BPM Toolbox Category

Just like in the past years I prepared for you list of online courses (and other materials) which can help you learn more about BPM.

(You can also read the past editions from 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015).

1) Fundamentals of BPM

There are many courses about BPM, but those 2 really rock 🙂

Since some time 2 MOOCs by professors Marcello La Rosa, Marlon Dumas, Jan Mendling and Hajo A. Reijers are no longer available on Future Learn and QUT platforms, BUT:

a) You can access all the videos via Fundamentals of BPM website (there are also slides and other materials!):
http://fundamentals-of-bpm.org/mooc/

(you need to look for part “Links to all video materials are available here (Copyright 2015-2017, Queensland University of Technology. All rights reserved).”).

b) You can also jump directly to YT playlists for those 2 courses
Introductory MOOC: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9iw99lS3PrhyvCeigicFy0ncMOimILeX

Long MOOC: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9iw99lS3Prg0hPSCiOz9AXeEmj8W8fL8

c) Professor La Rosa kindly allowed me to present this content in a form more convenient for you.

Materials from a short introductory MOOC, “Business Process Management: An Introduction to Process Thinking“ (about 1,5 hours!) are available on a following pages:

Business Process Management: An Introduction to Process Thinking – Week 1

Business Process Management: An Introduction to Process Thinking – Week 2

Business Process Management: An Introduction to Process Thinking – Week 3

Materials from the long MOOC “Fundamentals of BPM”

Part 1: Process identification and discovery
Interviews

Introduction to BPM

Process Identification

Essential Process Modeling

Advanced Process Modeling

Part 2: Process analysis and redesign
Qualitative process analysis

Quantitative Process Analysis

Process Redesign

Part 3: Process implementation and monitoring
Process-Aware Information Systems

Process Implementation with Executable Process Models

Process Monitoring & Closing

Now, like in 2018 post I want to share with you also other courses (MOOC and others) organised by platform.

2) Coursera

If you like to learn on the go you will appreciate nice mobile application Coursera offers. Most of the courses are by default paid ones (with access to all the content, possibility to check yourself and interact fully with others plus get a certificate), but you can always select the free path (called “Audit the course”) and access all the videos plus some of the course content. Courses on Coursera are MOOCs, so they have start and end dates, but you can switch sessions if you are falling behind (you may need it since they all start on the same date…).

2a) “Design Thinking for Innovation” (https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-design-thinking-innovation)

Course description: “Today innovation is everyone’s business. Whether you are a manager in a global corporation, an entrepreneur starting up, in a government role, or a teacher in an elementary school, everyone is expected to get lean – to do better with less. And that is why we all need design thinking. At every level in every kind of organization, design thinking provides the tools you need to become an innovative thinker and uncover creative opportunities that are there – you’re just not seeing them yet.”
Created by: University of Virginia
Taught by: Jeanne M. Liedtka

2b) “Digital Transformation” (https://www.coursera.org/learn/bcg-uva-darden-digital-transformation)

Course description: “Digital transformation is a hot topic–but what exactly is it and what does it mean for companies? In this course, we talk about digital transformation in two ways. First we discuss the pace of change and the imperative it creates for businesses. Next we provide the context for this transformation and what it takes to win in the digital age. Then we walk through BCG’s proprietary framework, which helps you identify key areas to digitize, including strategy, core processes, and technology.”
Created by: BCG, University of Virginia
Taught by: Michael Lenox, Amane Dannouni, Sonja Rueger, Ching Fong Ong

2c) “Introduction to Operations Management” (https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-operations)

Course description: “Learn to analyze and improve business processes in services or in manufacturing by learning how to increase productivity and deliver higher quality standards. Key concepts include process analysis, bottlenecks, flows rates, and inventory levels, and more. After successfully completing this course, you can apply these skills to a real-world business challenge as part of the Wharton Business Foundations Specialization.”
Created by: University of Pennsylvania
Taught by: Christian Terwiesch

2d) “Process Mining: Data science in Action” (https://www.coursera.org/learn/process-mining)

