling routine.
Non-interrupting boundary events
Sometimes we may need to trigger an activity in parallel to
the normal flow, i.e. without interrupting the normal flow.

This can be achieved by using non-interrupting boundary

events

Must be attached to
the activity’s
boundary
143
 Complex Exceptions: Signal event
• To send or receive a signal for synchronization purposes
• A signal is broadcasted without any specific target. Thus it can be
caught multiple times
• Signals are different than messages which are routed to a specific
target

Start Intermediate End

Catching Throwing

Can be attached to the

activity’s boundary
 Event sub-process
To handle events that may not refer to a particular task/ sub-process within a
process
Event Sub-Process

Event
Sub-Process
+

● Placed into a process or subprocess

● Is activated when its start event is triggered
● It may or may not interrupt the parent process or sub-process, depending
on the type of its start event:
○ Non-Interrupting:

○ Interrupting:
Recap: Events
Start Intermediate End

Boundary Non-
Interrupting

Interrupting

Throwing
Boundary
Catching
Untyped: indicate start point,
state changes or final states.

Message: Receiving and

sending messages.

Timer: Cyclic timer events,

points in time, time spans or
timeouts.
Signal: Signalling across
different processes. A signal
can be caught multiple times.

Error: Catching or throwing

named errors.

Compensate: Handling or
triggering compensation.

Terminate: Triggering the

immediate termination of a
process.
146
 Processes and Business Rules
• Business rules implement organizational policies or practices

• Example: in an online shop platinum customers have a 20% discount

for purchases over EUR 250.

• In BPMN, business rules can be captured via:

• Decision activities

• Conditions on outgoing arcs of (X)OR-split

• Conditional events
FLOW
 GATEWAYS

● Gateways are used to control

how Sequence Flows interact
as they converge and diverge
within a Process.
● Capable of consuming or
generating additional tokens.
● Define decisions/branching
(exclusive, inclusive, and
complex), merging, forking, and
joining.
Data-based vs. event-based choices

● In an XOR-split gateway, one branch is chosen based on

expressions evaluated over available data
 Choice is made immediately when the gateway is reached
● Sometimes, the choice must be delayed until something
happens
 Choice is based on a “race between events”
● BPMN distinguishes between:
○ Exclusive decision gateway (XOR-split)
○ Event-based decision gateway
 Racing events: Event-based decision
With the XOR-split gateway, a branch is chosen based on conditions
that evaluate over available data
 The choice can be made immediately after the token arrives
from the incoming flow

Sometimes, the choice must be delayed until an event happens

 The choice is based on a “race” among events

Two types of XOR split:

data-driven event-driven
XOR-split XOR split
CONVERSATIONS
CHOREOGRAPHIES
 Text, Color, Size, and Lines in a Diagram

● The fills that are used for the graphical elements MAY be white or
clear.
● The notation MAY be extended to use other fill colors to suit the
purpose of the modeler or tool
○ The markers for “throwing” Events MUST have a dark fill
○ Participant Bands for Choreography Tasks and Sub-Choreographies that
are not the initiator of the Activity MUST have a light fill.
 Text, Color, Size, and Lines in a Diagram
● Flow objects and markers MAY be of any size that suits the
purposes of the modeler or modeling tool.
● The lines that are used to draw the graphical elements MAY be
black
○ The notation MAY be extended to use other line colors to suit the purpose of
the modeler or tool
○ The notation MAY be extended to use other line styles to suit the purpose of
the modeler or tool with the condition that the line style MUST NOT conflict
with any current BPMN defined line style. Thus, the line styles of Sequence
Flows, Message Flows, and Text Associations MUST NOT be modified or
duplicated
BPMN
Poster

156
Potential notation updates for BPMN 3.0.
Thank You