Ruminating on BPM vs Case Management

Most BPM tools today support both BPMN (business process modeling notation) as well as CMMN (Case Management Modeling Notation). But when to use what?

It all depends on the process that you want to model. Given below are some tips that can be used to decide whether to model the process as a traditional BPM or a case management solution.

Traditional BPM: 

• If your process is a predefined and ordered sequence of tasks - e.g. sending out a insurance renewal message, onboarding an employee, etc. 
• The order of the steps rarely change - i.e. the process is repeatable.
• Business users cannot dynamically change the process. The process determines the sequence of events. 

Case Management:

• When the process does not have a strict ordering of steps - e.g. settling a claim.
• The process depends on the knowledge worker, who decides the next steps. 
• External events (submission of documents) determine what next step the knowledge worker will take.  
• Case management empowers knowledge workers and provides them with access to all the information concerning the case. The knowledge worker then uses his discretion and control to move the case towards the next steps. 

Using the above guidelines, you can model your process using BPMN or CMMN. Business rules can be modeled as DMN (decision modeling notation).