Course description: “Process mining is the missing link between model-based process analysis and data-oriented analysis techniques. Through concrete data sets and easy to use software the course provides data science knowledge that can be applied directly to analyze and improve processes in a variety of domains.”
Created by: Eindhoven University of Technology
Taught by: Wil van der Aalst

2e) “Six Sigma Principles” (https://www.coursera.org/learn/six-sigma-principles)

Course description: “This course is for you if you are looking to learn more about Six Sigma or refresh your knowledge of the basic components of Six Sigma and Lean. Six Sigma skills are widely sought by employers both nationally and internationally. These skills have been proven to help improve business processes and performance. This course will introduce you to the purpose of Six Sigma and its value to an organization. You will learn about the basic principles of Six Sigma and Lean. Your instructors will introduce you to, and have you apply, some of the tools and metrics that are critical components of Six Sigma. This course will provide you with the basic knowledge of the principles, roles, and responsibilities of Six Sigma and Lean.”
Created by: University System of Georgia
Taught by: Bill Bailey, Gregory Wiles, David Cook, Christina Scherrer

2f) “The hidden value – Lean in manufacturing and services” (https://www.coursera.org/learn/lean-manufacturing-services)

Course description: “Lean is a powerful methodology that enables managers and employees to shift their mindset and helps companies to keep their business sustainable by creating competitive advantage. Today, in an increasingly complex and dynamic world, where companies struggle to maintain competitive advantage, Lean is more important than ever.”
Created by: École des Ponts ParisTech, BCG
Taught by: Aurélie Delemarle, Thomas Frost, Salvatore Cali, Elsa Blume

3) OpenHPI

This is an e-learning platform offered by German Hasso Plattner Institute. It offers a mix of MOOC and on demand courses (i.e. archives of past editions). All courses are available for free. Mobile application is available.

3a) “BPMN Meets DMN: Business Process and Decision Modeling” (https://open.hpi.de/courses/bpm2016)

As you can see from the URL this is a self-paced course based on a MOOC from 2016.
Course description: “This course introduces concepts of business process modeling using the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) industry standard. Participants will learn the elements of process models and their precise meaning. Based on a thorough understanding of business process models, the last part of the course covers decision models using the Decision Model and Notation (DMN). Decision models complement process models by representing concrete, operational decisions, both with their structure and their decision logics. The course centers around concepts and language to describe and analyze business processes and decisions. It does not cover methods on how to model, improve, monitor or implement business processes. Still, a deep understanding of business processes and decisions is a useful basis for these activities.”
Taught by: Prof. Dr. Mathias Weske
Starts: Self-paced

3b) “Business Processes: Modeling, Simulation, Execution” (https://open.hpi.de/courses/bpm2019)

This is a more recent course 🙂
Course description: “Business process models play a central role in analyzing, simulating, and executing business processes. They serve as a communication vehicle for professionals with different background and expertise, ranging from business administration, quality management, and organizational development to systems architectures, and software development.

This online course introduces concepts of business process modeling and decision modeling using the industry standards Business Process Model and Notation, BPMN, and Decision Model and Notation, DMN. The course also covers concepts to describe and analyze business processes and decisions, and to simulate and execute them using modern BPM tools.”
Taught by: Prof. Dr. Mathias Weske
Starts: Self-paced

3) Courses and materials provided by tool vendors.

3a) Automation Anywhere (https://www.automationanywhereuniversity.com/)

Automation Anywhere provides a nice library of online courses. Some of them are free, others are very reasonably priced.
There is also free introductory course on Udemy by Automation Anywhere.
https://www.udemy.com/beginners-guide-to-rpa-automation-anywhere/

3b) Bizagi (http://elearning.bizagi.com)

Bizagi offers 10+ courses about their tools.

3c) BOC Group (https://knowledge.boc-group.com/en)

If you want to find lots of webinar recordings (also done by yours truly 😉 about various aspects of BPM, search no more!

3d) Bonitasoft (https://www.bonitasoft.com/videos)

There are dozens of video tutorials, webinars and other materials.

3e) Camunda (https://camunda.com/learn/videos/)

Camunda offers library of video tutorials. And they have something unique – a hawk 😉
PS. They also have cool online conference: CamundaCon: https://www.camundacon.com/

3f) Pegasystems (https://academy.pega.com)

30+ missions, 250+ modules – do I need to tell you more?

