BPMN - It’s only a notation

by David Atkinson

Some people think BPMN is a technique

One of the good things that has happened in recent times is the development of international standards for business and requirements modelling notations.

The Object Management Group (OMG) has been at the forefront in facilitating the development and acceptance of a range of standards, for example ‘Unified Modeling Language’ (UML) and more recently ‘Business Process Modeling Notation’ (BPMN).

The types of benefit that can be realised from standardising on a notation are:

  • - reduced training costs;

  • - increased labour market flexibility;

  • - improved inter-personal communication;

  • - reduced entry and exit costs when changing vendors for methods and modelling tools.

So far so good but there is a common misunderstanding of what a notation is. A notation is a language. In the case of these notation standards they formally define:

  • - a set of graphical symbols;

  • - the meaning and semantics of the symbols;

  • - the descriptive properties or attributes of the symbols;

  • - rules of use of the symbols;

  • - how to measure the results.

The premise is that for interpersonal or intersystem communication to be effective the meaning of the model symbols must be standardised and unambiguous.

In addition, a given notation can be used to develop multiple types of model each using a different technique!

So we can have three different things:

  • - notations which are the collection of defined symbols;

  • - models that use a notation;

  • - techniques for developing the models.

In the context of business process models:

  • - the notation (of choice) is BPMN;

  • - the types of models include ‘As Is’ and ‘To Be’;

  • - the technique is Business Process Modelling (BPM);

So confusing a notation with a technique is like confusing the French language with debating. And that's silly!

About the Author

David has over 25 years business analysis experience in a wide range of capacities, enterprise through tactical to operational, business and technical, in both the private and public sectors.