Here comes my lazy cooking recipe. Not sure if it counts, but at least it satisfies a hungry human being by delivering food :-) And it shows how to use pools in BPMN.
Rune, it depends on the type of exception (e.g. will the pizza boy give you the pizza even though you don't have money (non-interrupting) or will he eat it by himself (interrupting) :-) Typically you are using the "corner" events attached to functions and/or the intermediate events (e.g. timers).
Since BPMN doesn't have "one" way to model a process -e.g. OR gateways or adding conditions to the connectors- it is important to reduce this "freedom" during the Methods & Conventions workshop to make sure that you get comparable models.
OMG realized this complexity and defined 4 sub-classes of objects which should help modelers by restricting available objects by role. I am curious how the models will look in this contest :-)
Inhouse I could start reading our 84 pages long BPMN conventions handbook coming along with ARIS Business Architect 7.1. But actually exploring BPMN as a language from its grammar book is rather boring.
And yes, I can ask Google.
But I am more interested what the BPMN experts in our ARIS Community can recommend?
Fully agree with Rune: Sebastian, you owe :) the community another version of the process showing all mentioned exceptions + compensations such as you call the Pizza service to cancel delivery because you changed your mind or later - because they exceeded the promised delivery time and you found another solution to your hunger problem.
Re: the second question of Rune, there is one nice free online resource but so far it's not updated for v.2. Anyway, I find it one of the intros that really take care of the learner. The way events, gateways and messages work is shown with nice simulations available both online and in a PDF that can be downloaded.
I know that this is a cat-chasing-her-tail situation, but maybe you can find a cost center to charge Thomas's book to :-) I read it in Feb and it is a quick read for 18 EUR.
Another good book is Bruce Silver's "BPMN Method and Style" which covers the modeling perspective. He is involved in the 2.0 work and I assume that his ideas for clustering the objects led to the sub-categorization. For earlier versions of BPMN you might want to have a look into Stephen White's "BPMN Modeling and Reference Guide" (from the "master" himself).
Another recommended source is the website Ivo mentioned above. And lastly you might want to pay attention to the internal webcast I will do in June (even though it might be too late for the competition ;-)
-R.
PS: I do not recommend to have a look at the OMG spec or the "BPMN 2.0 in ARIS" implementation document if you want to learn the notation. These docs look at BPMN from a technical perspective and are no training docs. So you may want to look in the other sources... However there is a white papers by Sebastion (BPMN 1.x) and chapter 12 in the method manual (also BPMN 1.x) available for a first introduction.
some of the BPMN constructs are currently not implemented in ARIS yet, if they have an execution focus. The "BPMN 2.0 in ARIS" PDF on the Service Release 5 CD mentions this. I don't know if and how this will be implemented in Express since this tool has the focus on a beginner's modeling needs and exceptions and interrupting/non-interrupting events are clearly an advanced topic.
I think I remembered reading something like that elsewhere on this site ...
Roland, to complete your answer, it seems that Aris express only support level 1 of Modelization (cf Bruce silver book):
"how to use BPMN at two different levels, with a method and style applicable to each level
Level 1, or descriptive BPMN, is intended for business users. It relies on a basic working set of shapes and symbols, familiar from traditional flowcharting, but aligned with the basic structure and meaning of Level 2.
Level 2, or analytical BPMN, is intended for business process analysts and architects, as well as developers planning to collaborate with business on process design. Level 2 BPMN represents a common process language shared by business and IT, but achieving that common language demands attention to method and style. Level 2 refines Level 1 models with an emphasis on events and exception handling, the source of problems in most existing processes. "
From my previous experiences, Multi level and SoC approaches during process discovery are useful and provide very good outcomes.
Meanwhile, in goal to business improvments, an discovery/modelization in the level 2 are useful
Uh folks, maybe I should have called my entry "The lazy competition entry" ;-) I just wanted to give you something to start from. But I'm pretty sure you will submit much more advanced models!
Sebastian, this happens when you are playing with fire ;-) Now we are all curious how you solve the pizza problem with all possible execptions - e.g. what do you do when you drip tomato sauce on your shirt and have a business appointment 5 mins after lunch ... :-)
