Process Modeling Customer FAQs

What is “process modeling”? 

• Process Modeling is another way of visually representing the process and operations of a business.  It can help managers make decisions about how to optimize their resources and improve efficiency in their process through the development of a process model.  Examples of process models include flowcharts, process maps, swim lanes, process trees, and state transition diagrams which all allow for unique ways to represent different types of processes. Through Process Modeling businesses can analyze their costs, opportunities, constraints, and risks in order to reach success.  Process Modeling solutions often leverage BPMN a standard international language and a standard format for documenting the business process. 

What is BPMN? 

• Business Process Model and Notation (Also known as BPMN) has been the one of the most common languages and formats used to document business processes since its introduction in 2004.  Developed as an international ‘language’ for describing business processes, it provides a complete set of symbols and notations to define and describe procedures in a business environment.  The resulting flow charts are intended to visually depict the details of business activities and their flow in an organization.  

What is the difference between Business Modeling and Business Process Mapping/Management? 

• Essentially the two are the same thing, both visually represent key processes, so businesses can better understand and optimize them.  Business Modeling tools often leverage the standard BPMN language, and Business Process Management (BPM) tools focus on less sophisticated language, and simplified process flows that are easier to understand, thus promoting ease of access, and encouraging line of business process ownership and collaboration for increased optimization.  

What is the role of Process Modeling? 

• Process Modeling is a powerful tool that in most cases leverages BPMN to help optimize business processes. It is a visual representation of an organization’s operations and processes and provides the ability to identify opportunities for improvement. 

• By creating a graphical model of how work needs to be done, it allows organizations to easily see where resources are being wasted, or where user productivity can be improved. Furthermore, process modeling encourages organizations to stay agile; as customer needs or trends change, models can easily be adapted quickly. It enables businesses to move quickly and remain competitive in ever-changing markets and plays an essential role in helping organizations reduce costs and maximize efficiency. 

What are the benefits of Process Modeling? 

• Businesses can reap numerous advantages from making process modeling an integral part of their regular workflow. Process Modeling offers a concrete way to gain a clear understanding of how your business works, as well as uncover opportunities to optimize processes and improve response time. This can be as straightforward as improving customer service or automating certain parts of the production line. Business process modeling also provides visibility over key operations and offers objective examples of how to streamline processes, so teams can work more efficiently together. Ultimately, by having the ability to think objectively about how the business works, it can help you create more agile and effective systems that support greater success for everyone involved. 

What are the different business process model techniques? 

• Business Process Modeling is a powerful tool business use to improve their operational efficiency. It involves analyzing, mapping, and documenting the activities that go into the production cycle to identify areas of improvement. There are several Process Modeling techniques businesses can use, common languages used within Process Modeling tools are: 

• Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) – being the most common. 

• Universal Process Notation (UPN) is another common language used by Business process modelers to create and analyze a wide variety of business processes. Less common than BPMN and slightly easier-to-understand language for visually representing flows of operations through graphical symbols, so that non-technical personnel can access the information and 

• Flowchart technique is yet another way to organize and present ideas in business. Also using symbols for each process step such as circles, arrows, boxes, or other shapes, it creates a map of an entire process graphically. 

• Business Process Modeling serves as an integral tool for more technical teams comfortable with the BPMN language seeking to analyze, document, manage and improve underlying processes. 

Are process models a “Process” within Process Manager from an entitlement perspective? 

• Once out of beta, yes process models will count against the process consumption for organizations who are licensed on a per-process entitlement. 

Can I link process models and process maps? 

• The ability to connect process models and process maps within Process Manager is a future state feature that is slated for release late in 2023.

Will it be possible to export Process Models as .bpmn files (not only XPDL)? 

• Yes! You can export a process model as either a .bpmn file (BPMN 2.0) or an .svg if you just need an image of the process.

Will it be possible to use functionality like tagging, system linking, and document linking with process models?

• This functionality will be coming in the future as we work towards parity between the governance/integration between process models and process maps that exist today.

Will users be able to import external process model files from tools like Visio into Nintex Process Modeling?

• Today we only support the import of .bpmn files, however the team is working on support import from Visio as well as other tools such as LucidChat, Draw.io, and others.

Will you be able to create a Process Model from an existing Process Map, or visa versa?

• We will be working towards support the ability to both create a process model from an existing process map, or create a process map from a process model. We’re hoping to have this functionality available to customers later in the year after we’ve released modeling to general availability. 

What happens to Process Models that were created during the beta if we’re not on a Premium / Enterprise version of Process Manager? 

• The Process Modeling capability will be available to Pro customers as an add-on to their subscription. For those customers that opt not to add Process Modeling to their subscription, the Process Modeling feature will be disabled and access to any existing process models will be lost. However process models associated with a tenant will not be deleted unless the tenant is expired and deleted in the future.