Introduction

Why use text to describe processes?

Process models are represented with a visual language for many good reasons. BPMN Sketch Miner is a sketching tool which produces visual process diagrams as output. The only difference is that it uses text as input.

You write text, you get a visual diagram as a result. The diagram is updated as you type.

Advantages of text

The main advantage lies with the raw speed with which you can produce the initial sketch of a visual process model as you type in its description. Once you learn the basics of the textual syntax, you can obtain BPMN diagrams much more quickly than with a typical drag and drop tool.

Additional advantages include:

• Listen for the stories (who does what when) and automatically produce the process model by capturing them
• Focus on getting the content right as opposed to fiddling with its visual representation
• Avoid drilling down complex palettes or menus looking for the right BPMN visual language construct
• Easily share models within your team or with your customers (just copy and paste the textual description)
• Manage the evolution of your textual descriptions using standard version control systems
• Rapidly refactor existing models

Particularly, for beginners of process modeling with BPMN:

• No need to learn how to master a complex diagram drawing tool
• Your existing text editing skills are enough to get started with process modeling

Challenges of text

• In some cases, you may need to tweak the automatic layout of the diagram
• You need to learn the basic syntax of the textual notation

Basic BPMN Sketch Miner Syntax

As you will see, the BPMN Sketch Miner syntax is really simple!

Here is the first rule. There are only five.

Let's see now how this rule is used for representing tasks.