BPMN Method and Style: A Levels-based Methodology for BPM Process Modelin Paperback – 1 June 2009

In the test 2012 was an interesting topic, but nowadays (2018) the topic is obsolete

=================Silvers Ansatz=================Bei der fachlichen Modellierung mit BPMN hat es sich herausgemendelt, zwei Ebenen zu differenzieren:* Eine "fachlich-einfache und abstrakte Ebene" mit einer reduzierten Menge von BPMN-Symbolen, die auch normale Business User relativ schnell verstehen können.* Eine "fachlich-differenzierte und komplexere Modellierungsebene", die für versierte BPMN-Benutzergruppen (Business Analysts, etc.) gedacht ist.Dieser Logik der Komplexitätsreduzierung durch Ebenendifferenzierung folgt auch Silver, so daß das Erlernen von BPMN recht effizient erfolgen kann. Unschätzbar ist hierbei Silvers Vielzahl ebenenspezifischer Modellierungsempfehlungen, die zeigen, der Mann weiß auch "praktisch", wovon er redet. ABSOLUT TOP!~~~~~Fazit~~~~~Silvers Buch (bzw. die zweite engl. Ausgabe von 2011) ist ein "Must-Have" für jeden BPMN-Modellierer! Ggf. macht, parallel zur Lektüre, das Belegen eines entspr. BPMN-Kurses noch Sinn, falls der praktische Übungsanteil in einem solchen Kurs relativ hoch ist.~PB

Being a project manager for an open source BPMN 2.0 engine ("Work Token" project) I use only two sources of reference information on BPMN 2.0 - the OMG specification and this book. The specification defines what you may and what you may not do with BPMN. It is like English dictionary and grammar set out in a single book, just a list of available words (BPMN elements, such as tasks, gateways, event nodes) and rules you must stick to when composing sentences (process diagrams) made of these words (elements). In fact, all other books on BPMN I happened to browse through use the same "dictionary and grammar" paradigm, just a narration of the specification. Not that dry, with specific details omitted, but not much to offer over official specification and sample diagrams available at omg.org web site.The "BPMN Method and Style" is different. It tells how to use BPMN for real world process modeling. How and why. Patterns and anti-patterns. Read this book before ever trying to draw your first BPMN diagram. If already started sketching, better put the drawing aside and do not show it to anybody - the diagram is full of errors. Just read the book, throw the old sketch away and start from a scratch. I do not exaggerate, believe me.As a programmer I represent the "IT side" of BPMN universe. For most programmers the BPMN notation looks like good old flow charts with some self-evident extras. That's true, the notation is all about flow charts. But as my own experience shows, these "extras" are too far from self-evident and trying to use "programmer common sense", experience and searching the specification for "minor details" results in nothing but embarrassment and frustration.This book is a lifesaver. My only complaint is the lack of pdf version, as I need to keep the book handy while working from multiple locations.

I recently faced the task of analysing the notational differences between the BPMN 1.0 and 2.0 specifications, along with creating selection criteria for the use of either. Bruce Silver made this readily possible with his concise and well thought out guide to "BPMN Method and Style".There is a dearth of practical information and academic research on the 2.0 spec at this point in time, compared with the mountainous 500+ page proposed specification. This book delivers a prescriptive approach to the reader detailing how hierarchical models can be created by domain experts, then be expanded upon by a business process analyst and finally enhanced by a workflow developer for potential execution.In the author's own words, to try and learn BPMN by reading the specification is akin to trying to learn how to write a story by reading a dictionary. The method for starting with a blank page and modelling the "Happy Path", adding exception flows for semantic correctness, and finally creating an executable model in BPMN 2.0 is given with a well structured approach. Where the spec lacks detail or contains ambiguities with how certain notational elements might, or should, be applied; this book steers the reader with advice on developing a consistent style, which could be adopted into one's own modelling conventions.If you are searching for guidance from the trenches giving detailed advice and concrete examples, from simple to advanced BPMN notational elements and constructs, then this is the first book you should add to your library.

So far the best BPMN book I've read, also the first thing I bought from the US.I'm from China (thousands miles far away from the book printer :-) ) so the book is much more expensive to me (think about the book flying over the Pacific Ocean) but still I think the book deserves the money.Firstly the author limited most of the talk in the non-executable BPMN, which is the first step to go before executable BPMN 2.0. Even Oracle said that they have released the world's first executable BPMN2.0 BPMS, the truth what I see is that OMG has not finalized the BPMN 2.0 standards. Funny, is not it?)The best thing the author has "created" is the "method" and the "style," which the OMG has never mentioned in the specification but objectively exist. Those two words sound like "expert words" but actually even the beginer will have to understand (also keep in mind) before they modeling process with BPMN.One thing I also recommend here is a BPMN 2.0 modeling tool,called Joinwork Process Studio, I have drawn all the diagrams which Bruce have drawn in his book, and seems the tool is not bad.And at last I am sorry for my terrible English (comparing to the wording of the book the words I comment here is like .. ). Right, I admit that I've never been good at this GREAT language. :-)