Walk me through how you would model a business process using BPMN.
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Agree scope: start and end events, participants
- Elicit the steps through workshops or observation
- Use pools, lanes, tasks, gateways and events correctly
- Model the happy path first, then exceptions
- Validate with the people who do the work
- Keep the right level of detail for the audience
Model answer
First I agree the scope: what triggers the process, what the end result is, and who takes part. Then I gather the steps through interviews, workshops or observation. In BPMN, I use a pool for the organisation and lanes for each role or system, start and end events, tasks for the work, and gateways for decisions: exclusive for one choice, parallel for steps that happen together. I model the happy path first so everyone agrees on the main flow, then add exceptions, such as rejections or timeouts using boundary events. I use message flows for communication with external parties like customers. I walk through the model with the people who do the work to validate it, because they spot missing steps. Finally, I keep the detail suited to the audience: a high-level view for executives and a detailed one for developers or automation.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed medium round and get scored on every answer.
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