Business Process Modeling/ Workflow Modeling and State Machines with UML 2 and BPMN (optional: IDEF)-

Course Title: Business Process Modeling/ Workflow Modeling and State Machines with UML 2 and BPMN (optional: IDEF)-

Course #: BAN07

Duration: 2 days

A practical guide in business process modeling focused on the BA perspective, using the 2 state-of-the-art standards – UML 2 (the focus of the course) and BPMN. Learn to employ workflow and state machine modeling as an effective tool for analyzing the business timing rules (how events are sequenced) in the context of business process improvement and/or as input to an IT project. Trainees learn to use the techniques covered in the course may be used to analyze business rules regarding the workflow of end-to-end business processes (business use cases) and IT interactions (system use cases) as well as the lifecycle of key business objects.

Description:

This is a hands-on practical workshop in business process modeling using workflow and state machine models to describe the sequencing of events for a business or IT process. Trainees step through a complex real-life case study, learning not only how to draw the diagrams but how and when to effectively use the techniques during a projects’ life cycle. Trainees learn how to use business process diagrams to model existing and to-be processes, to define workflow for business use cases, to supplement the documentation of system use cases and to define lifecycle rules for business objects. The course covers the most popular standards for business process modeling: UML 2 - a standard robust enough to cover the complete IT project lifecycle – and BPMN – a standard specifically created for business process modeling that is gaining widespread popularity. Trainees wil learn to employ UML activity diagrams (with and without partitions/swimlanes), UML state machine diagrams and BPMN Business Process Diagrams (BPD). As a supplement, IDEF workflow conventions developed by the military are also included in the material and may be optionally included in class-time instruction.

Why:

• Interviews with groups of users often lead to conflicting requirements regarding workflow –the sequencing of business operations.
• Workflow modeling is an effective way to illustrate these differences and to develop a consensus amongst stakeholders during follow-up interviews or JAD Sessions.
• Workflow modeling is a key activity during process improvement:
• The techniques provide an effective means of analyzing existing workflow and comparing proposed improvements.
• Complex rules regarding the sequencing of operations are often misunderstood by developers:
• The techniques in this course result in standardized visual documentation that cannot be misinterpreted by the development team.

What makes this course stand out from the competition?

1. Scenario-based training: The trainee learns not only what to do, but when to use each technique during the course of a project. We find this approach greatly enhances the ability of trainees to apply what they’ve learned in the workplace.
2. Integration with use cases: We teach the trainee exactly how to integrate these modeling techniques with use-case analysis. Trainees learn at what steps during use case analysis to create the workflow models and how these models fit into use-case documentation.
3. Experience: Our course is written and delivered by professionals with extensive practical experience in workflow modeling for IT business system within the context of use-case analysis.

Audience:

• IT Business Analysts and their managers
• Systems Analysts and programmers interested in expanding their role into the business area.

Prerequisites: None

Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Define the As-Is workflow rules for a business system using activity diagrams.
• Consolidate the viewpoints of stakeholders during requirements gathering sessions using activity diagrams.
• Supplement business use-case documentation with activity diagrams.
• Tie together system use cases using activity diagrams with and without partitions/ swimlanes and object flows.
• Augment system use case documentation with activity diagrams.
• Create UML state machine diagrams that describe the life cycle of a business object.
• Link use cases to state machine diagrams.
• Convert activity diagrams to BPMN format (BPD).
• Convert activity diagrams to IDEF format.
• Understand alternative legacy approaches the UML standard, including flowcharting, block diagrams and Data Flow Diagrams (DFD)

Content:

• Features of workflow modeling
  
  • Rules of precedence
  • Basic workflow structures: sequential sequencing, repetition, selection, parallel activities
  • UML standards for workflow: activity, state and sequence diagrams
• Creating activity diagrams
  
  • Activities
  • Sub-activities
  • Transitions
  • Guards
  • Split and merge
  • Fork and Join
  • Partitions/ Swimlanes
  • Advanced activity diagramming techniques:
    
    • Object flows
    • Expansion regions
    • Sub-activities
    • Signals
• Creating workflow textual requirements documentation:
  
  • Pre and post-conditions
  • Metrics
• Creating UML state transition diagrams
  
  • States
  • State transitions
  • Transition guards, events and send events
  • State activities
  • Orthogonal (concurrent) states
  • Superstates
  • State History
• Alternatives to the UML
  
  • BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) and BPD (Business Process Diagram)
    
    • Flow objects:
      
      • Events
      • Activities
      • Gateways
    • Connecting objects
      
      • Sequence Flow
      • Message Flow
    • Swimlanes
      
      • Pool
      • Lane
    • Converting activity diagrams to BPDs
  • Supplement: Workflow standards developed by the military: IDEF0, IDEF3
  • Supplement: Flowcharts
  • Supplement: Block diagrams
  • Data Flow Diagrams (DFD)

Class Format:

The course content is presented:

• Through lectures and mentoring.

On-site requirements:

Room set-up:
Set up tables (e.g., round tables) so that trainees are sitting in groups of 3-5. Each group should have 1 flipchart. Each trainee requires 1 pad or paper + pen + 1 copy of the course material. The course comes in one binder and contains:

• Detailed course notes (printed PowerPoint presentation)
• Workshop and Job Aids (Word document) with:
  
  • Full workshop solutions
  • Job Aids booklet containing:
    
    • Templates
    • Examples
    • Glossary of technical terms

For the instructor:

• Whiteboard
• Overhead screen projector or large colour monitor, connected to instructor’s PC
• PC loaded with:
  
  • Windows XP Professional
  • MS PowerPoint
  • PowerPoint presentation (1 ppt file)
  • Workshops and Solutions file (1 Word doc)