Welcome to a very special episode of What’s Your Baseline? — where we demystify enterprise architecture and business process management. In this milestone 100th episode, we are joined by fellow BPM podcasters from Prozess Philosophen and BPM360 to celebrate, reflect, and talk about the wild ride of creating content in this niche space.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• Milestone celebration — 100 full-length episodes! A look back at the journey and what's ahead.
• Origin stories — How each podcast got started: from Munich restaurants to airport lounges, and "anonymous alcoholics for BPM enthusiasts."
• The evolution of podcasting — From rough first episodes to polished productions (or intentionally unpolished ones).
• Video vs. audio debate — The pros, cons, and time costs of adding video to podcasts; why some stick to one-take recording.
• Editing realities — 10 minutes vs. 8 hours: wildly different approaches to post-production and what works for each team.
• Authenticity over AI polish — Why staying real and soulful matters in an era of AI-generated, hyper-polished content.
• Community-driven content — Listener feedback shapes episodes; the power of niche audiences and recurring themes.
• Lessons learned — Top advice for aspiring podcasters: just start, don't overthink, make guests comfortable, and embrace imperfection.
• Underrated vs. Overrated — Change management (underrated), AI hype (overrated), process models (underrated), BPMN notation alone (overrated).
• The future of BPM podcasting — Where the medium is headed, from knowledge lexicons to safe spaces for authentic discussion.
• Listener challenge — What content do you consume? How do you consume it? What resonates with you and why?
• Gratitude and reflections — A heartfelt thank you to the audience, guests, and the BPM community for four years of support.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

Last week we took a deep(-er) look at what BPMN is today and pointed out the scope, difficulties, and misconceptions in the current specification.

But what are ideas for improvements?

I am glad that you asked, because this episode is exactly about this (with a slight twist to the business side of things). In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• Today’s topic: What should BPMN 3.0 look like? Spoiler—it's more than just dots and arrows.
• The hosts unpack the missing hierarchy in BPMN—why we need clear distinctions between high-level, process, and task models. Roland argues for flexibility and “N levels of process”—from value chains down to sub-processes.
• J-M pushes for decision levels—models as tools for making decisions, not just communication artifacts.
• Call activities: misused, misunderstood, and overcomplicated. The guys agree—most analysts don’t touch them right.
• A deep dive into lanes and pools—why they’re conceptually fine but practically messy. (Stop naming your pool after your process, people!)
• Both want organizational elements as first-class citizens—RACI, org roles, and system links built right into the spec.
• Execution vs. documentation: the eternal BPMN dilemma. Should the spec drive engines, or help humans? (Hint: both.)
• J-M dreams of BPMN models training AI agents. Roland gets heartburn just thinking about it.
• “Lanes need intelligence.” The duo agree that automation, RPA, and AI will force clarity in BPMN sooner rather than later.
• Roland throws shade at the spec’s quality control—gateways aren’t decisions, folks! Read the fine print.
• The conversation drifts into data, risks, and controls—areas where BPMN could learn a lot from EPC and real-world practice.
• We are discussing other objects: “page connectors” (process interfaces), groups, milestones, etc.
• Closing thoughts: BPMN 3.0 should unify the best of documentation and execution, EPC’s expressiveness, and OMG’s rigor—with a bit more consistency, please.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

BPMN—”the” standard for process modeling and also the foundation for process automation using BPMS tools—is currently in its version 2.02, and that version was published in early 2014.
Since then? Crickets.

So, why haven't we seen an update of the standard? That is a big question and since we had such a blast talking about this topic we went wayyyyy overboard time-wise so that we are splitting the episode into two (well, Episodes 99 and 99 1/2) ;-)

Part 2 will be published in a week from now, on next Monday.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• Today’s topic: the complaint episode — what’s wrong with BPMN 2.0 and why we need a BPMN 3.0.
• A quick refresher: what BPMN is, where it came from, and why it became the lingua franca of process modeling.
• The promise of BPMN — a vendor-neutral, universal standard that was supposed to be “the last one you’d ever need.”
• The architecture perspective: balancing human understanding with machine execution — and why that balance got lost.
• A trip through history — from BPMN 1.0 (2004) to BPMN 2.0 (2011) and the last official update way back in 2013.
• The big question: why has BPMN stagnated for 12 years despite widespread use and clear pain points?
• Misconceptions and limitations — why BPMN isn’t truly hierarchical and struggles with multi-level process design.
• The missing pieces: business context, data models, organizational links, and real-world process hierarchies.
• AI and automation — how BPMN 2.0 fails to address adaptive, probabilistic, or dynamic process behavior.
• Tool vendors’ workarounds — how they “extended” BPMN to make it usable for analysts and automation implementers.
• The call to action: OMG, it’s time to evolve the standard — let’s build a BPMN 3.0 for the next generation.
• Listener question: how do you use BPMN 2.0? What frustrates you — and how have you worked around it?

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.