I recently received by email a set of questions regarding my BPMN training. Since I get similar requests on a regular basis, I see it might be good if I just posted the answers. 1. Which class or classes do I need to take to achieve your certification? I provide BPMN training through a variety of channels. Right now, the only one that offers certification is BPMessentials, which is a joint venture of Bruce Silver Associates and itp commerce, maker of the Process Modeler for Visio BPMN tool.
I read somewhere that it was possible to chain xslt's together, so I thought it was worth a try to combine the Visio-to-BPMN transform and the BPMN validator into a single operation. And it worked! So now you can do Method and Style validation directly on diagrams created with the BPMN template in Visio Premium 2010. (You can still transform to BPMN 2.0 or XPDL xml if you want.) The updated page is still here.
As promised, here is my first cut at a single list of the rules of BPMN, both the official rules from the spec (prefixed BPMN) and my "method and style" rules (prefixed Style). All are implemented in my Method and Style Validation tool. Note: for now, this list assumes the model includes no event subprocesses. BPMN 0101. All flow objects other than start events, boundary events, and compensating activities must have an incoming sequence flow, if the process level includes any start or end events.
By:
Bruce Silver
September 29, 2010
bpmn
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Last Friday I had a run-through of my upcoming BPMN Method and Style Level 1 workshop. It was a good thing. I got some helpful feedback on the content, and I learned a few tricks of Microsoft Visio 2010 (having the Visio product manager in attendance didn't hurt). It was a little rushed to squeeze all of Level 1 into a 4-hour window, so I am expanding the workshop to 5 hours instead of 4.
If you've been wanting to learn how to add "method and style" to your BPMN modeling but not yet ready for the full BPMessentials training and certification, here's an opportunity for you. On July 20, I'll be conducting a 4-hour BPMN Method and Style Level 1 Workshop in a virtual classroom format, i.e., interactive delivered over the Internet. It will include hands-on exercises using the brand new Microsoft Visio Premium 2010, which includes native BPMN support.
It's safe to say that despite the proliferation of real BPMN tools, the majority of BPMN-like process diagrams that exist in the world have been created in Microsoft Visio. For me, Visio - by itself - was always just a "drawing" tool, not a real modeling tool. Even if you could find a BPMN stencil for Visio - there were a couple for BPMN 1.0, but it got harder to do with stencils as the standard evolved - the tool didn't understand the BPMN semantics, the parent-child diagram relationships.
Thanks to all of you who contacted OMG in support of the BPMN 2.0 conformance classes proposal. Yesterday I received a copy of the following note sent out to Finalization Task Force members: Supporters of the conformance sub-types proposal: SAPERION AG EFG Consulting Ltd Raytheon iG, Brasil DUNA, Spain Statoil ASA Computas AS Visionest Fraunhofer-Institut fr Software- und Systemtechnik ISST "Following the request of Bruce Silver (https://www.methodandstyle.com/2010/03/29/bpmn-tool-interoperability-make-your-voice-heard/#comments) I want to notify that SAPERION (and Signavio, see CC addresses) want to support the interchange of BPMN 2.
If you are a regular reader, or used to be, you've noticed I haven't posted for a while. After a quiet Christmas season, BPMN training has suddenly exploded. I'm living in airports and hotels, it seems. Be careful what you wish for, they say. And how true. Since I had my last virtual classroom training at the end of January, I've done classes at Alcatel-Lucent in Paris (not complaining about that), Raytheon in Tucson, Freddie Mac in Virginia, Alcatel-Lucent again in Dallas (it's not Paris), and I'm heading off soon to Sandia in Albuquerque.
Thanks to all of you who took my BPMN Self-Test. BPMN, today accepted as the universal process modeling standard, is outwardly familiar -- it looks like traditional swimlane flowcharts -- but few people really know how to use it effectively. That's what I try to teach in my book and the BPMessentials training. The self-test examines some of those parts of BPMN that are extremely useful in modeling everyday scenarios but which are not part of the traditional flowcharter's existing knowledge. If you haven't taken the test yet, why don't you do it right now? Just click here. Then come back when you're done and check out the answers. If you have taken it and would like to see my explanation of the answers, read on.
I know many of you are planning to put learning BPMN at the top of your 2010 resolutions list. Well, if you're not, you should be! Travel is hard these days, but you're in luck. I'm going to be offering my BPMN training in a virtual classroom format - live, interactive, delivered over the Internet, starting in January. The first public class will be January 25-28, 2010. That's Monday through Thursday, 4 hours a day.