3g) UiPath (https://www.uipath.com/rpa-academy)

Many interesting courses for RPA pros and newbies.

3h) WorkFusion (https://automationacademy.com/)

4 free courses and many more additional options

4) Last but not least

And now, additional option to learn valuable things about BPM online (however not for free): BPM Tips is a Media Partner of the Building Business Capability 2020 conference.

If you plan to attend BBC 2020 the following code “BPMBBC” will give you 15% discount.

You can learn more in this post: https://bpmtips.com/building-business-capability-2020/

Since last post some things changed, so I prepared an update for you 🙂

As in the last edition it is clearly visible that cloud tools are very popular. However it is still possible to find standalone BPMN modelers – pretty commonly they are offered by vendors of the process automation/workflow software. Please note that while some tools mentioned below are simple diagramming tools, others are more advanced and allow you to do much more than create BPMN diagrams.

So, let’s see what are the options:

 

ADONIS:Community Edition

Since several years ADONIS:CE is available for free in a cloud. Apart from BPMN diagrams you can also create process architectures, organigrams and make a comprehensive documentation containing not only interlinked processes forming a process architecture but also references to roles (using RACI approach), applications, documents, KPIs, risks and much more. Recently also free mobile application Ask ADONIS was added.

Academic edition is also available with DMN, simulation and teaching materials.

 

Bizagi Modeler

Bizagi offers unique approach to process modelling. It is a standalone (Windows) application, but also cloud “Modeler Services” are available in a freemium model. Free tier gives you unlimited models and diagrams and 10 MB of storage, while paid plans allow you to simulate processes, create process architecture, collaborate with others etc.
Since Bizagi is a process automation company it should not be a big surprise that you can use Bizagi Modeler to prepare automations. You start by modelling your processes in Bizagi Modeler, extend it with forms etc. in Bizagi Studio and finally automate it with Bizagi Automation.

BPMN.io & family

This list would not be complete without BPMN.io and its siblings created by Camunda 🙂 They share many characteristics (as you will immediately see) such as possibility to create BPMN, DMN and CMMN diagrams, but have important differences.

BPMN.io is web-based modelling tool. You can use it without any registration, so I am often showing it to my students so that they can see how easily they can move BPMN diagrams between various tools (in my case I show how diagram created in BPMN.io can be saved as XML file and imported into ADONIS and vice versa).

Camunda Modeler
This is a standalone tool which can be useful if you want to create BPMN/DMN/CMMN diagrams with no access to the internet or if you want to prepare your processes for automation on Camunda platform.

Cawemo
As the name suggests (CAmunda WEb MOdeller) this is a web modeller too. However while BPMN.io allows you to work on a single diagram and export it without storing anything permanently, Cawemo allows you to store your diagrams in a cloud repository, share them and collaborate with others.

Apart from those tools there are also many others using Camunda code – for example for putting your diagrams on Confluence or showing results of Process Mining analysis on BPMN diagrams.

Cardanit

This is not a totally new tool – just a rebranding of BeePMN which you may remember from 2018 edition of this post. It is also present in BPMN MIWG demos since several years.
Free version of Cardanit allows you to create 5 BPMN and DMN diagrams with up to 30 elements, so this is a good option if you are just starting and do not need a big process architecture.

Honorable mentions

Apart from the tools described above there are also many other interesting tools. Below you can find an overview of the selected ones.
If you are using other free tools which support BPMN let me know in comments!

ARIS Express

If you like to model your processes using EPC this is an interesting choice. Apart from EPC, it also allows you to create BPMN diagrams, Process landscapes, organizational charts, data models, IT infrastructure diagrams and more! This is a standalone (Java-based) application, so you do not need internet access to use it. Unlike professional version of ARIS, ARIS Express stores all your diagrams as files, so there are very limited options of creating more complex process documentation with connections between various layers of organization. Last update of ARIS Express was in 2017.

Draw.io

Browser based diagramming tool. It allows you to create many diagram types – including BPMN, but does not allow BPMN Diagram Interchange (it only has proprietary XML).