Results of the

BPMN Usage Survey

1st April – 19th April 2011

Dr. Michele Chinosi, PhD (chinosi.michele@gmail.com) and Dr. Alberto Trombetta, PhD http://bpex.blogspot.com

1. Introduction These results will be part of a paper entitled “BPMN: an Introduction to the Standard” that will be published in 2011. In the article the collected results herewith presented are compared and sometimes merged with other data coming from other surveys and from freely available sources on the Internet, like LinkedIn groups dedicated to BPMN or Web-Communities. During the period of this survey more than 30 answers were collected. The intended audience of the questionnaire was a (even small) community of experts and proficient BPMN users. Thus, even if this survey can not be taken into account as representative of a public sentiment about BPMN, this work clearly represents a sight of the experts on how BPMN is used by practitioners in everyday business process modeling chores.

2. BPMN standard and graphical notation

2.1. Which version of BPMN are you currently using?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

BPMN 1.1 BPMN 1.1, BPMN1.2

BPMN 1.1, BPMN1.2, BPMN 2.0

BPMN 1.2, BPMN2.0

BPMN 1.2 BPMN 2.0

2.2. How much are you familiar with... (starting with BPMN 1.2 elements as subset of BPMN 2.0 elements)

Results in a scale from 1 (less familiar) to 5 (very familiar). For a matter of space in the graph legend we used abbreviations. This is the ordered list of all the elements as listed in the legend of the graph: Pools, Lanes, Nested Lanes, Untyped Events, Message Events, Timer Events, Error Events, Cancel Events, Compensation Events, Conditional Events, Signal Events, Multiple Events, Link Events, Terminate Events, Data-Based Exclusive Gateways, Event-Based Exclusive Gateways, Parallel Gateways, Inclusive Gateways, Complex Gateways, Tasks, Sub-Processes, Ad-hoc Sub-processes, Embedded Sub-Processes, Loop Activities, MultiInstance Activities, Transactions, Events put on Activities boundaries, Groups,

Text Annotation, Data Objects, Sequence Flows, Conditional Flows, Default Flows, Message Flows, Associations.

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

1 2 3 4 5

How much are you familiar with these elements?

Pools Lanes Nested Lanes Un. Events Msg. Events Timer EvError Ev Cancel Ev Comp. Ev. Cond. Ev. Sign. Ev. Mult. Ev.Link. Ev. Term. Ev. DBX Gtw. EBX Gtw. Par. Gtw. Inc. Gtw.Com. Gtw. Task SubPr. AdHoc SP Emb. SP LoopMI Act. Transac. Ev. on Bound Groups Text Ann Data ObjSeq Flow Cond Flow Def. Flow Msg. Flow Association

2.3. How much are you familiar with... (only for BPMN 2.0 users) Results in a scale from 1 (less familiar) to 5 (very familiar). For a matter of space in the graph legend we used abbreviations. This is the ordered list of all the elements as listed in the legend of the graph: Escalation Events, Parallel Multiple Events, Events Sub-Process Interrupting, Events Sub-Process Non-Interrupting, Boundary Interrupting Events, Boundary Non-Interrupting Events, Exclusive Event-based Gateway (Instantiate), Parallel Event-based Gateway (Instantiate), Call Activities, Sequential MultiInstance Activities, Data Input, Data Output, Collection Data Object, Data Store, Message (to depict the content of a communication), Conversation Diagrams, Conversation Link, Forked Conversation Link, Choreography Diagrams, Choreography Task, Choreography Sub-Process, Multiple Participants Marker

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

50.00%

1 2 3 4 5

How much are you familiar with these elements?

Esc. Ev. P.M. Ev. Ev. Int. Ev. Non-In. Bound. Int. Bound.N.Int.X EB GW I P EB GW I Call Act. SeqMI Act Data In Data OutColl. Data Data Store Msg Conv. Diag Conv. Link Conv. FLinkChor. Diag Ch. Task Ch. SubP MP Marker

2.4. How many elements are your processes composed of? (On the average, excluding flows)

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

TOTPoo

lLa

ne

Events

Tasks

SubP

Gateway

s

Artifac

ts

Conve

rsatio

ns

Choreo

graph

ies

<5 5-10 11-15 16-25 >25

3. Preferred tools

3.1. Which are your favourite tools?

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

14.00%

BizAgi

INTALIO

BPMN D

esign

er

ITP Proc

ess M

odell

er

ORACLE BPM Stud

io

Signav

io Aca

demic

/ Oryx

TIBCO Busine

ss Stud

io

Trisote

ch Visio

Stencils

ARIS Bus

iness

Arch

itect

(ARIS Bus

iness

Des

igner)

BONITA Studio

Global

360 A

nalys

tView

SAVVION Proc

ess M

odell

er

SPARX Ente

rprise

Archite

ct

Visual

Paradig

m BP-VA

ARIS Bus

iness

Arch

itect

Cameo

Busine

ss M

odele

r (NoM

agic)

Fujitsu

Inter

stage

BPM

IBM Rati

onal

Software

Arch

itect

IDS S

chee

r ARIS Exp

ress

iGraf

x

JBos

s jBPM

MEGA suite

Visio

Yaoqia

ng B

PMN Editor

3.2. Why?

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

14.00%

Eas

y to

use

BP

MN

2.0

Com

plia

nce

(gra

phic

al n

otat

ion

+ at

tribu

tes

and

prop

ertie

s)

Rep

osito

ry (e

ven

rem

ote

via

SV

N,F

TP,..

