BPMN Modeling with Simulations

Bazagi has released version 2.5 of Process Modeler. This version contains a Lanner Simulation Engine that can be used to analyze process flows, identify process bottlenecks, and optimize.

The simulation is very simple to set up, and comes complete with a number of Statistical Distributions. I was able to run processes very quickly at level 1, and by adding additional limits and constraints, levels 2 and 3. After a while, I started to receive the error message "The simulation has failed. Please ensure that your model is compliant to the BPMN2.0 standard and that it is supported by the Simulation engine."

As it turns out, the failure was caused by my usage of the Normal Distribution, with the negative three sigma value coming very close to zero - I believe this causes some inputs to be negative, and hence fail. The solution is to use the "Truncated Normal Distribution" and set the minimum value to 0.01 if you happen to be skirting with zero. This should prevent any negatives from occuring, and ensure a smooth BPMN execution.  

This is a great addition to an already wonderful tool.

Business Modeling with BPMN

Very often we find that the Requirements Management process leads to a dead end. Typically, this is a revelation that the origin of the project are not well understood - and it is time to do some Business Modeling - to clarify exactly why the project is needed and where it fits into the grand scheme of things.

Over the past decade or so, I have used elements of UML to document the Business Processes, but found that something is still lacking. Activity Diagrams and Business Use Case Models can only go so far. 

I have found a very valuable tool in BPMN 2.0 - the Business Process Model and Notation - in particular the Level 1 and Level 2 conformance subclasses that limit the icon set and greatly increase the adoption rate among our client organizations. Naturally, a set of icons alone won't do the job - Bruce Silver's BPMN Method and Style goes beyond notation and offers a Methodology of process, notation, and best practices.

Have faith in your process

It is vitally important to maintain robust Business Modeling and Requirements Engineering processes in your organization.

Why ? well Donald Rumsfeld said it best -

"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.

We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know."

With a trustworthy and proven process, you can be confident that you will uncover the known unknowns, and possibly bring to light some unknown unknowns into the discourse...