BPMN Method and Style: A levels-based methodology for BPM process modeling and improvement using BPMN 2.0 [Paperback]

Bruce Silver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

Creating business process models that can be shared effectively across the business - and between business and IT - demands more than a digest of BPMN shapes and symbols. It requires a step-by-step methodology for going from a blank page to a complete process diagram. It also requires consistent application of a modeling style, so that the modeler's meaning is clear from the diagram itself. Author Bruce Silver explains not only the meaning and proper usage of the entire BPMN 2.0 palette, but calls out the working subset that you really need to know. He also reveals the hidden assumptions of core concepts left unexplained in the spec, the key to BPMN's deeper meaning.

The book addresses BPMN at three levels, with primary focus on the first two. Level 1, or descriptive BPMN, uses a basic working set of shapes and symbols to meet the needs of business users doing process mapping. Level 2, or analytical BPMN, is aimed at business analysts and architects. It takes advantage of BPMN's expressiveness for detailing event and exception handling, key to analyzing and improving process performance and quality. Level 3, or executable BPMN, is brand new in BPMN 2.0. Here the XML underneath the diagram shapes becomes an executable design can be deployed to a process engine to automate the process. The method and style detailed in the book aligns these three levels, facilitating business-IT collaboration throughout the process lifecycle.

Inside the book you'll find discussions, illustrated with over 100 examples, about:

The questions BPMN asks, and does not ask The meaning of basic concepts like starting and completing, sending and receiving, waiting and listening Subprocesses and hierarchical modeling style The five basic steps in creating Level 1 models Event and exception-handling patterns Branching and merging patterns Level 2 modeling method Elements of BPMN style: element usage and diagram composition

Editorial Reviews

Review

The first book on BPMN I can enthusiastically recommend! --Paul Harmon, Editor, BPTrends

Review

Bruce's thought leadership can help us think through the common language that brings IT and Business together ...

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Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Cody-Cassidy Press (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982368100
• ISBN-13: 978-0982368107
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce Silver is consultant and educator specializing in business process management (BPM) and the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) standard. He lives with his wife and 3 dogs in Santa Cruz, CA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making a mold hill out of the BPMN 2.0 mountain, October 19, 2009

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S. Paakki (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: BPMN Method and Style: A levels-based methodology for BPM process modeling and improvement using BPMN 2.0 (Paperback)

I recently faced the task of analysing the notational differences between the BPMN 1.0 and 2.0 specifications, along with creating selection criteria for the use of either. Bruce Silver made this readily possible with his concise and well thought out guide to "BPMN Method and Style".

There is a dearth of practical information and academic research on the 2.0 spec at this point in time, compared with the mountainous 500+ page proposed specification. This book delivers a prescriptive approach to the reader detailing how hierarchical models can be created by domain experts, then be expanded upon by a business process analyst and finally enhanced by a workflow developer for potential execution.

In the author's own words, to try and learn BPMN by reading the specification is akin to trying to learn how to write a story by reading a dictionary. The method for starting with a blank page and modelling the "Happy Path", adding exception flows for semantic correctness, and finally creating an executable model in BPMN 2.0 is given with a well structured approach. Where the spec lacks detail or contains ambiguities with how certain notational elements might, or should, be applied; this book steers the reader with advice on developing a consistent style, which could be adopted into one's own modelling conventions.

If you are searching for guidance from the trenches giving detailed advice and concrete examples, from simple to advanced BPMN notational elements and constructs, then this is the first book you should add to your library.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable guide to using BPMN, July 26, 2009

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Aron Wilson (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: BPMN Method and Style: A levels-based methodology for BPM process modeling and improvement using BPMN 2.0 (Paperback)

I would say that anyone who is or will be using BPMN should own this book. Just as Strunk & White's guide for writing became the standard reference, I expect this book to become required reading for those wishing to create effective business process diagrams.
Bruce Silver provides practical guidance for creating usable BPMN diagrams that enable shared understanding between business and technical users. He effectively translates the BPMN spec and workflow pattern theory into clear examples and guidelines. This book is an excellent reference for how to use BPMN consistently, thus ensuring a high return on the time invested in creating process diagrams.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book before ever trying to draw your first BPMN diagram, July 15, 2011

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Alexander Pavlov (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: BPMN Method and Style: A levels-based methodology for BPM process modeling and improvement using BPMN 2.0 (Paperback)

Being a project manager for an open source BPMN 2.0 engine ("Work Token" project) I use only two sources of reference information on BPMN 2.0 - the OMG specification and this book. The specification defines what you may and what you may not do with BPMN. It is like English dictionary and grammar set out in a single book, just a list of available words (BPMN elements, such as tasks, gateways, event nodes) and rules you must stick to when composing sentences (process diagrams) made of these words (elements). In fact, all other books on BPMN I happened to browse through use the same "dictionary and grammar" paradigm, just a narration of the specification. Not that dry, with specific details omitted, but not much to offer over official specification and sample diagrams available at omg.org web site.

The "BPMN Method and Style" is different. It tells how to use BPMN for real world process modeling. How and why. Patterns and anti-patterns. Read this book before ever trying to draw your first BPMN diagram. If already started sketching, better put the drawing aside and do not show it to anybody - the diagram is full of errors. Just read the book, throw the old sketch away and start from a scratch. I do not exaggerate, believe me.

As a programmer I represent the "IT side" of BPMN universe. For most programmers the BPMN notation looks like good old flow charts with some self-evident extras. That's true, the notation is all about flow charts. But as my own experience shows, these "extras" are too far from self-evident and trying to use "programmer common sense", experience and searching the specification for "minor details" results in nothing but embarrassment and frustration.

This book is a lifesaver. My only complaint is the lack of pdf version, as I need to keep the book handy while working from multiple locations.