The MicroGuide to Process and Decision Modeling in BPMN/DMN: Building More Effective Processes by Integrating Process Modeling with Decision Modeling

The book stresses the importance that for modern processes one needs to consider not only the internal processes but the interplay between events, the decisions taken on these events and the resulting consumer processes.Thereto it introduces BPMN and DMN, explains the usage of both and provides steps to integrate both.If you would like to refresh your BPMN knowledge or start with the combination of BPMN and DMN, I would certainly recommend this book.

Decision modeling isn't a new concept but it is hard to get some business people to understand. They understand business rules but don't get that one or more rules working together make up a decision. I wish all of the business people I work with, the ones responsible for the business rules, would read this book.

Excellent and highly detailed practitioner book. Heavy emphasis on step by step practical techniques in solid detail to drive results. Well written and easy to read yet the tools it demonstrates are quite powerful for construction and implementation of micro-decision models. Again, this is a book for the serious businessperson who wants to transform their operations in a tangible way.

A valuable book that addresses a critical modeling and application discipline. This micro guide offers practical examples and advise that will help you model processes, decisions and events holistically. I found the design approach to events particularly visionary as the premise is that it is through event design that your applications can become truly robust.

well written and informative for a newbie to BPMN & DPM

A good way of decision discovery to identify, describe, specify decision logic and reduce the complexity of the processes.

Great experience.

Until recently there has been a shortage of mainstream, published material for Decision Modeling and Notation (DMN) practitioners. The DMN specification itself is a worthy, but somewhat unapproachable, 172 page document – necessarily full of definitions, tool compliance level specifications and metamodel details. This is an essential reference work for tool vendors, but, quite rightly, is not festooned with introductory material, motivational narrative concerning the benefits of decision modeling, practical advice or realistic practical illustrations for users. Critically, it does not address the importance or details of integrating decision models and process models.Several worked examples have been distributed on internet fora and these, while they offer valuable insight into a single context, don’t really offer a rounded view of how to use DMN. In summary thus far, learning about DMN has been like trying to learn the art of poetry from a dictionary and a few of Shakespeare’s sonnets.Into the ring step Tom Debevoise and James Taylor with this updated microguide. Right from the outset this book impresses with its conciseness and wealth of examples. The authors waste no time in vague or grandiose introductions, instead they immediately signpost the book’s focus on the process /decision /event triumvirate and launch into core definitions. Within 8 pages of the first chapter, come the first examples of BPMN and DMN and how to interface them. It is this latter point, the integration and mutual reinforcement of process and decision modelling, later the subject of its own example-based chapter (chapter 6), which is a key strength of the guide. This pivotal chapter explains not only the mechanics of this collaboration, but the rationale for it, best practices and patterns for controlling processes (and detecting events) using decisions, an iterative method for modelling and how to determine the split of logic between process and decision—all points with which DMN newcomers (and some experienced process modelers) need help.The technique of illustrating each point with a concrete example, just complex enough for its purpose, is used here to great effect for process, event and decision modeling. This generous use of model vignettes (I counted over 100) makes the work much easier to read than a stodgy list of definitions. The focus on ‘micro’ applications quickly builds familiarity with both notations whilst nimbly illustrating best practices. These succinct examples also establish the work as a highly practical guide to which modelers can refer repeatedly; the layout makes it easy to quickly find a relevant vignette. There is also a good progression from core essentials to more advanced topics like transactions and exceptions.The authors convey the wealth of their experience with their focus on process, event and decision patterns; both course grain and fine grain patterns are covered. The course grain patterns are used to classify types of process modelling (e.g., document management versus human-centric) and decision modelling (e.g., validation, risk, fraud) in the first chapter. The fine grain patterns (e.g., complex non-interrupting merge in BPMN and the event modelling patterns of the EMF) illustrate reusable means of solving specific issues.However this text is no mere collection of notation definitions and examples, it also benefits from the authors’ respective years of mastery of these topics. Their experience of those notional features that frequently cause misunderstandings or confusion, even among experienced users, is obvious. The topics the authors choose to define especially carefully — for example: token based explanation of inclusive and parallel gateways in BPMN; the fact that decisions can act as authorities for knowledge sources; the ways in which event-centricity can change a process model; how business logic can be reused by multiple, context dependent references to the same business knowledge model and how data objects conduct data between process and decision models — help to clarify common misconceptions much more effectively than a dry notation specification. Furthermore they stress the important of data modelling to all process and decision definitions, something overlooked by many contemporaries.The book makes it plain that the authors’ expertise and influence extends beyond the use and teaching of these notations to their definition and evolution. For example, James Taylor gives some insightful comments on the likely future developments of DMN (e.g. grouping, text annotation and decision trees). It is apparent both authors have real visibility of and influence on the development of the notations.In conclusion...The generous use of examples just complex enough to illustrate each concept make this microguide a very effective way of learning about the BPMN and DMN notations, their best practices, common patterns of application and the means and motivation for applying them. The steady progression from basics to advanced topics ensures that the book is equally effective for newcomers and experienced practitioners in need of a refresh. Although focusing on BPN more than DMN, this book effectively illustrates how the two are used together and chapter 6’s effective case study, depicting how BPMN and DMN mutually reinforce each other, is worth the cover price on its own.This is a much needed addition to the current decision modelling canon and should do much to promote the effective use and integration of BPMN and DMN. I would strongly recommend it for all business analysts, business architects and IT professionals who deal with business logic.

