BPMN and Beyond: Why BPM+ is the Future of Business Process Management
If you’ve worked with BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation), you already know how valuable it is in the world of business process management. BPMN is a powerful tool that allows organizations to visualize, understand, and communicate their workflows effectively. It’s helped countless businesses improve their efficiency, streamline processes, and achieve better collaboration between teams.
But the landscape of business process management is evolving, and as processes grow more complex, BPMN professionals are seeking ways to extend their capabilities. That’s where BPM+ comes in—a framework that builds on BPMN by integrating Decision Model and Notation (DMN) and Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN). Together, these three standards form a powerful trio that allows organizations to automate workflows, improve decision-making, and handle more dynamic, case-based processes.
In this article, we’ll explore how BPM+ complements and enhances your BPMN skills, why it’s the next logical step for process practitioners, and how you can leverage it to stay ahead in your career.
BPMN: The Foundation of Modern Process Management
Before diving into BPM+, it’s important to recognize just how integral BPMN is to business process management. It has become the standard for modeling workflows, helping businesses map out processes in a way that’s both precise and easy to understand for stakeholders across the organization. From automating simple workflows to visualizing complex end-to-end processes using Orchestration, the end-to-end coordinated management and execution of complex processes, cases, or workflows across multiple people, systems, tools, or services, BPMN has been a game-changer.
For organizations just beginning their BPM journey, BPMN remains an essential skill. It provides the structure and clarity needed to move away from inefficient, undocumented processes toward a more optimized, streamlined approach.
But what if your organization’s processes require more than just sequential workflows? What if decision logic and case management are central to your business? This is where BPM+ takes things to the next level.
What is BPM+?
BPM+ expands on BPMN by incorporating two additional standards: DMN (Decision Model and Notation) and CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation). These three standards work together seamlessly to help organizations tackle the full spectrum of process needs:
BPMN: The backbone of process modeling, BPMN continues to provide the foundation for visualizing and automating workflows.
DMN: Focuses on decision-making within processes. While BPMN models the flow of tasks, DMN allows you to model decision logic and business rules. This integration of decision management helps you automate and optimize the choices that occur within your processes, providing more intelligent workflows.
CMMN: Addresses case management, enabling businesses to handle non-linear, dynamic workflows. CMMN shines in scenarios where processes need to adapt based on evolving conditions—such as handling customer support issues, managing legal cases, or overseeing medical treatment plans.
Together, these three standards form BPM+, the comprehensive framework that allows businesses to manage both structured and unstructured processes while adding intelligence and adaptability to their workflows.
Why BPM+ is the Future of BPM Professionals
For BPM professionals looking to advance their careers, BPM+ is the logical next step. It builds on the skills you already have with BPMN, while expanding your capabilities in areas like decision-making and case management. Here’s why BPM+ is the future of business process management:
- Enhanced Process Automation
While BPMN provides an excellent framework for automating sequential workflows, BPM+ enhances your ability to automate more complex and dynamic processes. By integrating DMN and CMMN, you can create fully automated systems that not only handle tasks but also make decisions and adapt to changing conditions in real time. BPM+ enables organizations to automate a broader range of processes, improving efficiency and reducing manual intervention.
- Integrated Decision Management
Decision-making is a critical component of many business processes. In traditional BPMN models, decisions are often represented in a simplified way, but BPM+ allows you to incorporate detailed decision logic into your workflows using DMN. This means you can automate decision points based on complex business rules, ensuring that decisions are consistent, transparent, and data-driven.
For example, DMN can help you automate credit approval processes, compliance checks, or any workflow that involves decision points. By formalizing decision logic within your BPMN workflows, BPM+ ensures that your processes are not only efficient but also intelligent.
- Dynamic Case Management
In many industries, not all processes follow a strict, linear path. Consider customer complaints, legal disputes, or healthcare management—these processes require flexibility to adapt based on new information or changing conditions. CMMN, the case management component of BPM+, is designed for just such scenarios.
With CMMN, BPM+ empowers organizations to manage unstructured processes, allowing for real-time adjustments as cases evolve. This flexibility is particularly valuable for businesses that need to handle dynamic, unpredictable workflows where the next step isn’t always predefined.
- Future-Proof Your Career
As business environments become more complex, organizations are seeking professionals who can not only manage workflows but also implement intelligent, adaptable systems. By mastering BPM+, you’ll position yourself as a forward-thinking expert in process management.
BPM+ helps you evolve beyond traditional BPMN modeling, equipping you with the tools needed to handle decision logic, dynamic case management, and end-to-end process automation. With these skills, you’ll be prepared to take on more strategic roles, lead process improvement initiatives, and deliver greater value to your organization.
How BPM+ Builds on Your BPMN Knowledge
The beauty of BPM+ is that it builds on what you already know. If you’re proficient in BPMN, you’re well on your way to mastering BPM+. The foundational skills you’ve developed through BPMN—such as process mapping, workflow design, and automation—are directly applicable to BPM+.
By adding DMN and CMMN to your toolkit, you’ll be able to model more complex, decision-heavy, and adaptive processes. BPM+ doesn’t replace BPMN; it enhances it, offering a more robust approach to process automation and management that will serve you well in today’s evolving business landscape.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
At BPMInstitute.org, we offer a BPM+ Specialist Certificate designed to help BPM practitioners expand their skills. Through our specialized courses on BPMN, DMN, and CMMN, you’ll learn how to integrate these standards and take your process modeling skills to the next level. Whether you’re looking to enhance automation, make smarter decisions, or manage complex workflows, BPM+ is your next step.
In just a few weeks, you can unlock new career opportunities and help your organization thrive in a more complex business environment. With BPM+, the future of process management is smarter, more efficient, and more adaptable.
View BPM+ courses here:
BPMN – Part 1: https://www.bpminstitute.org/product/process-modeling-with-bpmn-part-1/
BPMN – Part 2: https://www.bpminstitute.org/product/process-modeling-with-bpmn-part-2/
DMN: https://www.bpminstitute.org/product/decision-modeling-with-dmn/
CMMN and SDMN: https://www.bpminstitute.org/product/introduction-to-case-management-and-cmmn-live-online/
Explore the BPM+ Certificate here: https://www.bpminstitute.org/product/bpm-specialist-code-specialist-certificate-program-bpms/
Take the BPM+ Self-Assessment here: https://www.bpminstitute.org/qsm_quiz/bpm-skills-self-assessment-2/
