I saw a link a couple days ago for a BPMN self-test, and thought I’d try it out. The test, available to anyone, is “part of a research project by Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven on the understanding of BPMN Process Models.” It’s harmless I suppose, but – to my way of thinking, anyway – a bit off target, and in typical academic fashion. It is composed of thirty-odd true-false questions each concerning the behavior described by a particular diagram. I don’t exaggerate by saying the exercise is 50% a test of one’s knowledge of the difference between XOR and AND gateways and 50% a test of one’s ability to follow a maze of twisty-turny criss-crossing sequence flows interconnecting 50 or more nodes in a meaningless diagram. (Although my 4-year old granddaughter Maia is pretty good at mazes, these would be over her head, but I doubt she would find the BPMN semantics challenging.)
I thought I would get them all right, but I missed two (tracing through the maze is not so easy). That put me 99th out of 283 who had taken the test so far, which says a lot by itself.
Anyway, while the test seems totally misdirected as to what is important to know about BPMN, it is a quite clever marketing tool for BPMN training. There are hints in that direction on the self-test site, although, as I say, I don’t think the test itself would motivate the kind of business process analysts and architects I encounter on this side of the Atlantic.
So I decided to create my own BPMN self-test, more reflective of the understanding I think is important. It’s only 10 multiple choice questions, each containing four diagrams, one of which is the correct answer. I would not be embarrassed to call it marketing for my book and training, and it’s helping me get acquainted with the capabilities of the iLinc environment I am using for my virtual classroom offering.
Here’s the link to my BPMN self-test. Unlike the other one, you have to register for mine – basically name, company/title, and email. It sticks to the core Level 1 and Level 2 palette, but it is reasonably challenging if you don’t know BPMN well.
Try them both, and tell me what you think.
Hi Bruce,
Thank you for your initiative!
I took BPMN Self-Test and even there was a nice collection of questions I was a little bit disappointed of no-evaluation.
I think would be pleasing to have some score (maybe nothing entangle but just a basic result i.e. 80 out of 100).
I have your book and I read it with interest. It’s a high-quality book about BPMN and I think it would be a great reference in the future! Looking forward to BPMN 2.0 in 2010.
I just saw the submit button bellow the text… Mea culpa!
This is a great test, if not somewhat humbling (although I’ve consoled myself by persuading myself that I completed it too quickly!) and certainly far more useful and pertinent than the test that prompted its creation in the first place. My only quick question was a concern around the need to register; what’s being done with the information that was submitted?
Thanks
Nick
Thanks Nick. Regarding registration, well, it’s the same as registering on BPMS Watch (e.g. to comment, get the whitepapers, etc.) The purpose is so from time to time I can send emails to the list to advertise training, the book, webcasts, etc. Just like most any site with free content. If you unsubscribe from those mailings, I take you off the list. The individual scores are private. I will maintain statistics about them in the aggregate only.
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Nice test, you really need to understand the meaning of the BPMN constructs in order to answer the questions. When reading the evaluation, I would have liked to see the diagrams again.
Agree with allweyer – nice to see the diagrams again for evaluation of errors.
BPMN 2.0 needs more training on my side, and still running on BPMN 1.0 (!) in my organistation. Would appreciate more of theese test (or more questions?). I have tried out the self-test by Humbolt, but was thrown out just before finishing… (grrr). The test is a good benchmark for BPMN architects (as long as you lock the door, log out of outlook, and shut the phone down), but I would never suggest this for others in my org before they have extensive hands on training on how-to-model-BPMN. Your test however could be used to checkout knowledge levels along the learning track. Could it be an idea to group the test according to your book? I have adviced several internal resources to read your book, and it would be great if individuals could “check-out” the theory along the way. Would probably conflict with your online-training, but could be done in a more high-level test?…
@allweyer and mack,
Good suggestion about posting the answer sheet including the diagrams (with explanation). I can’t find a way to do this directly on iLinc (except before you submit… that wouldn’t work). I will probably send a followup email instead when I receive the score. Later this week I hope…
–Bruce
OK, test takers now receive a detailed answer sheet with explanations by email from me after I tabulate their scores.
–Bruce
[…] von dem BPMN-Test der Humboldt-Uni hat auch Bruce Silver einen BPMN-Selbstest online gestellt. Anders als bei den Kollegen aus Berlin geht es ihm aber nicht um das Verständnis […]
Thanks for mailing the diagrams and the detailed explanations of the correct answers. This is really helpful.
[…] https://www.methodandstyle.com/2009/12/29/two-bpmn-self-tests/ […]
[…] blog BPMS Watch você tem acesso ao teste criado por Bruce Silver para avaliar o conhecimento em BPMN. Este possui 10 questões de multipla […]
If the test is like yours that aims at really appreciate BPMN understanding, it is good for marketing both the training and the BPMN value.
Moreover I think that your diagrams are far more complex (while very compact, meaningful and understandable) than the Humboldt ones. Wasn’t BPMN designed to create richer but understandable process models?