So far, we have understood the use of BPMN for modeling a business process. Modeling is followed by an analysis phase to identify bottlenecks and areas of potential improvement in a process. Generally, BPA tools, such as Oracle BPA, provide capabilities for simulating business processes before they are sent to the IT teams for execution.

Simulation helps business analysts in understanding, analyzing, designing, and improving business processes. It allows users to study the impact of various business scenarios over an existing business process and to understand the areas where improvements can be made.

We can study business process simulation by understanding various steps involved in the analysis phase as shown in the following figure: