Business Process Modelling Notation

Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN)  is the notation developed by the Object Management Group/Business Process Management Initiative. I have just updated the following series of posts to bring them into line with BPMN, although you will see that I have added some colour coding: Introduction to drawing workflows Process exercise You can find a key [...]

Introduction to drawing workflows: Afterword

In the previous posts on this topic, I have suggested a definition of “workflow” and we have 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, this does not [...]

Introduction to drawing workflows: Step 4/4

In Step 3 we continued our workflow by adding a status for each stage of the flow as well as the business rule which informed us when to route the work to an HR manager. Now we shall investigate and add any SLAs that may apply to this flow. SLAs can be documented textually or [...]

Introduction to drawing workflows: Step 3/4

In Step 2 we continued our workflow by using connector shapes to show the flow between the different stages of the work. In this step we are going to add a status for each stage of the flow as well as the business rule we noticed we were going to need. Statuses: We place a [...]

Introduction to drawing workflows: Step 2/4

In Step 1 we started drawing our workflow based on what we knew from the high level statements of requirement in the project scope. The next step is to start connecting the dots, the dots being the functionality to be available to the users (remember I am using Use Cases in this example). As I [...]

Introduction to drawing workflows: Step 1/4

In the foreword, I suggested a definition of “workflow” and provided some high level statements of requirement which provided the scope of our leave request workflow. I also said that four of those statements could be investigated either in the form of use cases or user stories. In my example, I have chosen to go [...]

Introduction to drawing workflows: Foreword

A workflow can be described as a repeatable orchestration of activities that affect an identified piece of work (work object), across multiple roles and governed by business rules, beginning with the generation of the work object and ending with the resolution of the work object. I am quite specific in my use of language in [...]