With the arrival of any shiny new toy, there is a risk that the old faithful ones end up discarded in the corner. For businesses, the heralded introduction of a new technique is seemingly always qualified by the declaration of the death of another: "Out with Lean, in with Systems Thinking!"; "Out with Agile, in with Kanban!"; "Out with BPM, in with ACM!"Whilst decision modelling as a concept is not new, its standardisation through DMN means that its usage will start to grow rapidly in the next few years. But just because of its benefits, of which there are many, its power is only truly maximised when used in conjunction with BPMN. Having worked with people that would love to jettison any focus on process in favour of their shiny new decisions, only for them to realise that some decisions don't make sense to them because they don't see how they link together, the importance of emphasising the two in tandem is paramount to true decision management success.The best thing, in my view, about this book is that, by weaving the decision and process modelling together throughout, it does a fantastic job of emphasising how these two are equal in importance and how it's vital that they are understood in terms of their own merits, scope, and their power when brought together. The fact that this is the first book to include formal DMN references, it's fantastic to see this challenge addressed in such a cohesive way.The building blocks of both decision and process modelling are introduced, providing a perfect level-set for both newbies and experienced practitioners. Great care is taken to constantly reiterate linkage between the two notations and the clear demarcation between the scope of both is clear throughout.Examples are well thought through and the range of material covered in this micro guide is impressive without being overwhelming.What makes this book so great is how it is accessible to so many different levels of experience, making it suitable for anyone interested in this field.I'd highly recommend this to any Business Analysts, Technologists, Business Change and IT professionals.

Until recently there has been a shortage of mainstream, published material for Decision Modeling and Notation (DMN) practitioners. The DMN specification itself is a worthy, but somewhat unapproachable, 172 page document – necessarily full of definitions, tool compliance level specifications and metamodel details. This is an essential reference work for tool vendors, but, quite rightly, is not festooned with introductory material, motivational narrative concerning the benefits of decision modeling, practical advice or realistic practical illustrations for users. Critically, it does not address the importance or details of integrating decision models and process models.Several worked examples have been distributed on internet fora and these, while they offer valuable insight into a single context, don’t really offer a rounded view of how to use DMN. In summary thus far, learning about DMN has been like trying to learn the art of poetry from a dictionary and a few of Shakespeare’s sonnets.Into the ring step Tom Debevoise and James Taylor with this updated microguide. Right from the outset this book impresses with its conciseness and wealth of examples. The authors waste no time in vague or grandiose introductions, instead they immediately signpost the book’s focus on the process /decision /event triumvirate and launch into core definitions. Within 8 pages of the first chapter, come the first examples of BPMN and DMN and how to interface them. It is this latter point, the integration and mutual reinforcement of process and decision modelling, later the subject of its own example-based chapter (chapter 6), which is a key strength of the guide. This pivotal chapter explains not only the mechanics of this collaboration, but the rationale for it, best practices and patterns for controlling processes (and detecting events) using decisions, an iterative method for modelling and how to determine the split of logic between process and decision—all points with which DMN newcomers (and some experienced process modelers) need help.The technique of illustrating each point with a concrete example, just complex enough for its purpose, is used here to great effect for process, event and decision modeling. This generous use of model vignettes (I counted over 100) makes the work much easier to read than a stodgy list of definitions. The focus on ‘micro’ applications quickly builds familiarity with both notations whilst nimbly illustrating best practices. These succinct examples also establish the work as a highly practical guide to which modelers can refer repeatedly; the layout makes it easy to quickly find a relevant vignette. There is also a good progression from core essentials to more advanced topics like transactions and exceptions.The authors convey the wealth of their experience with their focus on process, event and decision patterns; both course grain and fine grain patterns are covered. The course grain patterns are used to classify types of process modelling (e.g., document management versus human-centric) and decision modelling (e.g., validation, risk, fraud) in the first chapter. The fine grain patterns (e.g., complex non-interrupting merge in BPMN and the event modelling patterns of the EMF) illustrate reusable means of solving specific issues.However this text is no mere collection of notation definitions and examples, it also benefits from the authors’ respective years of mastery of these topics. Their experience of those notional features that frequently cause misunderstandings or confusion, even among experienced users, is obvious. The topics the authors choose to define especially carefully — for example: token based explanation of inclusive and parallel gateways in BPMN; the fact that decisions can act as authorities for knowledge sources; the ways in which event-centricity can change a process model; how business logic can be reused by multiple, context dependent references to the same business knowledge model and how data objects conduct data between process and decision models — help to clarify common misconceptions much more effectively than a dry notation specification. Furthermore they stress the important of data modelling to all process and decision definitions, something overlooked by many contemporaries.The book makes it plain that the authors’ expertise and influence extends beyond the use and teaching of these notations to their definition and evolution. For example, James Taylor gives some insightful comments on the likely future developments of DMN (e.g. grouping, text annotation and decision trees). It is apparent both authors have real visibility of and influence on the development of the notations.In conclusion...The generous use of examples just complex enough to illustrate each concept make this microguide a very effective way of learning about the BPMN and DMN notations, their best practices, common patterns of application and the means and motivation for applying them. The steady progression from basics to advanced topics ensures that the book is equally effective for newcomers and experienced practitioners in need of a refresh. Although focusing on BPN more than DMN, this book effectively illustrates how the two are used together and chapter 6’s effective case study, depicting how BPMN and DMN mutually reinforce each other, is worth the cover price on its own.This is a much needed addition to the current decision modelling canon and should do much to promote the effective use and integration of BPMN and DMN. I would strongly recommend it for all business analysts, business architects and IT professionals who deal with business logic.

This guide to process and decision modelling provides an interesting, useful and basic, introduction to DMN, However, the amount of space devoted to DMN is fairly small compared to that for BPMN.There are plenty of books on BPMN, and I would have rather a more thorough introduction to DMN. If you are in the same position, then "DMN Method and Style" by Bruce Silver may be a better purchase.

very pragmatic! i already intent to use the things i learned in my next mandat.

Sorry, I have to rate two stars for the summary of BPMN and DMN. I want to have my money back.