1-1.So They Say That BPMN Is A Business Process "Notation"
thinking, thinking… What do you think of when you hear "Notation" ?
One minute of thinking isn’t getting us any closer, so let’s ask our friend Google.
Please, no stealing.Aha, Wiki Notation!
…Well, maybe.
A way of stubbornly avoiding HTML tags, by using asterisks (*) and colons (:).
Please, no making things up.Or, Polish Notation!
…Um, probably not.
It's a style that some programmers from the previous century fancied. Polish Notation
The Polish Notation (and Reverse Polish Notation) was a Polish invention in which 1+2+3 is written as + 1 2 3.
Anyways, BPMN is also a Notation.
It’s short for Business Process Modeling Notation, and is a way of portraying business processes.
Most notably, it defines a "Way to Draw" business processes.
Perhaps it would be best if we say, BPMN is a method of drawing business processes.
<Figure 1>
In other words—unlike HTML, XML, Wiki Notation, Polish Notation, etc., etc.—it isn’t about words and texts.。
1-2.Tasks Are Rectangles With Rounded Corners
BPMN is a "method of drawing." Even those of you who can't suppress a shudder at the mention of XML and Wiki can muster up some curiosity if we say "How to draw."
So, before we lose you again with words, here is a sample of a business process drawn in BPMN.
<Figure 2>
Hey, I could draw that!Yes, it's that easy. What would take a lot more effort in words, gets across easily this way. No prior knowledge is necessary. And the most important point is…
You can understand it intuitively.
By the way, as you can see,
individual tasks are round-cornered rectangles, and the business flow goes from left to right.
These are part of the BPMN rules.
