Since the OMG added BPMN to its catalog of Business Modeling and Management Specifications I was wondering how OMG would deal with the clear overlapping between BPMN and UML activity diagrams (there are some differences in their semantics but roughly speaking both can be used to model the same).

To make matters worse, now it seems that OMG is increasing the overlapping by launching a UML Profile for BPMN Processes RFP . This means, that, when the profile is available, we could mix in the same UML project Activity diagrams and BPMN diagrams.

I´m not really sure what the reason behind this decision is. Until now, my way of justifying both languages was to think of BPMN as the right choice when you are modeling the business aspects of the organization and move to Activity Diagrams as soon as you drill down to the technical design of the software system (as a core component of the UML language, activity diagrams are a better fit when having to combine workflow information with other views of the system, expressed also as UML diagrams like class diagrams or sequence diagrams).

In your view, how these two diagrams should be combined? Does it make sense to have this BPMN profile for UML available? By the way, the poor BPDM (Business Process definition Metamodel) is still ignored in this integration process.

Want to build better software faster?

Want to build better software faster?

Read about the latest trends on software modeling and low-code development

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This