[jboss-dev-forums] [Design of JBoss jBPM] - Modelling notation - a Business Analyst perspective

[bazoo]

Hello all,

I'm a business analyst and I've been playing with JBPM for a month or two now. I understand that there is some controversy within the project about which modelling notation to use, and I wanted to share my perspective. 

To me, the current JBPM notation language is almost perfect. I think that BPMN is far too technical and I much prefer the simple approach of boxes and arrows. The question I ask myself is: "could my business sponsor understand the model enough to be able to sign off on it?". With a BPMN model, the answer is surely no, they couldn't. 

I'm sure BPMN offers much more flexibility and is far more descriptive, but BPMN diagrams are complicated, and hence they put up unnecessary barriers to communication. If the model can't represent the business process in a form the business can relate to, then there is a breakdown in communication on a fundamental level. Anything which starts to resemble a circuit board diagram is simply not going to work for the business, and hence nor will it work for a BA. If the business can't sign off a model as meeting their requirements, then what are we building anyway? 

For me, I much prefer the JBPM approach. Perhaps the only element I would add would be visual swimlaning - part of what my sponsor is signing off is the definition of who does what.

View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3992214#3992214

Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&p=3992214