It is now 20 years since the first MS Windows-based modelling tools came to market. Many thousands of licences of modelling tools have been sold since then. They are becoming pervasive in software development and were accepted long ago in the data modelling community. The market segment where they would appear to have struggled to get real traction appears to be the area of process modelling. By process modelling, in this context we mean as used by the business and process analysts who work to improve processes, rather than by IT staff simply for system design and implementation. (This latter group have been fairly well served by CASE tools for some years).

The survey was conceived and commissioned in order to try and ascertain what the current state of the mapping and modelling market is, as relates to process. It was also designed to establish whether there are different perceptions among different groups. In order to better understand the impressions of users, we also looked at what tool functionality they use and value and also what methods and approaches they are using to undertake their process improvement initiatives.

The report is intended for anyone involved in, or considering, process modelling and provides some interesting insight as to what is working and what is not. There is also added commentary to many of the findings in order to provide further clarification, or to make suggestions to improve the effectiveness of one's mapping, modelling or marketing (depending on the perspective of the reader).

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