BPMN
BPMN, or Business Process Modelling Notation, is a useful mechanism for visually documenting business processes. It is, as with all these things, more oriented towards techies than business people, which means it can be a tad non-intuitive for suits and pointy-haird bosses. BPMN is far from perfect (it was invented by committee!) but its a useful starting point.BPMN: OMG Final Adopted Specification, Feb 2006 (Version 1.0. 308 pages of wonderfulness)BPMN: OMG 2007-07-06 (The latest DRAFT of the 1.1 revision)Stephen A. White’s Introduction to BPMNStephen A. White’s Process Modeling Notations and Workflow Patterns. A nice comparison of BPMN and UML.A lot of information about workflow patterns is at the suitably named Workflow Patterns site. Of particular interest is Workflow Patterns [the original 20 control-flow patterns] and its update in the aptly named Workflow Control-Flow Patterns: A Revised View which lead to the development of YAWL.To make BPMN there are a few dedicated tools, but the one I like the most is BPVA (Business Process Visual Architect), a Java-based app that runs just as well on my Windows PC as it does on my main Apple Mac.Or you could do what I do and use Visio with some home-grown templates.Generic info on BPM can be found at:BPMInstitute.orgbpmresearch has lots of useful content.