“What I am not seeing at this time, is a description of how all these things are supposed to relate to software methodologies and notations. We have been using use cases and activity diagrams for a long time to describe business processes, and there was a clear relationship between those artifacts and the models used by software developers. I’ll have to read more carefully, but right now it looks like OMG has not addressed the gap between business definition and the implementation of that business in software.”

This has been a concern for many analysts for a fair while, and is largely due to the limited support of the different standards in one place.

At Select, we’ve provided Business Process modeling (using both BPMN and an older notation) alongside UML for many years, and so the inclusion of Business Motivation Modeling seemed the logical next step for us. We’ve just released a new version of Select Architect (version 7.1) which adds BMM to the BPMN, UML and data modeling support already included.

An important link between BMM and BPMN which you don’t mention is the Business Process itself. It’s there as a placeholder in BMM allowing you, in an environment like Select Architect where these links can be made, to connect a BPMN task, sub-process or pool, to the motivation model element which it realizes. This in conjunction with links to use cases, actors and requirements, allows the BMM to be a key driver in the identification of new system requirements, and also to model the reasons for IT system change.

More information about strategic business modeling using the business motivation model can be found on our website (http://www.selectbs.com/adt), along with various software and whitepaper downloads.

I hope you’ll forgive the blatant product placement, but I believe that Select has, to some degree, answered your concerns.

Phil Webb
Principal Consultant,
Select Business Solutions