CMMN — Case Management Model and Notation

OMG standard for modelling knowledge-intensive, loosely structured processes where the control flow is not fully predetermined. Complement to frameworks/bpmn for case management scenarios. Introduced in the 2nd edition of sources/2018-dumas-fundamentals-of-bpm (§10.4.2).

Core idea

Rather than prescribing a sequence of activities, CMMN describes:

A case file — the data and artefacts of the case.
Discretionary tasks — may or may not be performed; decided by the case worker.
Sentries — conditions (on-parts + if-parts) that enable or terminate tasks.
Stages — hierarchical containers of tasks.
Milestones — target states for the case.

When to use

Medical treatment, legal case handling, complaint resolution — work where human judgement drives the order.
Within executable BPMN: a CMMN ad-hoc sub-process can sit inside a BPMN flow.

Role in APM

Case management is closer in spirit to agent deliberation than fully-scripted BPMN is. APM's concepts/framed-autonomy generalises CMMN-style discretion by adding normative constraints.

frameworks/bpmn · frameworks/dmn · concepts/framed-autonomy