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Lesson 1: Import the sample business process model

This lesson shows you how to create a model project and import an existing business process model into it.

Create a project that contains an empty service model

Before you begin

You must be in the Modeling perspective. To open the Modeling perspective, click Window > Open Perspective > Modeling.
Tip: If you close or move a view, you can return it to its default position by clicking Window > Reset Perspective.

About this task

To create a model project that contains an empty service model:

Procedure

  1. Click File > New > Model Project.
  2. In the Model Project wizard, on the Create Model Project page, specify the characteristics of the new project:
    1. In the Project name field, type MyProject.
    2. Verify that the following options are selected:
      • Use default location
      • Create new model in project
      • Standard template
        Note: You do not have to create a model when you create a model project; you can create a model later. However, for this tutorial, it is convenient to create the model at the same time as the project.
    3. Click Next.
  3. On the Create Model page, specify the standard template from which to create the project:
    1. Under Categories, select Service Modeling. If Services Modeling is not an option, select the Show All Templates check box.
    2. Under Templates, select Blank Services Package.
    3. Verify that the File name field specifies a value of Services.
    4. Click Finish. If a Confirm Enablement window opens, click OK to enable the Services Modeling activity.

Results

A project that contains an empty services model is created in the workspace. In the Project Explorer view, verify that a project named MyProject project exists, and that the Models folder of the project contains a model named Services, as shown in the following image:
Image showing the new project named MyProject and the model that it contains, named Services.

Import the business process model

You must download the business process model to the file system. The services model you create in this tutorial is derived from the business process model.

About this task

To import the business process model into the current workspace:

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the following location to download the business process model: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27016872. You can download this model to any location in the file system. After you download the file, make sure there is a space between the words Business and Process. On download, extra characters may have been inserted between each word.
  2. In the workbench, select the MyProject project (the one that you created in the Create a project that contains an empty service model section), and click File > Import.
  3. In the Import wizard, on the Select page, expand General, click File System, and click Next.
  4. On the File System page, complete the following steps:
    1. Beside the From directory field, click Browse, and browse the to folder that contains the business process model that you imported in step 1. A business process model has .bpmx as a file name extension.
    2. In the right pane, select the check box that corresponds to the business process model file. If the right list is empty, in the left list, click the folder that contains the model, but do not select the check box that corresponds to the name of the folder; doing so selects the folder and all its contents.
    3. Verify that the Into folder field contains “MyProject”, the name of your model project.
    4. Under Options, verify that the Created selected folder only option is selected.
    5. Click Finish.

    The project that you created in the Create a project that contains an empty service model section now contains the populated business process model that you imported.

Explore the business process model

About this task

To show the business process model in the diagram editor, in the Project Explorer view, double-click the model named Business Process.bpmx. The diagram editor opens, and the model should look similar to the following image:
The business process model.

Results

This business process model describes a purchasing process that a company wants to automate. The parts of the model are described below:
  • The outermost rectangle represents a pool, which is named "Purchasing." The pool represents the business process as a whole.
  • The enclosed rectangles, which are named "Scheduling," "Shipping," and "Invoicing," are called lanes. These lanes represent subdivisions of the business process that separate entities perform. The entities might be people, IT resources, or a mixture of both. You can think of each lane as a role that someone plays as part of the overall business process.
  • In the "Shipping" lane, the circles, which are labeled "start" and "end", represent a start event and an end event, respectively. They represent the starting and ending points of the business process.
  • The rounded rectangles represent tasks. The tasks represent the steps that each lane (role) in the process performs.
  • The grey lines represent sequence flows. These lines indicate the order in which the tasks are performed.
  • The diamond shapes that contain a plus sign (+) represent parallel gateways. The gateways indicate the start or end of parallel execution. All the outgoing flows from a parallel gateway can be performed in parallel. All the incoming flows to a parallel gateway must reach the gateway before the outgoing flows can continue.

    You can specify parallelism without a parallel gateway. For example, in the "Shipping" lane, the "Process Schedule" task has two outgoing flows, which indicates that each task can be performed in parallel.

At this point in the tutorial, you can either close the business process model, or keep it open.

Lesson checkpoint

You imported a business process model into a project that you created.

You can now begin to derive a services model from it.

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