In my BPMN classes I start by highlighting the ways in which it is different from traditional swimlane flowcharts. While the outward similarities ease business user adoption by presenting a familiar appearance, the reasons why BPMN has succeeded as a standard actually stem from all the ways in which it is different from (i.e., better than) flowcharting. And so it is with the Decision Model and Notation, or DMN. The similarities with earlier approaches center mostly around decision tables, a business-familiar tabular format for if-then decision logic that has been around for decades.
By:
Bruce Silver
December 29, 2016
dmn
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In his comment on a recent post, Nick Broom questions my embrace of FEEL, in particular my claim that it is reasonably business-friendly. He worries that in fact that FEEL will prove a barrier to DMN adoption, especially since decision management tools are being sold on the premise that "anyone can do it." A lot to unpack there, but let me try. First, almost no one has any idea of what FEEL is.
By:
Bruce Silver
December 29, 2016
dmn
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In my DMN 1.2 Wishlist post, one of the key items is the ability to represent a single decision node having complex decision logic with a "sub-DRD" equivalent to the boxed context representation allowed under DMN 1.1. In his comment, James Taylor sighs loudly and adds that if I understood the spec better I would realize that what I want can be done already in DMN 1.1. I don't see that, but a picture here is worth 1000 words.
By:
Bruce Silver
December 29, 2016
dmn
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The DMN 1.2 Revision Task Force starts up this week. I have a number of related items in my wish list. Before submitting them to the RTF, I'll use these posts to generate some discussion. My top ones are these: Hierarchical DRD Like a subprocess in BPMN, I'd like a decision node in DRD to be expandable to another DRD, so that a single decision model representing a complex end-to-end business decision may be described as a tree of DRDs.
By:
Bruce Silver
December 29, 2016
dmn
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In my book DMN Method and Style I find some fault with both The Decision Model (TDM) and the Lending example in the DMN 1.1 spec for delegating definition of a multi-step business decision to a BPMN process model instead of to where it rightfully belongs, a DMN decision model. To me, determining something like Is the loan approved or declined? is a single business decision, whether implemented as a single decision service or split into multiple steps.
DMN, which stands for Decision Model and Notation, is a relatively new standard managed by OMG, the organization behind BPMN. It is trying to do for Business Decision Management what BPMN did for Business Process Management a decade ago: empower the business to take charge of the logic that drives its operations, through a vendor-independent diagramming language. To be effective, that language must be both usable by business analysts and stakeholders in the business and verifiable for completeness and consistency.
By:
Bruce Silver
December 29, 2016
dmn
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Yesterday I tried to explain BPMN to those who don't know what it is. OK, they are probably saying, if BPMN is so great, why do I hear these complaints about it? Yes, that's a good question. First, you need to understand exactly who is complaining. If it's a legacy tool vendor wedded to their proprietary ("much better!") notation, well that speaks for itself. Ditto if it's a gray-haired process improvement consultant whose idea of a modern tool is a whiteboard that prints.
itp commerce has just released a new BPMN Method and Style wizard that automatically creates well-structured BPMN from a simple interview. In my BPMN training, the "Method" is the hardest part because it asks students to describe the process top-down and abstractly, as opposed to the bottom-up "what came next?" format of the SME fact-finding. It's especially hard when you're first learning the shapes and symbols, and have all those label-matching style rules to keep in mind, as well.
In a recent post I discussed the utility of allowing the calledElement attribute of a BPMN Call Activity to be an expression that evaluates to a QName (in BPMN's special usage, a prefixed id) rather than a literal QName value. Tom Debevoise asked what that might look like in the XML and I offered something off the top of my head. But on further reflection, I don't think that would work.
I've set up a special Early Bird discount for my BPMessentials BPMN Method and Style Live-Online class April 22-24. The price is $730 - same as the web/on-demand class - and represents a 36% discount from the regular $1145 price. But you need to act fast: the special price expires on March 28. Click here to register. As always, the class includes a 60-day license to the BPMN tool and post-class certification.
