Before you start creating the BP model in Intalio…

Bon giorno,

Most people find it difficult to start a business process modeling project with Intalio but when reusing examples. Consequently, I thought it would be useful to give a few hints of what it really takes to start from scratch. Of course, I’ll be as generic as possible and attempt to remain consistent with xPD, and we should address specific needs at some point in the future.

As I said before, the PD or BA is responsible for mapping the BP description by using Intalio Designer. Here, we follow a top-down approach where the specification comes from the business side; it may however remain still applicable for orchestration efforts coming from the IT side.

In order to model a Business Process, the BA should first have a model process, even a draft one. If it is not the case, she/he should create it, but this is a different issue we will talk about in a future entry. I will assume the BA has a list of the tasks that make up the process, and that YOU are the BA. Please, choose a simple process that is mostly sequential; we can add complexity later but the goal now is to understand.

The original model process is just a description. It does not posses several properties that are required to make it executable. So, we must transform this description (“AS-IS”) into the one you will obtain at the end of the modeling project (“TO-BE”) . What is the difference?

• Semantics (symbols used and grammar) of the description language are ad hoc.
• Data is not mapped: there is no way to communicate the context to the different tasks explicitly.
• Actors are often specified but in a physical/real environment, where paper & thick walls isolate roles, and where several specific IT systems/applications must be used.

We will write a new specification with more rigorous semantics by using BPMN. BPMN is a description language produced by consensus of a large community; it is a public standard, so people should be able to understand the BP-model 10 years from now, even in a different geographical area. That’s the good thing of this approach: it does not only facilitate reuse and maintenance, but also makes it possible to integrate the Biz-people onto the initiative.

Finally, before starting translating the description, please check first these points out:

• What is the event that can trigger this process? what makes the organization to launch a process like this?
• What is obtained as result at the end of the process?
• How many (coarse) roles/organizational units participate in the process?

PS: Because you should learn BPMN first; I propose you to download & read the Introduction to BPMN and to refer to websites such as BPM Initiative, BPMN.org, BPM Institute, and BPM Research. I won’t teach BPMN here, @ least not for the basics.

I will just tell you that BPMN diagrams are like flowcharts and that you must recognize only four shapes. Each shape represents a main element in the flow: event (circle) that indicate that something happened, activity (rounded rectangle) that mean some work is done (internally or by an external actor), selector/gateway (diamond) for representing control flow (branch/join), and connection(arrow) that indicate control flow and communication. In addition, the roles are represented by swimlanes (pools and lanes).

Hasta la vista!

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