Start Modeling

 

In general starting business process modeling as such is seen as a "challenge", where to start and where to stop. Modeling of business processes,has been around for a long time. The principal across all technologies is pretty much the same, what changes over the years is the notation and the complexity, of some of those notations.

 

I used several techniques, investigated, studied and get qualified in most new technologies as they come along. More recently, since early 2007, I got involved in the Community Modeling, to review the use of UML notation capability for this method, it can be used on its own but I decided to integrate it with other modeling technologies available to us today.

 

First I believe that, less is better, often you see Analysts and Architects coming out with guns-blazing and using, every bit in the notation available to them, this results in what I like to call "Notation over-kill".

 

A picture is only as good as it received by its audience, it can say "a thousand words", so do not make it a million. Most models I see in documents are "legal" and notation correct, however they lose their power because there is so much to look at, that the reader does not get the message.

 

I do like pictures, but I believe that the reader should be taken on a "journey" and as such should be drawn into reading the description behind the picture.

 

Like with UML it is not about the use-case picture it is about the use-case description.

 

Do not get me wrong, I think the models should be as detailed as possible and should use all the notation elements, for the right reasons. But....... ONLY in the model do not copy a complicated picture into a document.

 

Framework

  1. First we do the community modeling, this gives an idea of "who is who, in the zoo", what policies apply to these communities and why do they excist.
  2. Time to put some high level processes together, we use the community model giving us a clear guidance on who is involved.
  3. RASCI model, this is a living document and will be updated as we learn more about your communities.
  4. Context diagram.
  5. Detailed Business Processes Diagrams, and more important the descriptions. We use UML Full Dress description for this. It allows us to identify the areas of change.