One of the best features of the BPMN Method and Style training is the post-class certification. For most students, this is when the training starts to really take hold. There are two steps to becoming certified. Step 1 is an online multiple choice exam, similar to other certifications. But the bigger value is Step 2, in which students must create a BPMN model following the Method and Style principles and model structure taught in the training. They email it to me for review. A tiny few pass on the first try. Most take two or three attempts, but correcting your mistakes is how you learn to do it correctly.
The thing we emphasize the most in the class is making the process logic clear from the printed diagram alone, without support from hyperlinks and dialog boxes in the authoring tool or an accompanying book of explanatory text. To do that, we use certain labeling conventions, such as matching child-level end state labels with gateway and gate labels in the parent-level diagram. The models are hierarchical in structure, revealing at a glance at the top-level diagram 1) how the process starts; 2) the meaning of the process instance: and 3) its possible distinct end states. The labeling conventions let you trace the process logic from the top-level diagram down.
The exercise has certain required elements - the aforementioned gateway/end state matching , synchronizing join, event gateway, and error throw-catch - and verifies that students can correctly use the most common BPMN Level 2 event types, Message, Timer, and Error.
One recently certified student published his exercise on his own website and gave me permission to reference it as an example of student work. I invite you to take a look at it. It reflects the kind of detail, including exception paths, needed to document and analyze a "real" business process, or create business requirements for a to-be IT implementation. If you would like your BPM team to be able to create models of this quality, I suggest the BPMN Method and Style training and certification. The next class is October 22-24. Click here for more information.