Business Processes are defined and modelled in the Logical View of the Business Layer of the Essential Meta Model. This tutorial takes you through a how Business Processes are defined and modelling in detail.

Before you start

Before you start any modelling you need to understand what the process you are modelling is, and what process steps are conatined within it.  Once you have done this, you need to understand whether these processes are already defined within your architecture or whether you need to add them.

If required, you can also identify and add the 'Event' that initiates the Process, or the Event(s) that is the outcome of the Process.  These are useful for understanding what triggers the process you are modelling and what the outcome of the process is.  If you do want to include them it is a good idea to identify first what the Events are and ensure they are added to your repository.

Depending on how much modelling you have already completed, you may already have the Processes and Events created in your project.  If so, you can skip the next section and move to 'Creating the Business Process Flow'.  If not, you need to first follow the steps below in 'Creating the Processes and Events'.

Creating the Processes and Events

Once you have identified all the processes in your process model, you navigate to Business Process under Business Process Type in the Business Logical Model in the Class Browser, and click on the Create Instance button, . Your new Business Process will now look like the following screenshot.

Essential Architecture Manager gives you the ability to capture a lot of information regarding a Business Process.  Complete as much as you are able to at this time.  However, if you do not know all the information, you can complete it later. Now you need to create a process for each process step in your model. 

Once you have created all the process steps you have identified you then need to create a 'holding' process. If, for example, we are creating the 'Pick by Order Deliver by Postal Service' Business Process Model, you would call this process 'Pick by Order Deliver by Postal Service'.

Now you need to create any Business Events that you have identified. Navigate to Business Event in the Business Logical Model in the Class Browser, and click on the Create Instance button, .

You then create an Event for each Event in your process model, completing as much information as you have at this time. 

When you have done this you are now ready to create the Business Process Model.  

Creating the Business Process Model - Defining Business Process Flow

Expand the Logical Business Model Instance and you will see the Business Process Flow Instance.  Select this and once again click on the Create Instance button, . Alternatively, go to the 'Defining Business Process' field of your Business Process definition and click on the Create Instance button, .

Your new Business Process Flow will look like this screenshot (right).

Scroll down until you see the 'Defines Business Process' field,  as shown right: If this does not already show the name of your new Business Process (it will do if you created this Business Process Flow by the alternative method described above), relate this process flow to the process that it defines as follows:

Click on the Add Instance,  ,and select the 'holding' Instance - in our example, Pick by Order Deliver by Postal Service.  You will see that the name in the Instance Browser will change to the new name.

Now drag on the required elements (Business Processes, Business Activities, Business Events) from the palette on the left of the screen.  Hover over the element unitl you see a hand-pointer and double click - or select an element and click on the  button. Then complete the boxes highlighted in red which will name the process and tell the model which Business Process, Business Activity or Business Event it is that you are using in this flow. Again, always use 'add instance'  if you have already created the process.

Once you have all your artefacts on the screen, join them into a sequential flow by clicking on the first and dragging to the second. An arrow is drawn on the model as you create the relationship between the steps of the process.

The following diagram shows an example of a completed process flow.

Alternative Method

If you have not created the Processes and Events required, there is an alternative method to creating the model.  This is simply a matter of personal choice, there are no particular advantages to either method.

You can navigate directly to the Business Process Model and follow the instructions above to create your model, but when you have dragged on the artefcats you need, when completing the form for each, you click on the Create Instance button, rather than the Add Instance button. This allows you to create the Process steps and Events on-the-fly, whilst you are modelling rather than before hand.

If you are using this method you need to enaure that you do not create duplicate processes and events.  It is best-practice to click the Add Inatance button first to check that the process, activity or event that you need is not already present in the repository before clicking the Create Instance button.

Decomposition

You can break down process models by defining activites and tasks within the process and modelling these in the Business Activity flow in excatly the same way as described above.