10 Secret Techniques to make you a great BPM modeler
Posted by: Filipe Pinto in process modeling, BPMN, bpm on
Aug 13, 2008
You probably have asked yourself too many time what it means to model something from beginning to end. Where should your boundaries be when modeling a process?
This blog is going to give you my modeling axioms:
1. Do not look at traditional organization boundaries - traditional organization boundaries are set by the physical assets such as buildings. I do not use it at all. My boundaries are set by all those involved in the production of the organization's goods (products or services to customers). This means that when modeling I will include suppliers and customers, as well as employees… in other worlds, I include everyone and everything.
2. Awake sleeping dogs - modeling is about discovery which is an exciting process. Do not let the so called experts tell you there is such thing as an untouchable process. If you come across a process that "experts" tell you cannot be changed, try to know about everything about it. If the process cannot be changed then it should be able to prove it in a clear fashion.
3. Learn BPMN (really!) - use BPMN and tools to build BPMN diagrams. Maybe in the future, this will change but for now, BPMN is the best way to model business processes. Avoid coming across as an amateur by not knowing how to formally build a business process. In case you want to learn, we provide training classes .
4. Know your theory - process modeling is just one of the disciplines of BPM. I stop paying attention to those people that say that BPM is many things: enterprise application integration (EAI), enterprise service bus (ESB), SOA, etc, etc. BPM is nothing like that. BPM is about business, and technology is one of its most important disciplines. If you really want to be in BPM, you will have to know BPM from an economic standpoint. Get your definition of BPM straight. At M2MSys we have adopted one .
5. Engage your customer in a relentlessly hunt "pork - nothing will happen if you don't have the support of your customer. When you start your modeling journey, bring your customers along with you on a "pork hunting" journey. Tell them that you will find easy ways to save him money, and you will make him a star. When you discover major cost reduction possibilities, make it your customer idea.
6. You need top-down and middle up - too often, I heard that without executive sponsorship nothing would ever happen in BPM. Guess what? That is not true. In the idea economy you need bottom up to initiate at the catalyst but the turf war is battled by the "boots on the ground". That includes middle managers that are able to see ahead. Those will be your best allies to initiate the "revolution".
7. Modeling is revolutionary in nature (enjoy it!) - in case you have been too shy to say it out loud, I can tell you that you are correct. Modeling is revolutionary in nature. Your secret will be to disguise it in such way that you remove the edges of all your modeling. How do you do it? Simple, consider creating a sub-process for all those things that will have to be dropped in the future.
8. Make sure you are legally protected - if you are going to be excited about your work, you will for sure step on boundaries lines. Be aware of those, and try to avoid them at all times. Be aware that if you want to be true modeler expert, you will step on those. When that happens, apologize. If that doesn't work, make sure you are legally protected.
9. Look for patterns, techniques and catalog them - to be a great modeler you need to have your own patterns and techniques. For instance, my first pattern was "it isn’t finished until the fat lady sings". Briefly, this pattern lets me know that now event can be dropped until it was processed or retired by a responsible person. Then there's modeling techniques, which I will take on future blogs.
10. Seek awards - if you did a great job, no one will know you were the one that did it, because all great ideas were your customers'. So how do you get recognition? You simply investigate what awards your customer can compete with its new BPM application. Your customer will get great PR from the event, and you get recognition among your peers.
Let me know if it works!
This blog is going to give you my modeling axioms:
1. Do not look at traditional organization boundaries - traditional organization boundaries are set by the physical assets such as buildings. I do not use it at all. My boundaries are set by all those involved in the production of the organization's goods (products or services to customers). This means that when modeling I will include suppliers and customers, as well as employees… in other worlds, I include everyone and everything.
2. Awake sleeping dogs - modeling is about discovery which is an exciting process. Do not let the so called experts tell you there is such thing as an untouchable process. If you come across a process that "experts" tell you cannot be changed, try to know about everything about it. If the process cannot be changed then it should be able to prove it in a clear fashion.
3. Learn BPMN (really!) - use BPMN and tools to build BPMN diagrams. Maybe in the future, this will change but for now, BPMN is the best way to model business processes. Avoid coming across as an amateur by not knowing how to formally build a business process. In case you want to learn, we provide training classes .
4. Know your theory - process modeling is just one of the disciplines of BPM. I stop paying attention to those people that say that BPM is many things: enterprise application integration (EAI), enterprise service bus (ESB), SOA, etc, etc. BPM is nothing like that. BPM is about business, and technology is one of its most important disciplines. If you really want to be in BPM, you will have to know BPM from an economic standpoint. Get your definition of BPM straight. At M2MSys we have adopted one .
5. Engage your customer in a relentlessly hunt "pork - nothing will happen if you don't have the support of your customer. When you start your modeling journey, bring your customers along with you on a "pork hunting" journey. Tell them that you will find easy ways to save him money, and you will make him a star. When you discover major cost reduction possibilities, make it your customer idea.
6. You need top-down and middle up - too often, I heard that without executive sponsorship nothing would ever happen in BPM. Guess what? That is not true. In the idea economy you need bottom up to initiate at the catalyst but the turf war is battled by the "boots on the ground". That includes middle managers that are able to see ahead. Those will be your best allies to initiate the "revolution".
7. Modeling is revolutionary in nature (enjoy it!) - in case you have been too shy to say it out loud, I can tell you that you are correct. Modeling is revolutionary in nature. Your secret will be to disguise it in such way that you remove the edges of all your modeling. How do you do it? Simple, consider creating a sub-process for all those things that will have to be dropped in the future.
8. Make sure you are legally protected - if you are going to be excited about your work, you will for sure step on boundaries lines. Be aware of those, and try to avoid them at all times. Be aware that if you want to be true modeler expert, you will step on those. When that happens, apologize. If that doesn't work, make sure you are legally protected.
9. Look for patterns, techniques and catalog them - to be a great modeler you need to have your own patterns and techniques. For instance, my first pattern was "it isn’t finished until the fat lady sings". Briefly, this pattern lets me know that now event can be dropped until it was processed or retired by a responsible person. Then there's modeling techniques, which I will take on future blogs.
10. Seek awards - if you did a great job, no one will know you were the one that did it, because all great ideas were your customers'. So how do you get recognition? You simply investigate what awards your customer can compete with its new BPM application. Your customer will get great PR from the event, and you get recognition among your peers.
Let me know if it works!
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