Assignment 1
Process Modelling (Individual Assignment)
300 marks (30% of course grade)
Due dates
Milestone 1: Thursday 18th August at 2pm
Milestone 2: Thursday 25th August at 2pm
Milestone 3: Thursday 1st September at 2pm
Final submission: Friday 9th September, 2022 at 2pm
Submission type:
- Milestones: Excel documents (as specified) for Milestones 1 & 2; Word document for Milestone 3.
- Final submission: full BPMN process model in 3 formats: a Signavio archive (SGX), a PDF, and as a
.bpmn file. Any and all subprocesses must be included in all above files. NB: If elements of the
overall process are missing because of missing subprocesses, marks will be lost.
- All filenames must start with the StudentNumber_LastName format (with descriptions following
your last name e.g. 1234356_Surname_LandAccessProcess).
Submission method: via Blackboard Assignment 1 submission tool. Please double-check your submission!
Background & your task
As the world increasingly acknowledges the need to move to low / net-zero carbon emissions sources of
energy, the need to build new energy infrastructure brings new challenges. Currently favoured
technologies include renewable energy to supplant fossil-fuelled electricity in the grid. Sites for renewable
energy generation are chosen by nature: sites where the wind blows most consistently and ideally at peak
energy consumption hours are chosen for wind farms, as are predictably sunny locations for utility-scale
solar PV farms. These generation sites are then sometimes supplemented by grid-scale batteries which
store excess energy and stablise the grid as demand varies, to which they are connected by electricity
transmission lines that stretch across the landscape.
Lizzie Nairb, the CEO of a Lizzie Nairb Projects (LNP), the company that is building a wind farm in a remote
location, notes that, in some ways, this challenge bears a close resemblance to work she had done in a
previous life, when she worked for an onshore gas company. All this infrastructure will be sited on
somebody’s land, and often in remote locations; they also need to connect their production to the
consumers (and the grid). As such, she dug out some old notes she had made on how she approached
negotiations with landholders in the past, and updated them with her thoughts on how this could work
for LNP’s wind farm. She now wants to build a clear process model of the steps involved so that she can
use them as the basis for a discussion with her team on recruiting teams and setting consistent standards
and process across all the upcoming infrastructure planning and negotiations with landholders.
To this end, Lizzie calls upon you, the Business Analyst. She has asked you to her office to review her old
notes. Over a 2-hour introductory meeting, she provided you with those notes, and together you
identified some amendments, resulting in a process walkthrough that she now wants presented as a
visual (aka BPMN) model to facilitate the discussion with her team where she hopes to improve it.
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The next step for you is to confirm your understanding of some aspects of that process (see the
requirements of Milestones 1, 2 and 3 below), and submit them to the boss. This will allow “Lizzie” (aka
your tutors) to provide valuable feedback to you over the coming weeks, so that you can provide her with
the best possible BPMN process model using Signavio (see Final submission) for her discussion with her
team before settling on LNP’s final approach.
Please document any assumptions you have made within the (final) BPMN model using the BPMN “text
annotation” construct.
Land access process
The land access process starts when the Project manager, responsible for delivering LNP’s next wind farm,
completes his Project Approvals Form (PAF). The PAF includes key details about the proposed
infrastructure and its location, and the Project Manager sends this via the Project Management And Land
Access System (PMALAS) to the Land Access Coordinator (LAC). The LAC reviews it for completeness, and
if it is missing key information, returns it to the Project Manager for completion before progressing to the
next step. If complete, the LAC undertakes a (property) title search to confirm ownership of the land
where the infrastructure is proposed. The LAC then updates the ownership field in PMALAS, uploads the
title search document, and PMALAS updates the PAF with this information. PMALAS then notifies the
Land Access Negotiators (LANs), the Survey Team, and GM of Land & Environment of the proposed PAF.
At the same time as sending to the LANs, PMALAS also notifies the Land Access Legal Adviser (LALA) of the
title search document, who then drafts a key legal document, the Consent to Enter (CtoE) permit.
Meantime, the LANs identify an individual LAN to conduct this negotiation, and once the LALA completes
the CtoE, she submits it to the PMALAS, which notifies the assigned LAN that the CtoE is available.
The LAN then makes initial postal contact with the landholder proposing three dates for a face-to-face
appointment to discuss the proposed infrastructure. Once the LAN gets a response including the
confirmed date from the landholder, he will diarise that meeting, ensure that he has a folder of all
relevant information ready for the landholder, book a pool vehicle for travel to the property and complete
a journey management form. On the appointed day, the LAN will meet the landholder at the property to
introduce LNP and the project. If the LAN doesn’t get a response to the original letter within 10 business
days, he will call the landholder to arrange a time. Sometimes the LAN gets the landholder’s voicemail,
and leaves a voice message asking for a return call, though on most occasions, he gets to speak to the
landholder. Invariably the landholder will confirm the date after this reminder at the latest, after which
the above steps of meeting preparation are followed.
During that first meeting, the LAN presents the CtoE formally to the landholder, and explains what the
proposed activity would entail (light impact, survey crew). If the landholder agrees, she will first negotiate
land access rules that set out clear expectations about behaviour on the land (e.g. leaving gates
open/closed/as they were found, as well as any weed washdown requirements), then signs the CtoE, and
returns both documents to the LAN. Once the meeting is finished, and the LAN returns to his vehicle, he
scans the CtoE and land access rules, and uploads them both to PMALAS. On some occasions, the
landholder will be unsure of her legal rights and obligations, and while happy to negotiate the land access
rules, will not sign the CtoE at that first meeting, choosing to obtain legal advice first. In those instances,
the landholder’s lawyer will then contact the LALA to resolve any legal queries, and once those are
resolved, the Landholder will sign the CtoE electronically and email it to a special email address which
PMALAS processes. Irrespective which route the negotiation took to get to this point, PMALAS
automatically allocates it to the correct PAF, and then notifies the Project Manager that the signed
documents are ready for execution. Once the PAF is formally approved by the Project Manager, PMALAS
notifies LNP’s Survey Team that this land is now available to add to their survey schedule.
