In BPMN Method and Style, which deals with non-executable models, we don't worry about process data. It's left out of the models entirely. We just pretend that any data produced or received by process tasks is available downstream. In Business Automation, i.e., executable BPMN, that's not the case. Process data is not pervasive, available automatically [...]
A couple weeks ago my attention was called to a LinkedIn post, one of those clickbait polls: "Is BPMN the standard? Do you use it? Would you expect it from others?" About 65% said Yes, but naturally the haters clogged the comment thread. Of most interest to me was a comment by Alec Sharp, a [...]
BPMN has an element that looks very much like a subprocess, except drawn with a thick border. Perhaps you have used it yourself... probably incorrectly. Its name is call activity, and it is similar in several ways to a subprocess, but it is not the same. Both elements are important, but valuable for different reasons. [...]
Debugging executable processes can be a challenge because, unlike DMN models, you cannot test them in the Modeler. You need to compile and deploy them first, and problems are often reported as runtime errors. Until fairly recently, to zero in on the problem you needed to isolate it in a small fragment of the process [...]
In recent posts, I have explained why anyone who can create rich spreadsheet models using Excel formulas can learn to turn those into Low-Code Business Automation services on the Trisotech platform, using BPMN and DMN, and why FEEL and boxed expressions are actually more business-friendly than PowerFX, the new name for Excel's formula language. That's [...]
Last month I showed why Trisotech is a great Low-Code Business Automation platform, based on its use of FEEL and boxed expressions in executable BPMN. How ironic is it, then, that many decision management vendors don't even include those features in their DMN tools! The only part of DMN they use is the Decision Requirements [...]
There is no hotter segment of Business Automation software today than Low-Code. Low-Code refers to application development based on models - diagrams and tables - and business-accessible expression languages, not program code. Gartner assesses Low-Code as a $13.8 billion market in 2021, growing to $46.6 billion in 2023. And, they say, by 2024 it will [...]
Students in my BPMN Method and Style training are often befuddled by how to start a process. I see Conditional events, Error events, all kinds of things. No, stop! While the BPMN spec provides many different types of start events, only three of them are relevant to the non-executable flows most modelers are trying to [...]
In my previous posts on Business Automation, my focus has been on straight-through processes, since this is the sweet spot of the Trisotech platform. But even there, occasionally you need some human input, and that is where User tasks come in. User interaction is not a primary consideration in Trisotech BPMN, so the User task [...]
Last month we discussed a valuable low-code implementation pattern using Business Automation Services to create event-driven database apps in the cloud. Upon receipt of a business event - a REST API call - the pattern involves a straight-through process that retrieves various database records, calls a decision service to generate additional records, and then inserts [...]