A Pragmatic Guide to Business Process Modelling

Consider the analogy of a magician performing a card trick – the process is easy to follow but impossible to replicate from the audience‘s point of view. To replicate such a magic trick it is necessary to understand several different views of the trick, rather than simply looking at it from the audience‘s point of view. A full understanding will require some degree of domain knowledge concerning magic and sleight–of–hand, and insight into the hidden complexities behind the trick and a knowledge of the mis–communication devices employed by magicians. The challenge, therefore, is in creating an accurate and concise model of a process – a task that is plagued with complexity and difficulty in understanding the often–buried processes and communication trails that exist.

About the Author:

Jon Holt is the founder–director of Brass Bullet Ltd, a software and systems engineering consultancy company based in Swansea, South Wales. He holds a number of positions at universities both in the UK and the USA and is a Fellow of the BCS and the IEE. His work interests include all aspects of process modelling, standards and education.