Reviewing a BPMN process flow

To review the end-to-end process flow of an Analysis Process Model (APM) process, review each call activity (Business Process Model and Notation - BPMN). Analyze and customize the properties as appropriate.

  1. Review the core descriptions of a call activity.
    Figure 1. Administer Medical Expense Claim process flow
    Administer Medical Expense Claim process flow
    Call activity BPMN objects make calls to either a global task, or another (nested) BPMN process. The definition of these called elements is copied within the General properties of the call activity.
    Figure 2. Contextual documentation for a call activity: Verify Payment Mandate
    Contextual documentation for a call activity: Verify Payment Mandate

    This definition can be updated in the context of the call to the global task, without updating the definition of the global task.

  2. Review the contextual comments of a call activity.
    Additional context based documentation can be added to the Documentation tab of the properties of a call activity.
    Figure 3. Documentation for a call activity: Notify Claim
    Documentation for a call activity: Notify Claim

    This figure shows an example of a predefined contextual comment. Some business rules can be initially documented in these contextual comments and associated with the call activities in the process.

  3. Review the data inputs and outputs of a call activity.
    Review each call activity to analyze the Data Inputs and Data Outputs properties to understand the data specifications related to that element.
    Figure 4. Data inputs and outputs for a call activity
    Data inputs and outputs for a call activity

    Data inputs and outputs in APM have an Item subject which is a reference to a (BPMN) item definition, defined in the global business terms. These item definitions are referenced globally to allow reuse in other processes and a consistent view of data items.

  4. Review the resources (role players) of a call activity. Review each call activity to analyze the Resources property.
    Figure 5. Resources for a call activity
    Resources for a call activity

    Resources represent the role player responsible for implementing the global task or process, in this context, called by the call activity. Resources are kept globally, for reuse, in the Global Definitions section of APM.

  5. Review call activities against requirements. When the process has been reviewed in detail, each call activity must be reviewed against the requirements, paying attention to:
    • Business rules
    • Data specifications
    • Channel dependencies
    • Implementation decisions