http://weblogs.java.net/pub/wlg/945

process driven design is something i have been focusing on and pushing towards at work. our project is heavily process-centric (order automation) and involved coordinating with over ten legacy systems.

one of the benefits not talked about that i have witnessed is that requirements analysis flows very neatly into implementation. we begin by modeling the process as an activity diagram or process flow diagram. each step in the process is then further expanded to reveal details. these details can be expressed as traditional use cases.

this combination of activity diagram and set of use cases is something that both the users and the developers can understand.

during development the activity diagram is translated into an XML file which specifies the process flow for the application.

changes to the XML process flow can be reflected in the activity diagram for the users to validate.

now i look forward to BPML maturing such that the output of the modeling tool used by the business analysts becomes our process flow specification.