Patterns in workflow

How are patterns important? They make your life easy. They let you understand an seemingly complex problem. Patterns when it comes to workflows are really important to understand business transactions can be modelled and represented. They help you unblock you thoughts.

Here is something i came across long ago... when i was trying to understand how to use BPMN to represent flows. The old site has redesigned itself in to http://www.workflowpatterns.com/.

It is nice to have a look at these and keep them in mind..

I suggest one should start from control flow prespective.

Why i like this site is the way they let u understand using flash animation..

Oddly enough, I like the old site and here is the link for it.
http://is.tm.tue.nl/research/patterns/

Tips on proper use of BPMN in mapping

I think had mentioned this article earlier. But anyway here is a nice article. Most of them are really important tips that should become a part of you while you are mapping. May be if you have been mapping for long you have learnt most of these on your own.

Anyway here is the link.. a nice article by Bruce Silver.

Ten Tips for Effective Process Modeling

After you read the article you might want to like to read my notes.

Here is my notes on what he says. I have re-arranged his 10 tips in the order I find relevant for me and why i find them important

• 1- Make the process logic visible in the diagram.

Very essential. Till i was working in visio, it was by default a habit. But shifting to more complex tools such as System Architect and Aris, i picked up the habit of putting more and more data into the background forms. Recently when i returned to visio, MS had already reached Version 2007 and some of these features had already been added and made easier to use. But the truth remains that a normal business user does not go through all the details if he can't see it clean and clear on the map.

• 2- Label process activities VERB-NOUN.

He is very right. What we put into those activity boxes are action items, to do or to be done.

• 3- Don’t use a task to route work.

Something very logical, but you tend to do exactly that. Reading this today made me kind of uneasy and i checked some recent maps i had done. And I did find places where i had done exactly that.

But i guess i picked up the habit while working with SA. If you are working with pools and lanes, you sometimes have to add these silly/redundant activities. That is because there are some cases where the tool wont let you draw Message flows from some of the artifacts to the next pool. Eg. From an Gateway.

• 4- Specify task types.

Makes sense when one of your motives is process improvement. in most of my work i have to distinguish between at least two types: Manual, Automated. When you make the TOBE processes, you have to show where you are bringing in automation.

When i am using visio, the notation is simply a different colour.

• 5- Use message flows consistently to show business context.

Very essential and rightly speaking it is just as important as maintaining consistency in any other artifact/symbol. Makes the life of users easy. Makes your representation predictable.

• 6- Make your models hierarchical.

Easier said than done. You tend to face problems at lower levels. The question for me is how to break them. I have found that the bottom up approach works really nice for me. It is important to have a top view, but for me they are logical placeholders that i will fill only when i am through with the lowest level of mapping. If i have an entire flow, then i find it easier to roll up and give it an logical heirarchial structure.

• 7- Distinguish success and failure end states in a subprocess with separate end events

Learnt it the hard way. Needed to simulate a group of processes. Since there were no success and failure end events specified, the simulation always showed the process to be working at 6 sigma. And it is a pain to change the maps because probably you would find you made no allowance for most of the failure end events. So better have this orientation right from the start.

• 8- Make your models valid.

Most high end tools would force you to do it, if you want to make use of any advance features like simulation or generation of BPEL code. No way to do it if you are using Visio. But if you truly beleive in BPMN try and keep the basic principles in mind while mapping.

-----I dont really use the following two principles...so leaving them without comment------

• 9- Use subprocesses to scope attached events.
• 10- Standardize on specific diagram patterns to distinguish types of exceptions

Globally administering definitions

5Feb 2008 (WTBPMADSR - Visio)

Can roles and responsibilities.. (or for that matter any set of definitions that is required to be controlled centrally.. especially to maintain consistency globally) be served from a different location. May be from an excel.

Tool: Visio 2007

Edit:14 Feb 2007

I found out, this is quite easy if you are using Visio 2007. I wanted to do this for Pools/lanes. I do a lot of CFPMs (Cross functional process maps) and the actors keep repeating. And at the end of some assignments, I also require to prepare write up on roles and responsibilities. Keeping definition of roles and responsibilities in a separate place meant I do not have to worry about their consistency. Updating was much easier..

All you have to do is
have your excel sheet ready.
go to the data tab from the menu in visio
click on link data to shapes

And the wizard helps you out with the rest of the steps.

see here
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/HA101313831033.aspx
and the demo here
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/HA100518191033.aspx?pid=CH100991461033

note:i want to put my own video here.. may be soon

The best part was I did not have to creat custom properties (shape data) beforehand..
some of the columns in excel had corresponding shape data.. these were automatically taken up.
the rest were created on it own.