01.30.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:46 pm by Martin Schedlbauer
Over the past few years, I’ve been doing a lot of business process modeling and found that I spent just as much time modeling processes as I did defining the general business architecture. So, I codified my approach and wrote it up in a book: “The Art of Business Process Modeling: The Business Analyst’s Guide to Process Modeling with UML & BPMN” (ISBN 1450541666); available at Amazon and other retailers.
The book covers my process-centric approach to defining the business architecture. I call the methodology PROMAP (PROcess Modeling APproach) for short. PROMAP uses a collection of integrated models to define a business process within the context of the business architecture. It’s an easy to follow BPM framework for the practicing BA.
As far as visual modeling notations goes, the book explains UML and BPMN. Coverage focuses on the core notational elements that are useful in practice yet are advanced and complete enough to model complex processes.
Check out the book, order a copy, and give me your feedback. It’s available through Amazon.
Permalink
06.15.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:59 pm by Martin Schedlbauer
To get back to the use of tools: I’ve been using a number of business analysis tools and I want to give you my impressions:
1. Enterprise Architect: that’s the tool I use most frequently. Low cost (sub $200); mostly based on UML, but supports also BPMN. Add-ons for enterprise modeling including TOGAF and Zachman. Does not require the use of any particular methodology.
2. Visual Paradigm: been using the community edition (free) for teaching IS Analysis at Northeastern University; pretty good tool; nice use case modeler; supports UML well.
3. StarUML: open source and free, but you get what you pay for; does not support UML well enough for business process modeling; would not recommend
4. ProVision: really nice tool for BPM and BPA; strong support for hierarchical enterprise modeling; very expensive, though. The big thin is that it has monte carlo and discrete event simulation capability for business process engineering
That’s it for now…
Permalink
06.27.08
Posted in tools at 1:45 pm by Martin Schedlbauer
I’m always asked about tools for modeling, requirements tracking etc.; invariably, the discussion turns to price and that’s when it gets interesting; now, some companies are spending the money to get commercial enterprise-class tools into their IT organizations, but many are not; partly, because they can’t afford it, but also because the analysts and developers can’t agree on the tools to use. In the meantime, Word, Excel, Paint (yep, you read right), and perhaps Visio are the tools of default. Good tools are important: they reduce labor and increase productivity, making analysis faster and less expensive.
So, how about some “open source” and “free” tools:
StarUML: a simple but effective UML modeling tool that supports most of the UML that analysts need; the only thing I don’t like is that the activity diagramming module is missing expansion regions (so now easy way to show repeated actions)
OpenProj: a good replacement for Microsoft Project; its files are compatible with Project and it has very similar features; not as good as Project, but you can’t beat the price
I’m still looking for a good requirements management tool, testing tool, and document generator. In the meantime, I’m continuing to use Sparx’ excellent Enterprise Architect: low-cost and full-featured for small to medium size projects that is being used in our development projects and in my consulting work; I’ve also been adding it to my seminars wherever appropriate. Perhaps more about that in a later blog entry.
Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:24 pm by Martin Schedlbauer
welcome to my blog! my goal is to share with you some of the insights I gather while teaching seminars on business analysis, software architecture, and IT design. there’s so much to talk about now that business analysis is becoming established. I often hear clients and workshop participants complain about very similar issues, so whenever there’s an issue worthwhile to talk about, I’ll do it here. Of course, I won’t reveal anything proprietary or confidential — that would not be right.
I welcome your comments and I always love to hear how different analysts approach problems. On occasion, I may also interject insights from my academic work: my lectures at Northeastern and UMass-Lowell, conference talks, and workshop presentations…
And yes, I will continue to write in lower case; it’s faster and more informal and allows me to quickly blog when I encounter interesting issues.
Permalink
