In-depth training or a mentor...where do I go?

[Kerry Caskey]

I am a very new user to BPMN 2.0 and I have done several online tutorials and have read through tons of material but I still don't know when and how to use it when I am creating my processes. It would be helpful if I had mentor to look over my processes and give me suggestions and advice. Maybe I need some in-depth training?

[David P]

Hi Kerry,

Apologies in advance, (very) long post.  

I have recently done a lot of reading and researching many many courses and organisations about the very same thing.  Both on BPMN specifically and related ones on BA(Business Analysis) that are internationally recognised so I have put a lot of detail in here... hopefully I won't lose you half way thru ;) :)

I guess to try and understand your needs and what you are trying to do I had many questions and say it depends on....

• What your goals are (in relation to learning BPMN)?
• What are your expectations?
• How much time you can commit to a regular study plan?
• How dedicated you are? 
• What is your budget ?
• What do you need it?
• What is your deadline?
• Is getting recognised accreditation / certification after the course important?
• Where are you in your career? (is that even relevant / important)?
• Is having a good support group important?
• Does the course (especially a good paid for one) have instructors you can go to for help?
• Is there a forum associated with the course where participants share and bounce ideas around?

I started out looking at everything and anything to learn BPMN and soon realised every man and his dog was producing both free and very expensive paid for course. But many also had no background to teach the subject, no qualifications, no affiliation / accreditation from the recognised bodies such as IIBA, ABPMP etc.

The simple moral I apply here (to myself) is you get what you pay for (most of the time).  Also per many of my statements of questions here are intend to provoke thoughts to ask yourself as I did. One should always do a reasonable amount of due diligence.

In the end I must have collected upwards of 20 or so online courses and reference to tutorials but I notice thing among them that there was a lack of consistency etc in the materials that the free providers were presenting.

I am wondering how detailed and well structured the tutorials you did were, especially when you say you have read through tons of material etc.

Realistically how many hours would you really estimate out of curiosity?  

Though it doesn't matter if you've done 50 or 500 if the course you did was not well structured, had good examples you could simulate (very important for learning new things) or had any opportunity to get feedback from the instructor giving the tutorial then you might well not likely get much benefit out of it.

Also, were these courses free or paid for?  Were they accredited or provided by a recognised authority? If not you may well be wasting valuable time.  Not to say you cannot get good free courses but I've found over time that taking a course from an individual or organisation that has credibility in the industry is very important.

More food for thought / questions; do you actually know if the people giving the tutorials online were Certified Trainers (or just someone who knows a bit about BPMN)?

Have you got a copy of BPM CBOK? or a copy of BABOK? for reference.  It's always important to have reliable (again also reads as credible) source information when you are trying to learn something new?

So after all these questions and ramblings what did I do and where did I go.

Well I ultimately found a very interesting book, to me at least about BPMN and much more about BA.

So firstly full disclosure, I am not promoting or selling anything.  I am not acting as an agent for anyone individual or organisation.

All this commentary are my own thoughts and opinions.  Also I have no affiliation nor do I get or seek any reward/kickback for mentioning the following book or course which I finally chose.

The book I am reading is "How to Start a Business Analyst Career" by Laura Brandenberg which is proving to be a very interesting read.  You can get a digital version for approx $10 if it is of interest.

Laura Brandenberg has her own organisation providing Business Analysis services and training call "Bridging the Gap"

Check out the FB Group for Bridging the Gap to see what goes on there and chat with like minded, serious folk.  BTW it's a closed group so you will have to request access (sorry) but it keeps out the riff-raff and spammers which I'm happy for.

After much deliberation, I decided that I wanted to progress at a much faster rate than perhaps the average student. Since I work professionally as a self-employed Mechanical Design & Project Engineer and I actually have a current need in my present role I decided to take a fully paid for course.  Which actually gives significant credit towards getting accreditation, very important also.  It would be interested to know what you also do? (if you feel inclined to share a little info).

If you are looking for an accredited organisation to do more specifically BPMN you could search the IIBA EEP(Endorsed Education Partner) list (not so easy to find) and see what is available.  If you filter for BPMN the list yields 5 hits and depending on where you live (country / city) will show what is available.

The above snapshot shows 5 results I found.  The top 2 are unfortunately only available via classroom delivery method. However the last 3 are available as online course.  Just checking the last one for the course fee, well lets say it's not cheap at over $1400 for 3 days but it does say live online.  So I would expect good things.  The problem with this course (for me) is that it's all crammed into 3 days with no time to absorb information, think about and reflect what you have learnt.  Maybe this style suits some people but it's not for me.

I took the paid for on-demand course, link here. and yes of course they are not cheap, again it depends entirely on your needs and circumstances.  I just put it here to highlight that there are choices and here is one.

However, if it is of interest the organisation has a free course also.  Free course link.

I think for what I have found it will be rather unlikely that you could find a mentor easily and I am not advocating not to look, by all means do so.  But considering many mentors (instructors if you will) all seem to 'belong' to an organisation for which you pay for the course.

One though is do you have a network through which you can possibly find a contact with actual experience that could give some guidance?

Are you on LinkedIn; have you tried there?

One of the biggest drawbacks with the free material was lack of consistency, low confidence that it is following the BMPN 2.0 standard properly and no support.

So all of this is food for thought and hopefully give you some ideas what you can do and some of what I have tried.  I just wish someone told me about this all fist before I also went of searching and nearly doing every free tutorial on Youtube I could find. 

Best of luck in your future searches and endeavours.

Regards

D :-)

[Michelle McWilliams]

Bruce Silver's BPMN Certified training is very in-depth and recognized.  

On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 2:06 PM Kerry Caskey <kerry_...@nc.rr.com> wrote:

I am a very new user to BPMN 2.0 and I have done several online tutorials and have read through tons of material but I still don't know when and how to use it when I am creating my processes. It would be helpful if I had mentor to look over my processes and give me suggestions and advice. Maybe I need some in-depth training?

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[Michelle McWilliams]

BA being very diff from BPMN i dont think u need that if u are looking for process modeling.  My cert w Bruce Silver was paid for by work but he is well known.  Best of luck!

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