Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) Tips

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a method of illustrating business processes in the form of a diagram similar to a flowchart, which is valuable in helping to contextualize and visualize a process so stakeholders – both business and technical – can refine and understand it together.

After working on BPMN projects in healthcare technology management program, as well as in my internship, there are some suggestions that I think people should keep in mind when designing BPMN.

Detail every step VS. Simpler diagram

At the first hand, I thought that it would be easier for both business and technical to understand a simpler diagram as compared to a complicated one. However, the simpler one would not able to cover all details which may including important details that could lead to reading confused. When my first model came out, I tried to make it as simple as possible. However, as my manager read it, he raised a lot of questions because the model was not details enough to describe the inner working and the logic behind it. In addition, it will be hard to give recommendations when reader don’t fully understand the logic behind the processes.

BPM software

A BPM software should support for BPMN 2.0. There are some free BPM software available online that we could use for practicing or using for a simple model: processon.com, or bmnp.io.

Labeling the flowchart process item

To help a model easier to understand, process items should be named in the action methodology. For example, if action is representing equipment tested, then use the label “test an equipment” to define that action

Criteria for decision

There are criteria come with making a decision before you decide to act on something. These criteria would be very important to understand the inner work. For example, in a decision of keep a medical equipment after having a process of “test an equipment,” we must know what criteria in the test to know the equipment is good to start to refurbish, or bad to let it go. Therefore, when we build a model, we should keep in mind questioning criteria needed for the action before having your decision and making note on it.

There are just a few suggestions which you should consider to make your BPM more effective. These are the tips that I has learned from my experience while working on BPMN projects.