Process Modelling - Course Module

Duration

One full day.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this module.

Outline

Processes form the heart of any organisation, regardless of its size, type or age. Any organisation that actually does anything will, whether it realises or not, follow processes. These processes may be formal, documented process, or may be informal processes that exist only inside people’s heads. Regardless of the nature of the processes, they will all exhibit three features: they will be complex, require a deep level of understanding and will need to be communicated. This is where the modelling fits in.

The process modelling approach adopted in this course is based on the most popular and widely used modelling language in the world – the UML (Unified Modelling Language), which was created as an open standard and is now an ISO standard.

The most obvious use for process modelling is for the definition of new processes but, as will be discussed and demonstrated during the course, process modelling forms an integral part of many process-related activities, including: process improvement, process re-engineering, process compliance, standards compliance, business analysis, and so on.

This one-day course begins with a discussion of processes, establishing terminology and introducing the UML as the modelling language to be used. This is followed by a discussion of modelling which leads in to a description of the four UML diagrams used for process modelling. The final section of the course describes the approach taken for process modelling, detailing the seven views needed to successfully capture business processes, how the views are realized in UML, how they are related and checks that should be performed to ensure a complete and consistent model. A full discussion of how to analyse and interpret the models will demonstrate the full business value of process modelling.

1. Course Introduction and Overview  

• Scope of the course
• What to expect
• Course overview

2. Introduction          

• The magic of processes
• Definitions
• Risk
• Process modelling

3. Talking the language - the UML      

• Modelling
• The UML language
• Class diagrams
• Activity diagrams
• Sequence diagrams
• Use case diagrams
• Consistency

4. The Process Meta-model 

• The process meta-model
• The concept view
• The realisation view
• The seven views
• Requirements view
• Process structure view
• Process content view
• Stakeholder view
• Process behaviour view
• Information view
• Process instance view
• Consistency
• Using the meta-model
• Process mapping