Significance Of Business Process Modeling Notation

The merger of the Business Process Management Initiative and the Object Management group in 2005 has made business process modeling notation a stronger influence to reckon with considering that it was developed by the BPMI and is being maintained by the Group. BPMI released the BPMN 1.0 to the public last May, 2004. This is a product of over two years of hard work by the Group.

Business process modeling notation makes use of a standard graphical notation to draw the workflow of a business process. The use of a standard notation aims to make the whole process easily understandable by business users including the following:

* Technical developers who will implement the whole process
* Business managers who will manage the process and monitor how it works
* Business analysts who will design and improve the process

Most business process designs are not easily understandable to its users and implementers leading to a communication gap. The business process modeling notation aims to bridge this gap to provide a more efficient business improvement process.

What makes BPMN easily understandable to users is the fact that it makes use of simple diagrams that are already familiar to those analyzing business processes. The elements that are used here can easily be distinguished from one another such as the use of rectangles in the diagram to represent activities, and the use of diamonds to represent decisions.

There are a lot of languages and tools being used in business processing and they can only be unified with the use of a standard notation very much like the BPMN. However, the use of this standard notation is only effective for business process modeling and not for other types such as the functional breakdowns, organizational structures and data models.

With the use of standardized BPMN, business will be able to understand their internal procedures and work processes through a graphical notation enabling them to better respond to emergency situations that require quick responses. Process modeling is very important for a business because it gives the company an idea of the workflow from the decision makers to the implementers.

Business process modeling was previously known as simply a technology that helps companies that are paper-driven or require a lot of paperwork to accomplish its tasks. Take for example an insurance company that relies on paper documents for their efficient operations from the initial insurance policies to the claims. With BPMN, the whole process of scanning these documents and tracing the paper trail would be a breeze.

Gone are the days when business operations were as simple as filing out a bunch of forms. With the use of business software, business operations have become more complicated (in the eyes of an outsider who does not understand the whole process) but a lot more efficient for the insiders. And BPMN has revolutionized the way businesses handle their business processes, from top to bottom.