BPMN

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Draft

Introduction

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a workflow. Business process modeling is an important part of enterprise architecture modeling. BPMN 1.0 was developed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) and then was/is further developed by the Object Management Group (OMG).

In this article we provide a very overview plus links and references. See BPMN 1.2 tutorial and BPMN 2 tutorial for more detailed information.

“The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) specification provides a graphical notation for specifying business processes in a Business Process Diagram (BPD). The objective of BPMN is to support business process management for both technical users and business users by providing a notation that is intuitive to business users yet able to represent complex process semantics. The BPMN specification also provides a mapping between the graphics of the notation to the underlying constructs of execution languages, particularly BPEL4WS. (Business Process Modeling Notation, Wikipedia, retrieved jan 6 2009).”

“PEL is an XML-based language for describing a business process in which most of the tasks represent interactions between the process and external Web services. The BPEL process itself is represented as a Web service, and is realized by a BPEL engine which executes the process description. BPMN is a standard set of diagramming conventions for describing business processes. It is designed to visualize a rich set of process flow semantics within a process and the communication between independent processes. It is intended to support capture of sufficient detail to allow it to be the source of an executable process description. Since BPEL is currently considered the most important standard for execution languages, a translation to BPEL is specified in the BPMN standard. By design there are some limitations on the process topologies that can be described in BPEL, so it is possible to represent processes in BPMN that cannot be mapped to BPEL.” (FAQ, retrieved 17:30, 22 June 2010 (UTC))

BPMN diagrams can be See also the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), an executable XML language for business processes. Most BPMN tools, in particular BPMN 2.0 versions, can compile drawings into executable BPEL and other XML formats in addition. It seems that while a BPEL process can be represented using BPMN, some BPMN models cannot be represented using BPEL. An alternative to BPEL is XPDL (XML Process Definition Language) developed by the Workflow Management Coalition.

See also:

History and versions

Timeline
  • BPMN 2.0 Beta 1 (summer 2010)
  • BPMN 1.2: January 2009
  • BPMN 2.0 RFP: Request for Proposals for version 2.0 of BPMN (2008,-)
  • BPMN 1.1: OMG Specification, February, 2008
  • BPMN 1.0: OMG Final Adopted Specification, February 6, 2006
  • BPMN 1.0: May 3, 2004 Draft Specification
BPMN 1.x

The BPMN 1.x specification defines the notation and semantics of a Business Process Diagram language. This version does not specify any underlying (serialization) format.

The differences between BPMN 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 are relatively minor.

  • BPMN codified the notation language
  • BPMN 1.1 includes an informal mapping to BPEL, i.e. the BPEL4WS 1.1 version
  • BPMN 1.2 did some cleanup

See BPMN 1.2 tutorial (in progress as of July 2010)

BPMN 2.0

The (future) BPMN version (in beta as of 2010) adds other modeling elements plus a layered specification. In addition, it provides a formal serialization format. We couldn't find any ETA for the final version, i.e. the final release can be month or years away. However, some companies already offer partial implementations .... - Daniel K. Schneider 11:52, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

See BPMN 2 tutorial (stub)

Tools

There seem to exist some free tools (none tested so far)

Free (totally or somewhat)
  • Intalio|BPMS, claimed to be the world's most widely deployed Business Process Management System (BPMS). Designed around the open source Eclipse BPMN Modeler, Apache ODE BPEL engine, and Tempo. The free community edition runs under a TomCat server (Windows and Red Hat officially supported) and either Derby or MySQL enterprise server. The software includes a BPMN designer, a BPEL server and WS-Human Task Service.
  • Oryx, (Signavio) a project to create BPMN 2.0 diagrams, EPCs or Petri nets online. Free for academics.
  • OMII-BPEL, Modelling, monitoring, executing scientific workflows with BPEL. (We did not manage to install this, didn't find any installation instructions either ....)
  • Jadex process. LGPL licence. “The Jadex Processes project provides modelling and execution facilities for workflows. Main focus is on graphical forms of process representation (e.g. the Business Process Modelling Notation - BPMN) and direct execution of modelled processes (i.e. without prior code generation).” ([1]). This is part of a larger project. Jadex is a Belief Desire Intention (BDI) reasoning engine that allows for programming intelligent software agents in XML and Java.
  • Bizagi Process Modeler. Closed source freeware for BPMN 1.x (?). Runs under Windows and requires .NET framework 2.0 (free) plus Visio 2003 or better for exporting features. In addition, academics can get a free version of the BizAgi BPM Suite, i.e. a server that can run a model. Documentation is good, see e.g. My first process.
  • Sketchpad BPMN is a tool for drawing and editing BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) diagrams. Sketchpad process models are serialized and stored as XPDL 2.1 files. Sketchpad was originally developed by Global 360 as Process Modeler Analyst Edition. (not tested)
Free web 2.0 (online) tools
  • Gliffy supports BPMN (version ?)
Commercial (not complete since edutechwiki is not about BPM ...)
  • Intalo BPM, includes the interesting Social BPM that combines the BPM design tool with a social portal building framework. Very cool, has the potential for use in education to implement learning design/web 2.0 combos.

This list is by no means complete, See also full versions of some freeware above (typically an execution engine) and the following links:

Other tools
  • BPMN 1.1 stencils for Visio and OmniGraffle by Frank Puhlmann and Alexander Großkopf.

Bibliography and links

Links

Overviews
Standards
  • BPMN 1.1 OMG Specification, February, 2008 (PDF 3,372K)
  • BPMN 1.0, OMG Final Adopted Specification, February 6, 2006 (PDF 2,968K)
  • BPEL 2.0 (the principal format PBMN can export to)
Official BPMN Web sites
Other BPM web sites
Posters and cheat sheets
Introductions/tutorials BPMN 1.x
Introductions/tutorials BPMN 2.x
Comparisons
Examples

Bibliography

  • Debevoise, Tom and Rick Geneva (2008). The Microguide to Process Modeling in BPMN, BookSurge Publishing, ISBN 1419693107 (alternatively, read the free spec or free tutorials, see above).
  • Grosskopf, A., Gero Decker, and Mathias Weske (2009). The process : business process modeling using BPMN. Tampa Fla.: Meghan-Kiffer Press. ISBN 0929652266 (high level overview/ easy to read according to reviewers). See also the book's website and the first author's home page
  • Rojo, Marcial García; Elvira Rolón, Luis Calahorra, Felix Óscar García, Rosario Paloma Sánchez, Francisco Ruiz, Nieves Ballester, María Armenteros, Teresa Rodríguez, and Rafael Martín Espartero (2008). Implementation of the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) in the modelling of anatomic pathology processes, Diagnostic Pathology, 3 (Suppl 1) p22. 10.1186/1746-1596-3-S1-S22.
  • White, Stephen A. (2004). Mapping BPMN to BPEL Example, IBM PDF
  • White, Stephen & Derek Miers (2009 ??). BPMN Modeling and Reference Guide Understanding and Using BPMN, Lighthouse Pt, FL: Future Strategies Inc., ISBN-13: 978-0977752720
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