Missing some BPMN elements
paulorf1971 Oct 7, 2013 10:52 PMHi,
I'm new to jbpm world and I've been reading a lot about jbpm 5.4 / jbpm 6.0. I appreciate the architecture of the product, the strong integration with drools rules and events engine is a requirement for a BPMS. Having only one repository and only one tool for managing processes and rules is a fantastic tool for BPMOs and makes the job of process analysts easier. Some new features like dashboards on version 6 looks great, although i couldn't test it harder so far.
I've been testing versions 5.4 and 6.0 but i missed some BPMN2 elements on modeler tools: pools, message flows, data storages, boundary events, complex gateways. The start, intermmediate and end events are restricted. For example: you can't start a process by using a start send message event, you can use only the start catch message event. Since the modeler doesn't have pools to represent external entities sending a message that could start one process, the behaviour is consistent.
But if you take a look on some BPMN diagrams all over the web you'll find many diagrams using pools representing external entities and exchaging messages using messages flows. Boundary events are used on sub-processes to represent exit conditions. I know it's hard to implement the whole bpmn specification, but some missing elements are important elements. Depending on a process context, it could be necessary to use pools and message flows to show an external participant.
Despite the fact i'm developer and can find ways of workarounding those limitations, in my opinion, business people participation is a key factor for successful BPMS implementations.
I'd like to know if those elements are being considered to be implemented on future versions or if this is a conceptual point of view of jbpm. I've searched this forum some subject related to this, and couldn't find it.
Thanks for your time and attention,
Paulo Ricardo Fernandes