In this post, I'll provide you with an overview of BPMN, including
What is BPMN?
Benefits of using BPMN
Basic structure of a BPMN model
Comparison of BPMN with UML
1. What is BPMN?
BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) is a widely used business process modeling language for visually describing business processes in an understandable and comprehensive way. BAs often use BPMN to describe a company's operations or broad/complex business flows. Similar to UML, BPMN provides a set of symbols and rules to represent activities, data flows, participants, and other elements within a process.
2. Benefits of Using BPMN
Enhanced Business Understanding: BPMN helps stakeholders in a business, from management to employees, easily understand and discuss processes.
Process Documentation: BPMN offers a rich set of notations to describe complex business processes with multiple steps, data flows, and stakeholders. Therefore, BPMN can describe an entire organization's operations within a single diagram.
Analysis Support: Using BPMN can help BAs and stakeholders identify interaction points in a business model that requires complex collaboration among multiple parties. This allows for easier analysis and pinpointing areas for improvement in interactions.
3. Basic Structure of a BPMN Model
A BPMN model consists of the following components:
Activity:
Represented by a rectangle.
Describes a task or action performed within the process.
Examples: Process order, Send email, Approve request.
Data Flow:
Represented by an arrow.
Shows the movement of data between activities.
Data can be information, documents, materials, etc.
Examples: Customer information, Invoice, Product.
Participant (Actor):
Represented by a human figure or a rectangle.
Describes the parties involved in the process.
Examples: Customer, Employee, System.
Gateway:
Represented by a diamond shape.
Used to control the flow of the process.
There are different types of gateways, such as:
XOR Gateway: Allows only one path to continue.
OR Gateway: Allows multiple paths to continue.
AND Gateway: All paths must be completed before continuing.
Event:
Represented by a circle.
Describes an event that occurs within the process.
Examples: Start process, End process, Receive information.
In addition, the basic BPMN structure includes other elements such as:
Pool: Used to group activities by role or system.
Message Flow: Used to describe the movement of messages between activities.
Artifact: Used to add supplementary information to the model.
4. BPMN vs UML
4.1 Comparison of BPMN and UML
UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a more general-purpose modeling language used to describe various aspects of a software system, including structure, behavior, and interaction.
Comparison table of BPMN and UML:
Tính năng | BPMN | UML |
Purpose | Focuses on describing business processes, emphasizing activity flow, interactions between participants, and related data. | More general purpose, used to describe various aspects of a system, especially focusing on system structure, object behavior, and interactions. |
Specificity | High | Low |
Độ phức tạp | Low | High |
Khả năng mở rộng | Good | Good |
Phổ biến | Widely used in business | Widely used in IT |
Some of you might argue that BPMN is less complex than UML. Let me explain my assessment:
Although BPMN uses many symbols, they are governed by rules and fall within the basic components mentioned in section 4 below: activity, data flow, participant, gateway, and events.
In contrast to BPMN, UML has many different diagram types that use similar shapes but with different meanings. For example, a rectangle in an Activity Diagram represents an activity, while in a Collaboration Diagram, a rectangle represents a role. Typically, BAs only use a small part of UML, mainly behavior diagrams, so you might find UML easier and less complex than BPMN. However, overall, UML is much more complex.
4.2 BPMN vs Activity diagram
In my BA course, I introduce Activity Diagrams (AD) and their variation, Workflow Diagrams, for practical application.
Essentially, both BPMN and AD can be used to describe activity flows. However, due to limitations in its notation, AD struggles to describe complex workflows that involve multiple processes within a business model. Meanwhile, BPMN is fully capable of describing such complex flows (e.g., the entire business process of an enterprise, from procurement and warehousing to sales).
Therefore, AD is often used to describe detailed workflows and activities within a system, while BPMN is more commonly used to describe business processes at various levels and scales.
For example, consider a business dealing with imported goods:
BPMN can be used to document the entire enterprise's workflow.
Meanwhile, when delving into detailed analysis, AD or UML can be used to specify smaller flows like the import process or the sales process.
In conclusion, BPMN is a powerful tool that helps BAs describe, analyze, and improve business processes. Compared to UML, BPMN is more specialized for comprehensive business process modeling. In subsequent posts, I'll delve into the details of BPMN notations with examples to help you better understand this language.
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