In the previous posts on this topic, I have suggested a definition of “workflow” and I built on some high level statements of requirement to draw a visual model of a leave request workflow.
I have broken down the drawing into several steps for the convenience of demonstrating the technique. However, I would expect to complete such a model in a single sitting with a customer.
E-mail notifications
You might have noticed that I made no reference to e-mail notifications on the workflow diagram. This was deliberate because that detail belongs at the lower level of detail of the sub-processes indicated on the diagram.
While you could show where e-mail notifications occur on your workflow diagram, I don’t recommend it, since your diagram would start to get unwieldy and that detail can usefully be captured within the lower level models (e.g., within the details of your use cases, if you are using use cases). What’s more, it would not be BPMB compliant to do so with a diagram at that level of detail.
PRPC
If the solution is to be implemented using Pegasystems’ PRPC you can model your workflow directly in PRPC using Flow Rules. However, because of the nature of Flow Rules, you will not be able to show the entire workflow in a single diagram but rather using a master flow and sub flows on separate diagrams. My opinion is that it is useful to the customer (and, indeed, to the testers) to have a single reference diagram. I feel it is also useful for explaining the workflow any newcomers to the project. However, that is for your project to decide.
Assuming PRPC is being used, even if you decide to draw your single workflow diagram, I would still recommend you have someone familiar with drawing Flow Rules in your workshop, getting a head start on building those Flow Rules as you tease out the workflow on the white board. You will find PRPC’s Direct Capture of Objectives methodology useful here, as such things as candidate use cases and actors can be recorded within the PRPC tool itself.
The Open Management Group’s Business Process Management Initiative website has some useful downloads, such as:
- The BPMN 2.0 specification
- The BPMN 2.0 poster
- BPMN elements key
In a related series of posts, we will take a process from the As Is model, through the To Be model to the workflow.
Kind regards,
Declan Chellar
I have created a slideshow that shows the building of the workflow diagram. You may download this slideshow. I might need to click through to Slideshare in order to see the detail of the slides.
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