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The Survey Team will review the details in the PAF, and identify three potential dates for the survey,
which they enter into PMALAS. PMALAS now automatically sends a copy of the executed CtoE and land
access rules, as well as a standard email, asking the landholder to confirm which of the three proposed
dates would suit, or to nominate another. Because the unexpected can happen, at any time after
confirming the survey date and before the survey happens, the landholder may need to change the date,
and does that by contacting the LAN to advise of the change. If that happens, the LAN will cancel the
scheduled survey in PMALAS, and record a new survey date from a list of availability dates for the survey
crew. After the survey is undertaken, the Survey Team uploads its reports and data to PMALAS, which
automatically updates the approved PAF, and notifies the GIS team that maps are needed. The GIS Team
will then create sign-off maps using the coordinates and infrastructure information provided in the PAF,
and upload these to PMALAS. PMALAS then notifies the LAN, who reviews the maps, and once approved
PMALAS adds them to the PAF. If there are errors, the LAN will reject the sign-off maps in PMALAS,
explaining why, and the GIS team then creates a new sign-off map which follows the same review and
approval process.
Now that confirmed infrastructure locations have been confirmed, the LAN and landholder can negotiate
the long-term access agreement. The LAN requests the LALA draft a legal agreement to cover construction
and long-term operational access to the land with the landholder (the land access agreement). The LALA
provides this typically within a day by uploading it to PMALAS, which then notifies the LAN. The LAN now
contacts the landholder via telephone to arrange a time to present the land access agreement to the
landholder. Once presented and discussed, if the landholder wishes to obtain legal and valuation advice,
the landholder’s lawyer will then contact LNP’s LALA to resolve any legal queries, and the valuer will
assess the economic impact on the landholder, providing a report to both the landholder’s lawyer and
LNP’s LALA. Once legal and valuation negotiations are resolved, the LALA issues the final draft of the land
access agreement to the LAN and to the landholder’s lawyer, which the LAN will bring to the landholder
for signature. When the landholder signs, the LAN scans and uploads the signed agreement and the
signed sign-off maps to PMALAS, which adds them to the PAF, and then notifies the GM Land &
Environment. The GM executes the contract electronically on behalf of LNP, and PMALAS then notifies
the Project Manager and LAN, and issues and copy via email to the landholder. The LAN also sends the
paper version of the signed contract via express post to the LAC, who gives it to the GM Land &
Environment to wet sign, after which the LAC files the original in a fireproof safe, and now, with land
access secured, the process ends.
***************************** END OF PROCESS WALKTHROUGH *****************************
Guidance on your objectives
The overall marking rubric is outlined on the final page. Marks are allocated not just for correct modelling
of the scenario, but also for the pragmatic quality of the model (i.e. use of modelling guidelines,
aesthetics, general ease of interpretation and maintenance for the model’s audience).
As such, please ensure your models are easy to read when printed at A3 size (consider your audience).
You will need to choose the appropriate level of detail (abstraction), and also avoid leaving excessive
blank spaces in your model, which would result in your model being longer or wider than otherwise
necessary. (Signavio’s “create or remove free space” tool can help you tidy the model; don’t forget to tidy
the messages too once you’ve optimised the space!)
Your final submission will not be considered complete unless all three files are submitted by the deadline.
All filenames must start with the StudentNumber_LastName format (with descriptions added after that).
Please read the requirements overleaf, and carefully comply with them!
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Student task: your deliverables
1. Milestone 1 (total 25 marks):
a. please submit – using only the table in Microsoft Excel that will be provided for Milestone 1
(M1) – your understanding of all the actors / organisational artefacts in this process (i.e. lanes
and pools (both black and white box modelled pools)).
NB: if there are multiple entities within the same pool (i.e. lanes), please group them together in
the table so that the structure is clear.
NB: You do not need to submit a BPMN model or even a swimlane diagram.
b. please submit one (any one) activity that each actor undertakes in the column next to the actor
name
c. please submit (in the same Microsoft Excel document used above) one positive outcome, and
one negative outcome of this process.
d. PDFs or other file formats are not permitted; CSV, XLS or XLSX format is required.
2. Milestone 2 (total 30 marks):
a. please submit a list of the event(s) i.e. trigger(s), and activities in this process using the format
that will be provided in the Excel spreadsheet for Milestone 2 (M2)
b. please remember that the customer requires you to use the same language (i.e. the same verbs
and nouns) as they do in their process walkthrough. If you don’t use the customer’s language,
they will not understand what you’re referring to, and give you zero marks
c. PDFs or other file formats are not permitted; CSV, XLS or XLSX format is required.
3. Milestone 3 (total 35 marks):
a. please submit, this time using a Microsoft Word document - two complex and advanced BPMN
constructs that are necessary to achieve high semantic and pragmatic quality in this process.
Please also explain, in less than 200 words for each, why you have chosen those constructs as
necessary to best model this process. You may use a fragment of a BPMN model to help explain.
NB: you do not need to submit a full or complete BPMN model for this milestone.