1. Marlon Dumas University of Tartu firstname.lastname@ut.ee
Business Process Management Lecture 2: Essential Process Modelling in BPMN
Marlon Dumas
University of Tartu

2. Business Process Lifecycle

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

4. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
OMG Standard (nowadays version 2.0)
Both for business-oriented and executable models
Supported by a wide range of tools, e.g.
Bizagi Process Modeller (free)
Signavio ( - SaaS
Oracle BPA – “kind of free”
ARIS – very sophisticated, the opposite of free
Logizian
MS Visio
Paper and pen! - No excuse not to start

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 (XOR-split) / Merge (XOR-join)
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 (AND-split) / Join (AND-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. Beware: Beginner’s Mistake…
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.

10. BPMN Exercise: Simplified Insurance Claim Registration
When a claim is received, we first check if the claimant has a valid insurance policy. If not, the claim is rejected and the claimant is informed.
Otherwise, we assess the severity of the claim. Based on the outcome (simple or complex claim), we send the corresponding form to the claimant.
Once the form is returned, we check it for completeness.
If the form is complete, we register the claim in the Claims Management system and the evaluation of the claim may start.
Otherwise, we ask the claimant to update the form. When we receive the updated forms, we check them again and continue.

11. Guidelines: Naming Conventions
Give a name to every event and task
For tasks: verb followed by business object name and possibly complement
Issue Driver Licence, Renew Licence via Agency
For message events: object + past participle
Invoice received, Claim settled
Avoid generic verbs such as Handle, Record…
Label each XOR-split with a condition
Policy is invalid, Claim is inadmissible

12. Poll: Which model do you prefer?
Este si se puede reestructurar

13. One more guideline… Model in blocks
Pair up each AND-split with an AND-join and each XOR-split with a XOR-join, whenever possible
Exception: sometimes a XOS-split leads to two end events – different outcomes (cf. order management example)

14. Process Modelling Viewpoints
Who?
Organization
Lanes &
Pools
What?
Tasks
Events
When?
Flows
Gateways
Which?
Data / Materials
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?
Data Objects, Stores

15. Organizational Modelling in BPMN
Pools – Independent organizational entities, e.g.
Customer, Supplier, East-Tallinn Hospital, South Eastern Clinic
Lanes – Classes of resources within the same organizational and collaboration space
Sales Department, Marketing Department
Roles: Clerk, Manager, Engineer

16. Running Example with Pools and 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.

17. 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.

18. Data in BPMN
Data Objects: logical data units required, created or modified by activities.
Input and output of a process activity
Data stores: 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

19. Running Example with Data Object
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.

20. BPMN Exercise 3: Artifacts
When a claim related to a major car accident is evaluated, a clerk first retrieves the corresponding car accident report from 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.

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

22. BPMN Flow Elements – Recap

23. What’s wrong with this model?X

24. BPMN Gateways 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

25. Example: OR gateways

26. How can we fix this model?

27. 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: