The Changing Nature of Business Process Modeling

Abstract

Business process modeling (BPM) is a topic that is generating much interest in the information technology industry today. Business analysts, process designers, system architects, software engineers, and systems consultants must understand the foundational concepts behind BPM and evolving modeling standards and technologies that have the potential to dramatically change the nature of phases of the systems development life cycle (SDLC). Pareto’s 80/20 rule, as applied to the SDLC, is in the process of being drastically altered. In the past, approximately 20% of the SDLC was spent on analysis and design activities with the remaining 80% spent on systems development and implementation (Weske, Goesmann, Holten, & Striemer, 1999). Today, with the introduction of the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI), Web services, and the services-oriented architecture (SOA), the enterprise SDLC paradigm is poised for a dramatic shift. In this new paradigm, approximately 80% of the SDLC is spent on analysis and design activities with the remaining 20% spent on systems development and implementation. Once referred to as process or workflow automation, BPM has evolved into a suite of interrelated components for systems analysis, design, and development. Emerging BPM standards and technologies will be the primary vehicles by which current systems portfolios transition to Web services and service-oriented architectures (Aversano, & Canfora, 2002). The Business Process Management Initiative’s business process modeling notation (BPMN) subgroup is currently finalizing a standardized notation for business process modeling. Although the notation is still in working-draft format, system architects and designers should consider incorporating the concepts of BPM into their current and future systems analysis and design procedures.