ProcessModeling.info

Advanced process modeling (for the rest of us)

Recently I spent some time in Singapore teaching an advanced process modeling class.   I was pleasantly surprised at how well Singapore is adopting process oriented strategies, and how well the students learned from this event.  But I also realized something about BPM and process modeling.  There is a general lack of knowledge world-wide of how to actually execute on process management.  Some countries are doing better than others, but in the ten years that BPM has been mainstream, we still haven’t gained much ground in terms of getting the word out.


OMG has done a fabulous job at giving the world a specification for a modeling notation that far exceeds the potential of flowcharts.  The problem is, we are still at a point where we have a specification, but no practical knowledge on how to apply it to a real-world business process.   There are still only a handful of us in the BPM space that understand the BPMN specification fully.   If this BPM industry is to take off, there has to be more visibility on the benefits of getting away from the old flowchart approach.   Instead of trying to sell a BPM system (that’s the easy sell to make a some quick money) we should be teaching BPM practice.  You cannot buy BPM.  You have to practice it every day.


I started doing these advanced process modeling events because I believe it’s time that process modeling matures.  I believe we are finally at a point where the industry is starting to accept that BPMN is not just another fancy way of doing flowcharts.  There is something very special about BPMN, and sadly, we as BPM professionals, have not done a very good job getting the message out.  Most business analysts I talk to believe that a Flowcharts, are good enough, process are completely linear, and it’s okay to create a spaghetti diagram (lines going every which way).


Teaching the better way….

We have to start educating people that flowcharts are not good enough.   A flowchart still has its place, but in today’s high-paced business world where technology is embedded into our daily lives, we need something that can handle the complexity.  The real challenge is that BPMN isn’t enough either.  BPM (the process management practice) made many promises and in some cases delivered, but only to those who sought to manage processes.  Those who bought a fancy, expensive system, hoping it would solve their problems often ended up with more of a mess than they started with.  The BPM system is only designed to automate processes that you define, not to fix your organization.  In other words, you have to learn how to model processes if you want to get anywhere with an automation system (or any application used in processes, for that matter).


There is a relationship between process management and the technology we employ to make our organizations more efficient.  This is the real message that needs to be taught to the business community, otherwise I fear we will get nowhere, and the concepts of BPM will die.    I’m already seeing signs of this happening.  There’s talk about complex events and the data model being king, while the process model is increasingly neglected.  After all, the BPM system has not delivered on all of its promises, so let’s go get some other technology to “fix our problem”, right?  (if you haven’t realized it yet, technology makes things more complex, not simpler).  But from my perspective, I can still model every one of these problems in BPMN, while showing more cross-organizational details than any other methodology.   So before embracing the next technology that promises to fix everything, consider this: process modeling has been around since the late 1700’s and it’s not going anywhere.  We have even more of a need today than ever, for good process models.


What’s next?

So from this point onward, I ‘m on a mission.  I’m already quite far along with PMF (Process Modeling Framework) which is a governance methodology for the entire BPM practice.  But I decided that this is not enough.   I’m going to tackle the bigger problem, which is how to make process modeling consumable for the average business person (and not just the analysts).


Look for a new book in late Q1 of  2010. I started this project over two years ago, and just a few months ago I realized that BPMN is not enough, and neither is PMF. So I’ve started over, with an entirely new vision on process modeling that I have yet to see anywhere else in the world. Progress is going well. If you would like a sneak peek at the content, come to one of my advanced process modeling training events. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

- Rick Geneva