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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. Here is …
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 …