pre-conference on BPMN, XPDL, and BPEL

This is part of an e-mail I sent when asked about attending yet another conference on SOA and BPM. I said I was more interested in just one of their pre-conference sessions than the conference itself. The pre-conference is basically a tutorial on BPMN, XPDL, and BPEL.

BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) is easy enough to pick up. As long as you know good practices when it comes to modeling, the syntax is not that important. BPMN, for instance, will dictate that a process merge uses a certain diagram notation. Many of the BPM vendors are moving towards BPMN because it’s a standard just like a UML class diagram is a standard. You learn the standard and then you can immediately grasp what's represented in any diagram based on that standard. (Assuming of course that what is shown in the diagram makes sense--LOL--you can create a bad diagram in any tool.) Pegasystems Rules Process Commander (PRPC) is capable of using BPMN but they also have their own preferred notation. As far as memorizing the different shapes, I wouldn't bother. You can easily enough learn these if you work with the diagrams for a day or so.

The topics that are of more importance is XPDL and BPEL. Sure, I know what they do and what their purpose is. I wouldn't mind delving a little deeper into specifics of these standards. However, the truth is that a good BPM tool will create XPDL and BPEL and you can use a specialized editor to manipulate it. Kind of like one usually wouldn't type in HTML or XML (any more they wouldn't--there are too many tools and its good practice to stay at the highest level of abstraction possible and let tools do for you what they can) unless they had to tweak something very specific. And when you have to tweak something that specific, you probably need a reference book anyway. ;-) Still, it would be worthwhile to get in "under the hood" as Dr. Warner likes to say and better understand these two standards. I have looked at code samples and so forth -- at least for BPEL -- and would find value in attending this. The pre-conference is $295. This is still a little expensive for one day but conferences and workshops and training are always expensive. It is certainly cheaper than $2,495.