In a previous post I argued that BPM lacks the concept of the data object. I argued that people tend to communicate with other parties based on forms which effectively represent a data object. Consequently, it can be said that when people think of their business, they think of the business data objects, or simply business object, and when and how these objects are used. Therefore, design and modelling should take place at the level of the business object. So, a business object has relations with events (when is the object used), its roles (how is an object used) and from its roles, the relations with other objects (who uses the object). The latter is the field of Business Object Relationship Modelling which I wish to explore in a next blog post. 

The point is that modelling should focus on the business object and its direct surrounding, the events, its roles and its neighbour objects. This is how people think about their business. Put all of these business objects and one will be able to see the business processes i.e. process mining. People do not think, up front, about (lengthy) process chains. Processes do provide valuable information, and can help for example in determining the cause of stagnations.