My luck with publishing for Kindle has not been good. Most of my books' negative comments on Amazon are specific to Kindle issues, but since the paper and Kindle versions are linked, it reflects badly on the books overall. My first book BPMN Method and Style tried to use the original Kindle reflowable format. Even though I spent dozens of hours trying to make the graphics look good, the Kindle format itself rendered them at too low a resolution to be useful.
Last week I presented a webinar on BPMN Modeling with Method and Style that explains what it's all about. You can see the recording by clicking here. Or click here to download the slides.
My new book BPMN Quick and Easy is now available in the Kindle Textbook format. Kindle Textbook is a pdf-based (non-reflowable) format that preserves the graphics quality. It runs on Kindle for PC, tablets, and phones, but not on really old Kindle hardware. If you purchase the paperback you can get the Kindle format for something like $2.99. BPMN Quick and Easy provides a streamlined "mechanical" approach to creating Good BPMN out of the chaos of your stakeholder workshops and interviews.
Today my new book BPMN Quick and Easy Using Method and Style was published. You can get it on Amazon, and a Kindle Textbook version should follow next week. Where BPMN Method and Style 2nd Edition was a comprehensive reference, the new book is slimmed down, focusing on just the elements today's process modelers need to know. Based on the experience of delivering Method and Style training to thousands of students, it simplifies the BPMN vocabulary, methodology, and the style rules.
People sometimes ask me, what is Method and Style? For a quick marketing answer, you can watch this Ignite video. But if you want a concrete example, read on... Method and Style is a systematic approach to creating what I call "good BPMN"... not simply correct according to the spec, but models that fulfill BPMN's real mission, which is communicating the process logic visually, so that it is understood clearly and completely by those who don't already know how the process works.
I am happy to announce a new version of BPMN Method and Style training and certification using the Trisotech BPMN Modeler. I have offered live and live/online BPMN training for many years using itp commerce's Visio add-in and Signavio, but the effort to create web/on-demand training has always been limited this format to a single tool, itp commerce. Now we can offer a new world-class cloud/browser-based alternative for web/on-demand BPMN training.
It's hard to believe I've been doing BPMN Method and Style training for 10 years. With the introduction of a major new version from one of my tool providers, and plans to bring on another tool, I'm now at work on the 7th - and hopefully last - version of the training content. And it is causing me to reflect on how BPMN 2.0 is actually used today, as opposed to the notions of its creators back in 2009, and what that means for BPMN training.
With the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard, the Object Management Group (OMG) is hoping to replicate its signature success story, BPMN. Unlike most OMG standards, both BPMN and DMN are purportedly aimed at business users rather than developers and architects. Business users are notoriously averse to standards, so BPMN’s achievement of high business user adoption is surprising. Naturally, that success has spawned legions of critics as well, who say it’s too complicated for business users, too many icons and symbols, too many rules for what’s correct and incorrect.
[Originally posted on IT|Redux]
This is my latest BPMS Watch column on BPM Institute.
One of the fundamental promises of BPMS was supposed to be improved business-IT alignment through model-driven implementation. We?re headed in the right direction but the tools and standards don?t completely support it yet. In preparation for the upcoming 2006 BPM Think Tank, a gathering of BPM poo-bahs contemplating the next round of process standards, I have a modest proposal for review.
The current issue of Business Integration Journal has an interesting piece from Oracle about my favorite topic, how to keep process models (e.g. BPMN) and their BPMS implementations (e.g. BPEL) in sync, what we call the round-tripping problem. I've repeatedly expressed my view that if BPM 2.0 is going to deliver real benefit over what we have today, this capability is essential, but others believe just as strongly that - especially when BPEL is the implementation technology - round-tripping is a mirage, fool's errand, or worse.