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.

Recommended reading for Managing Innovation

A list of recommended books to accompany my talk on Managing Innovation at Chandrakasem Rajabhat University:

• R. Verganti (2009), Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, Harvard Business Press
• V. Govindarajan, et al. (2010), The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge, Harvard Business Press
• T. Brown (2009), Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, Harper Business

Recommended reading for your Requirements Practice

A number of books that I use and recommend each project team to have available:

•  D. Leffingwell, et al. (2003), Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach (2nd Edition), Addison Wesley
• A. Cockburn (2000), Writing Effective Use Cases, Addison Wesley
• K. Wiegers (2003), Software Requirements, Microsoft Press

There are also other books mentioned in older posts below.

Preparing for your Project

A very valuable resource in preparation for a software project is this compact 400 page book from RUP experts Per Kroll and Bruce MacIsaac. It consists of 20 Practices that dramatically increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.

• P. Kroll, et al. (2006), Agility and Discipline Made Easy, Addison-Wesley.

If this book brings you nothing new, then you are already on the right track. Highly recommended.

Recommended reading for Run Time Architecture

Reference books dealing with Run Time Architecture:

• D.Schmidt, et al. (1996), Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture Volume 2: Patterns for Concurrent and Networked Objects, Wiley.
• B. Goetz , et al. (2006), Java Concurrency in Practice, Addison-Wesley.
• D. Lea (1999), Concurrent Programming in Java, Prentice Hall.

Recommended reading for AIT's OOAD bootcamp

The following is a list of recommended books for use in the OOAD bootcamp which I shall be teaching during 20 Jan 2010 - 8 Feb 2010 at AIT.
Textbook(s):

• P. Kruchten (2003), The Rational Unified Process: An Introduction, 3rd edition, Addison Wesley.
• Booch, G. et al. (2007), Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications, 3rd edition, Addison Wesley.

Reference(s):

• A. Hunt, et al. (1999), The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master, Addison Wesley.
• E. Evans (2003), Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software, Addison Wesley.
• F. Buschmann, et al. (1996), Pattern Oriented Software Architecture: A System of Patterns, Wiley.
• L. Bass, et al. (2003), Software Architecture in Practice, 2nd edition, Addison Wesley.
• J. Rumbaugh, et al. (2004), The Unified Modeling Language Reference Manual, 2nd edition, Addison Wesley.
• E. Gamma, et al. (1994), Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, Addison Wesley.
• M. Fowler (1999), Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, Addison Wesley.
• J. Bloch (2008), Effective Java, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall.
• T. Quatrani (2002), Visual Modeling with Rational Rose 2002 and UML, 3rd edition, Addison Wesley.
• T. Quatrani et al. (2006), Visual Modeling with IBM Rational Software Architect and UML, Addison Wesley.

There may be some additional books which I shall add at a later date.