What is BPMN
BPMN is a widely known and accepted standardized modeling language and method used for Business Process Modeling. BPMN diagram serves as a graphical representation of business processes to be carried out in the course of a project in order to complete the set objectives aimed at producing a service or a product.
What BPMN is used for
The use of BPMN charts is motivated by the desire to increase process speed and performance quality, reduce cycle time and costs on labour and materials as well as by the need to document the requirements for IT projects and put down technical requirements. The main advantage of using this method in Business Analysis and project workflow planning is that it helps model ways to improve efficiency, foresee and envisage possible pitfalls and bottlenecks, account for newly emerging circumstances and, as a result, get a competitive advantage over the business rivals.
Who uses BPMN
The intended users of the BPMN methodology are, surely, the participants and the involved stakeholders of a business project including both tech and non-tech professionals such as business analysts, project managers, developers, external teams and consultants and other people who implement a project. It is often called the “common language” that bridges the gap between the parties and leads them through the project plan from its intention to complete implementation by providing as much detail and clarity as needed. What is more, diagramming being very vivid and sketchy, makes it easier to understand and perceive the presented information than a narrative text. Therefore, communication and collaboration, especially in big teams, becomes smoother and effortless due to BPMN.
How BPMN is done
BPMN schemes may range from simple hand-drawn diagrams to much more sophisticated ones with a number of expandable elements to map a complicated business workflow. The more detail is provided, the more complex the diagram becomes and the more pressing the need is to resort to the assistance of an experienced professional. Since one of the primary goals of this modeling language is to bring in standardization into the process of business modeling, the BPMN diagrams are constructed following a set of strict rules and laws, have distinct structure and can be split into submodels (for example, private, abstract, or collaboration) and types (like choreography, collaboration, conversation) depending on the usage purpose or other factors.
Why choosing BPMN for business projects
Automatization through BPMN execution engines
The most attractive feature of BPMN diagrams is the automatization ability as they are exportable to other software as executable data, translatable into XML files, highly standardized and supported by Object Management Group (OMG) tracking and encouraging the conforming to the standards among the IT community since the release of BPMN 2.0 in 2011. This version of BPMN encompasses a more detailed standard for business process modeling than the previous ones, including a richer set of symbols and notations to describe a wider range of processes and operations. All this allows to increase the efficiency in business process management as well as speed up the workflow, facilitate communication between the business analysts and the stakeholders, cope with change management, reduce time and costs for development. A number of BPMN execution tools have been designed to implement complex projects that engage big teams and face numerous requirement or scope changes. Camunda BPMN Workflow Engine is one of the possible open source solutions able to automate processes related to service orchestration and human task flows expressed in BPMN diagrams. Great visualizations Despite the fact that BPMN opens up a wide range of executable opportunities with the aid of additional software and tools, it is quite commonly used as non-executable visual demonstration of business processes for the sake of better understanding of the current or prospective state of affairs at an enterprise, or in order to get deep insights about the company’s problematic issues. This method of planning a business helps to examine workflow structure, illustrate new ideas, sketch and immediately foresee the consequences and bottlenecks of any suggested changes in the business workflow. The practice of BPMN diagramming comes in handy not only for large-scale enterprises that involve a great number of employees and execute lots of operations, but also for medium and even small-scale companies performing less processes and engaging much smaller teams but still needing wise and professional approach to doing business.
High level of standardization
BPMN is an ISO/IEC 19510:2013 standard and a de-facto standard recognised for Business Process Modeling which is maintained by OMG providing the official criteria for compliance with the BPMN specifications. The BPMN modeling language is simple enough to be time-saving, intuitively comprehensible and clear for any business process participant. It is complex enough to be able to provide plenty of detail and information about the course of action in a business project. Finally, it is based on strict rules and clear-cut notation system to avoid ambiguities and dubious interpretation.
Continuous improvement
The idea standing behind the BPMN methodology is to create a life cycle of continuous improvement including several major stages starting with modeling, moving through implementation and execution to monitoring and approaching optimization and refinement. Therefore, employment of BPMN allows business owners and managers to stay in the know of the current situation, adapt to new circumstances and constantly work on further advancement using smart and proficient methodology.
How BPMN is used at Quintagroup
Project scope outlining
Our business analysts draw BPMN diagrams as an important part of the project planning process and one of the main documents serving as the basis for specifying the technical requirements and other related documentation for the to-be IT solution. It provides all the necessary workflow description and details for implementation, tasks assignments to each team member and setting clear deadlines for completion of each project stage.
BPMN execution
Our Python developers work with Camunda BPMN Workflow Engine to automate executable processes described by the BPMN diagrams, such as delivery of application or service orchestration, dealing with task flows, event handling and many more.
If this information appeals to your business needs and you wish to obtain more information and assistance related to Business Process Modeling and its execution by means of software tools, feel free to contact us via this form.