Living Systems^® Process Modeler

The Process Modeler provides business and IT users with a comprehensive set of tools and methodologies to design, test, and validate goal-oriented process models.

Goals and plans to intuitively express business processes

The Process Modeler leverages the concepts of every-day goals and plans for a more intuitive BPM experience: first define the goals a process must accomplish, then specify the possible plans that are capable of achieving these goals.

Graphical modeling language

LS/ABPM's business process specification relies on the graphical Goal-Oriented Business Process Modeling Notation (GO-BPMN) to focus on business goals and organization. GO-BPMN extends the OMG-standard Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) with goals, plans and their relationships. Within plans, a full set of standard BPMN elements is used, such as looping and transaction sub-processes, and various end and intermediate events (e.g., timer, condition, and signal).

Separation of goals and plans

GO-BPMN models cleanly separate the (business) goals to be achieved and the plans to achieve them. Changes to any goal or plan in a GO-BPMN process model are made independently and don't have a ripple effect of consequences as they would in a sequential process model. Hence, changes can be made at any time – even during execution. The resulting adaptability and resilience to changing business conditions save time and reduce the costs associated with business process maintenance.

Separation of activities and organizational model

The Process Modeler distinguishes between the activity and organization aspects: what needs to be done is not mixed with who can or should do it. Model-level representations of people, roles, to-do items, and organization units support agile definition of, e.g., escalation processes. The Living Systems Process Suite thus enables adaptation to organizational restructuring and organization-driven process steering.

Accessible process models for business domain experts

Thanks to the primary focus on business goals in lieu of procedures, the resulting process models are of highly descriptive nature. This intuitive method not only supports easier changes, but also enables domain experts to directly do the modeling. The Living Systems Process Suite substantially narrows the gap between business and technology. Multiple views on the same model can be separately defined and then shown alone or in combined "big picture" overview diagrams.

Modular design for cooperation

Process models are modular, allowing collaboration on large models, domain-specific modules, or libraries. Different people can work on each reusable module and later consolidate their results into a whole model. Beyond the integration with the most popular version control systems, sophisticated graphical differencing and merging of models are provided.