Oracle BPM 12c Business Process Composer has many new features, but one that is commonly overlooked is its “Document-Only” feature.
This makes it easy to create processes that are not validated or deployed when the other processes in the project are deployed. This is useful when modeling the way things are currently working, and is commonly known as modeling the As-Is process. An As-Is process’s purpose is to reach a common understanding of how things are working today and to determine through a consensus how the process should be improved.
With this goal in mind, always guard against spending an exorbitant amount of time modeling As-Is processes. They should be left in a rough state, without any services, human tasks or user interfaces fully defined. Because As-Is processes document problems in a business where work is lost, the process needs to be modelled with its sequence flows missing. With this feature, you can leave your As-Is process intact in its inconsistent state and in the same project as your To-Be (or Should-Be) process models without impacting the project’s ability to be deployed.
This video demonstrates this feature as well as a best practice to help ensure that developers using Oracle BPM Studio understand that As-Is process models exist in a project.