.)

Val

idat

ion

supp

ort

Exe

cutio

n en

viro

nmen

t

Pric

e

Sup

porte

d P

latfo

rms

BP

MN

1.1

/1.2

Com

plia

nce

(gra

phic

al n

otat

ion

+ at

tribu

tes

and

prop

ertie

s)

Doc

umen

tatio

n of

pro

cess

es is

aut

omat

ical

ly g

ener

ated

Inte

grat

ion

with

oth

er s

oftw

are

BP

MN

2.0

Com

plia

nce

(onl

y gr

aphi

cal n

otat

ion)

Col

labo

rativ

e en

viro

nmen

t

Ope

n-so

urce

Sim

ulat

ion

envi

ronm

ent

Sup

port

for X

PD

L

Exp

ortin

g fo

rmat

s

It in

tegr

ates

oth

er fu

nctio

nalit

ies

(bus

ines

s an

alys

is,o

rgan

izat

ion

char

ts,re

ports

,...)

Sup

port

for W

SD

L

BP

MN

1.1

/1.2

Com

plia

nce

(onl

y gr

aphi

cal n

otat

ion)

Sup

port

for B

PE

L4W

S

can

be u

sed

for m

any

othe

r mod

els

Effe

ctiv

nes

of b

uild

ing

of la

rge

diag

ram

s

It´s

our p

rodu

ct :-

)

4. What do you use BPMN for?

4.1. What's the main purpose you use BPMN for?

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

Processes Description and Simulation Processes Execution Processes Description

5. Process Description The questions presented in this section of the survey were also available to sections dedicated to simulation and execution. So here we present the aggregated results taken from the three sections.

5.1. Which type of processes do you usually model?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

Bus

ines

s pr

oces

ses

Adm

inis

trativ

e pr

oced

ures

(boo

king

reso

urce

s,do

cum

enta

l flo

w,..

.)

Gen

eric

wor

kflo

ws

Qua

lity

man

agem

ent s

yste

ms

Supp

ly c

hain

s

Acc

ount

che

ckin

g

Selli

ng p

roce

dure

s

War

ehou

se m

anag

emen

t

Dat

a co

llect

ion

Dat

a flo

ws

Med

ical

pro

cedu

res

On-

line

stor

es p

roce

dure

s

Envi

ronm

enta

l pro

cess

es

5.2. How much do you care about attributes and properties?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

Elements Labelsare enough

I add some values,like timers,

messages, ...

I also definescripts and rules

Just to put somedetails

Just to put somedetails required

for execution

Not at all

TOTAL Pools Lanes Events Gateways Activities Flows Conversations Choreographies

5.3. Validation of models

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

It's fundamental to workwith valid BPMN diagrams

I don't care if a BPMNmodel is valid but insted itshould be easily readable

from everyone

It's better to work a validBPN diagram

A BPMN diagram, even if itis simple, should ever bevalidated. Otherwise we

cannot execute it

A BPMN diagram, even if itis simple, should ever be

validated

5.4. Do you expand the BPMN notation with new personalized elements?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

50.00%

Sometimes Yes No

5.5. How do you use Pools/Lanes?

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

I use

Poo

ls a

nd L

anes

tore

pres

ent p

artic

ipan

ts a

ndro

les

any

of th

ese,

dep

ends

on

the

proj

ect

I use

Poo

ls b

ut I

don'

t use

Lane

s

I use

Poo

ls fo

r par

ticip

ants

and

Lane

s on

ly to

gra

phic

ally

subd

ivid

e Po

ols

I use

Poo

ls to

repr

esen

tpa

rtic

ipan

ts (e

ntiti

es o

r rol

es)

and

lane

s to

repr

esen

tsu

bdiv

isio

ns s

uch

as ro

les

orsy

stem

s

Pool

s fo

r pro

cess

bou

ndar

ies

Lane

s fo

r rol

es

I use

Poo

ls a

nd L

anes

tore

pres

ent t

he o

rgan

izat

ion

char

t of m

yco

mpa

ny/in

stitu

te/re

sour

ce/..

.

6. Process Simulation

6.1. How do you simulate your process?

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

By hands I'm using a toolprovidingsimulation

functionalities

I export themodel in otherformats (like

XPDL or BPEL)and then Isimulate it

I export themodel and

then I importthe model into

another tool

I'm using a self-made tool for

simulation

Simplesimulation of

the flows

Complexsimulation

based also onreal/testing

values put in asvariables

6.2. Simulation purposes

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

Find bottlenecks Find deadlocks Test exceptionhandling

Estimate time /costs

Find infinite cycles Understand thebehaviour

7. Process Execution

7.1. In which format do you export BPMN diagrams for execution?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

BPMN (for BPMN 2.0) XPDL BPEL4WS BPML native execution ofBPMN 2.0

SVG

7.2. Which execution environment do you use?

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

14.00%

16.00%

18.00%

Oracle BPM TIBCO AMXBPM

Cordys FujitsuInterstage

BPM

Intalio JBoss jBPM5.0

Linux lombardi talend BPM TIBCOiProcess

7.3. Do you execute processes inbound or you publish them somewhere?

70%

30%

Inbound / Internal execution External engine

7.4. Which is the main purpose for executing your processes?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

Perform someautomatic

procedures

Develop /Execute Web

Services

Increaseperformance

Audit purposes BPM full cycle Testingpurposes

We're a softwarevendor

Workflow

Last revision: 24th of May, 2011