Business Process Modeling with UML
Introduction
Traditionally, the UML has been associated more with software engineering and systems design than with analysis and modeling of business processes. However, standard UML 2.x provides a rich set of behavioral models which are very useful in modeling the processes, activities, people and information critical to every business. Beyond the standard UML notation, two well respected and proven UML “extensions” exist which further enhance the capturing of business process and related constructs. The first is Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), which has gained enormous popularity and is rapidly becoming a new standard for modeling and designing business processes. The second is the Ericsson-Penker profile which has less popularity, but still provides a unique and powerful means of visualizing and communicating business processes and the necessary flow of information within an organization. This paper provides a very high-level introduction to both of these “extensions”, showing how they can be used in Enterprise Architect and some of the common modeling constructs they use.