Business modeling is a practice that astute business people and architects use to produce competitive advantage and superior value for the enterprise. A formal business architecture is a necessary tool for increasing an organization’s capacity to act competitively, and to increase enterprise value.The business modeling courses we propose are based on formal languages and approaches which are standard in the industry, and enable superior levels of cooperation, coordination and collaboration between business people and technologists.
Each notation suggested (UML, BMM, BPMN, Eriksson-Penker and SOMF) for modeling a business architecture offers distinct advantages, depending on the aspect of the architecture being addressed:
UML Best used to define business concepts and their relationships. Use Cases and Activity diagrams can be leveraged for documenting scenarios. BMM Best suited for modeling the vision, goals, strategies, tactics and other strategic business considerations. BPMN Ideal for documenting business processes with high levels of precision and/or detail. E-P Combines aspects of the BMM and BPMN languages but in a much simpler notation to learn and use. SOMF Most appropriate for modeling as-is and/or to-be business functionality expressed as services (regardless of whether their implementation is realized by SOA services).
Of course these notations can be combined in the same Enterprise Architect repository, and their artifacts inter-related!