Task: BM2 - Identify Business Processes
To understand and describe the business processes in the organization, mainly those related to the application being developed, specifying the business process models using the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), including participants and actors involved, control flow with sequence of activities and messages between pools, flow decisions and business rules. The use of process patterns (workflow patterns) is recommended to help in various modeling aspects of business processes.
Purpose

To understand and describe the business processes in the organization, mainly those related to the application being developed, specifying the business process models using the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN).

Relationships
RolesPrimary: Additional: Assisting:
InputsMandatory: Optional:
  • None
External:
  • None
Outputs
Main Description

The business processes description must include: including participants and actors involved, control flow with sequence of activities and messages between pools, flow decisions and business rules. It is recommended to use process patterns (workflow patterns) to help in various modeling aspects of business processes. The boundaries of business are clearly stated, indicating who and what interacts with the organization, specifying processes both in natural language and graphically using a Business Process Modeler tool (BizAgi, ARIS, Visual Paradigm, etc.). QVT transformations are defined to generate services models specified in the OMG SoaML standard from business process models specified in BPMN, that can be executed in the Eclipse environment. 

Example of a BPMN busines process model for a Reseller (adapted from Weske, 2007):



Properties
Multiple Occurrences
Event Driven
Ongoing
Optional
PlannedYes
Repeatable
Key Considerations
It is recommended to use process patterns (workflow patterns, van der Aalst et. al, 2003) to help in various modeling aspects of business processes, reusing knowledge and best solutions.
Alternatives
The notation used to specify the business process models from which to generate SoaML services models is BPMN. Other notations could be used, but the QVT transformations defined could not then be executed.