EA - BPM methodology

[ToM]

I would like to create a Business Process Model (BPM) of our company (commercial call-centrum). I have EA tool. What type of methodology EA use (or support) for creating BPM (I mean for example RUP, ARIS, EPC, IDEF …) ?

Thank You TOM

[thomaskilian]

You can design anything UML based. EA has support for Eriksson-Penker and an own flavour via UML-Profile (see here: http://www.sparxsystems.com.au/uml_profiles.htm). ARIS should be used with ARIS (or Visio).

[Egbert]

Tom, I'm basically in the same position than you, and would like to know which of the profiles listed on the EA UML Profiles page would be the best to use for Business Processes.

I'm also new to EA, and look for some ways to make models with EA which can be converted later to BPEL.

Also, if I use the diagrams in one of these Business Process profiles, how does it relate to Use Cases?

Thanks

Egbert

[Kevin Brennan]

The best UML models for business process design are the Erikkson-Penker notation, use cases, and activitiy diagrams.

[Egbert]

Thanks Kevin

Because Business Modelling is quite new to me, I still have a bit of a problem getting my head around the relationship of Use Cases and BPML (or BPEL?). I don’t want to double up. In other words, if I use the Erikkson-Penker notation, do I still need to do Use Cases, and if I do, at what stage should I use it?

Thanks

Egbert

[ToM]

What does it mean - BPML or BPEL ?

Finally - for my business process model I used to MS Visio 2003 (I know it is only drawing tool, not case) and usual EPC notation (events, process, ...). I dont like create BPM as activity diagram, use case and Erikkson-Penker notation.

I think, that EA is very good tool for UML modelling but BPM is not strongly supported.

I spent a lot of time searching on web, reading a lot of articles about BPM and there are a lot of different informations and I didn't find one or main recommendation for methodology.

[Kevin Brennan]

The Erikson-Penker notation is useful for documenting the purpose of a business process. It basically shows inputs, outputs, and goals.

A use case or activity diagram would be developed later in the BPM project. A business use case lets you describe the interior flow of the process, so you can see what all the steps in it are (an activity diagram is the best way to show the same information graphically in UML).

BPEL is an executable language that can be used in certain kinds of application development. If you're not implementing a project using it, then don't worry about it. It has a somewhat related diagramming notation (BPMN) which may be useful as an alternative but is not supported by EA.