Issue when what BPM controls is different from user's view

[bill1]

In case the activities that BPM is controlling are different from what users would like  to monitor, such as when the activities that BPM is controlling is too low level and users would like to see a higher level of activity monitoring,  what should BPM do?   For example, a department is working on task A, department consists of employees. So each employee is working on task A. BPM can only control each employee’s task activity – assignment, accomplishment etc. But users would like to see the department’s accomplishment rather than individual employee’s.  When such requirement happens, is it BPM’s responsibility to provide monitoring capability or is it BPM application's ?
Is BPM’s responsibility mainly controlling activities ? Or monitoring activities? It is nice when the two are consistent. But what if when they are not.  Can you please share your thoughts?


Thanks,

[jbarrez]

In my experience, the solution there is to make abstractions in the process. Using subprocesses, you can model high-level, business activities, which boil down to low-level activities. BPMN 2.0 has the notion of 'expandable' subprocesses, meaning that by default only the high-level view is shown (not showing the low level ones). You can then 'drill down' those subprocesses. Bruce Silver is a devoted advocate of this approach (which he call 'hierarchical modeling'). His book is certainly worth the money!