My BPMessentials BPMN Method and Style class shows you how to translate process logic from text-based information into BPMN diagrams that are clear, complete, and consistently structured. But how do you get that text-based information in the first place? And what is your purpose for doing so? In most cases, the intent is some form of business process improvement project. And just like the BPMN modeling, that project also needs a methodology. That methodology determines the right members of your project team, the questions they should be asking, the analytical techniques they should employ to pinpoint problems in the As-Is process, and redesign principles that will move them toward their process improvement targets.

If you wish someone would put that all in a book, you’re in luck! Shelley Sweet of i4 Process has just published The BPI Blueprint: A Step-By-Step Guide to Make Your Business Process Improvement Projects Simple, Structured, and Successful.  It’s now available on Amazon at a great discount, and I highly recommend it.  Although the book is aimed at business users, not techies, it avoids the hidebound tool phobia that characterizes most books in the process improvement space and embraces standards like BPMN and modern digital tools.  Yes, there are still colored stickies on butcher paper involved in the information-gathering phase, but the book shows how to capture, maintain, and share that information using IBM Blueworks Live, the leading process improvement tool today that is aimed at business users.

Check it out!