It took some time, but now you can find the official “BPMN 2.0 by Example”-Document on BPMN.org. The direct link is

http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?dtc/10-06-02

Besides our example concerning the incident management process that I have already blogged about, it contains a small introduction into the basic principles of working with BPMN (Chapter 5: Small examples introducing core concepts).

On top of that there are quite interesting examples about the serialization of BPMN-diagrams and the according diagram interchange between BPMN modelers, and more complex diagrams are demonstrated, like the famous Email-voting example.

I consider the document rather useful for getting a first but profound impression of BPMN.

Our “Praxishandbuch BPMN”, the practical guide for working with BPMN, has become quite successful. Published in January 2010, the first edition has been already sold out in July. This and the fact that BPMN 2.0 has been finalized encouraged us (and our publisher, Hanser Verlag) to update the book and publish a second edition. Unfortunately, it is still only available in German. We actually tried to order a translation into English from an agency, but the work samples they provided could not convince us. I think, you must be into the topic to write a good specialist book, even if you are only translating it. However, at camunda none of us can spare enough time to do that, so unless a native speaker shows up willing to do the translation, and convincing us that he or she is actually able to do a really good one, this book remains German.

But if you want to get an easy to read guide about how to apply BPMN with loads of best practices based on massive project experiences, AND you are looking for the perfect book to improve your German, hang on until the middle of september and get the second edition freshly from Amazon.de .

Read on..

In the beginning of October, I will be attending this year’s BPMN-conference in Potsdam, Germany. I consider it rather interesting, because there will be talks about scientific research as well as hands-on-sessions given by BPMN-practitioners, like Vattenfall, Ebay and of course camunda

More Information: http://www.bpmn2010.org

See you there?

Stephen White has already blogged about it: BPMN 2.0 is finished, approved by OMG architecture board and will be published soon. For camunda it was mainly Falko Menge who represented us in the FTF, and he did a very good job (thanks Falko!). Falko and me also wrote a good part of the “BPMN 2.0 by Example”-Document (many thanks to Ivana Trockovitch, Denis Gagné and the other authors!), that should work as a tutorial for understanding the basic principles of BPMN. Because the whole package is not published officially yet, I just want to blog one of the two chapters we wrote that I consider interesting for people who want to get from “business-friendly simple diagrams” to “directly executable XML”.

At some points I will also add some comments from our project experiences that of course could not make it into the official OMG document.

Read on..

With the BPMN 2.0 getting more and more attention I recognize one trend in perception: BPMN allows you to have the same model for business and technical people. The idea of the roundtrip seems to be replaced by a “one for all” model. Actually I don’t really believe in one model! Or put it another way: we need a better definition of what “one model” exactly means. In this blog entry I want to give more insight in my line of thinking on this.

Read on..

Lately we announced camunda fox and presented some approach for developing process centric applications and especially how to get a technical process model from a business process model. Today I want to give you some more insights and explain how it fits in the world of BPMN 2.0 and Process Engines like Activiti or jBPM. And I want to give you a quick example of a customer project with that approach.

Read on..

BPMN 2.0 is just about to get finalized, and it has surely become some kind of hype. This has led to a couple of critics advising against BPMN, telling us that the new version is too complex for business, or that it is not comprehensive enough for business, which sounds a bit inconsistent. However, I share those concerns and I definetely support every ambition to name the problems about BPMN, as long as it helps us to improve the standard. Since camunda is an active member in OMGs FTF, I know that this is not at all as “impossible” as it is sometimes suggested. We just had to concentrate on the execution in this version, because there is no use in a standard that tries to solve every issue in one version and therefore does not solve anything right.

Read on..

Die Jax, von der ich gerade heimfahre, ist m.E. die wichtigste Java-Konferenz in Deutschland. Auf jeden Fall ist sie die größte. Und im Rahmen der allgemeinen Ausdehnung der IT in Richtung des Business (ich nenne diesen Prozess “Technokratisierung der Unternehmen”) wird auch auf der Jax das Thema BPM immer wichtiger. So wichtig, dass unser erster Vortrag zum Thema sogar den dafür vorgesehenen Raum gesprengt hat . Für unseren zweiten Vortrag wurden wir in einen deutlich größeren Raum verlegt, der aber auch nur knapp ausgereicht hat…
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Schon vor einem Jahr wurde ich auf die BPMN-Magnete aufmerksam, die man damals bestellen konnte. Das hab ich auch gemacht, aber sie wurden leider nie geliefert (das Geld bekam ich wieder). Jetzt kann man sich die Vorlagen bestellen und selber drucken. Aber das fand ich unpraktisch, es klappt wohl auch nur mit Tintenstrahldruckern. Also haben wir uns auf ganz eigene Faust welche gemacht bzw. machen lassen, und heute erstmalig in einer BPMN-Schulung benutzt. Das kam ganz gut an.
Read on..

Das Webinar von Robert Shapiro zum aktuellen Stand von BPMN 2.0 hat für einige Aufmerksamkeit gesorgt, und zwar vor allem wegen seiner Aussagen zum Thema “Sub-Classes” (siehe u.a. Prof. Allweyer, Dr. Bartonitz, Bruce Silver, Sandy Kemsley). Hierbei geht es primär darum, die Symbolpalette der BPMN für einzelne Ebenen in der Prozessmodellierung bewusst einzuschränken, um die Anwendung zu vereinfachen.

Read on..