Foundations of Case Management and CMMN

If you’ve ever struggled to model a process where the steps aren’t predictable—where decisions depend on expert judgment, documents, or evolving circumstances—you’re not alone. Traditional workflow tools often fall short here. This section is designed for those ready to move beyond rigid sequences and embrace the flexibility that real-world case work demands.

By grounding your understanding in the core principles of CMMN, you’ll gain clarity on when and why to use adaptive case management. You’ll learn how CMMN fits into the broader ecosystem of BPMN and DMN, and why it’s increasingly central to digital transformation in knowledge-intensive industries. Whether you’re new to modeling or refining your approach, this is where the real work begins—not with automation, but with structure for uncertainty.

Over the next few chapters, you’ll explore what makes CMMN unique, how it evolved, and how to set up a model that scales with your organization’s needs. I’ve walked this path myself—building models that balance formality with adaptability—and I’ll guide you through it step by step.

What This Section Covers

Here’s a clear roadmap of what you’ll learn in this foundational stage:

• What Is CMMN and Why It Matters in 2026 – Understand the core purpose of CMMN, its origins in the OMG standard, and why it’s now essential for modern adaptive processes.
• Case Management in the Age of Digital Transformation – Discover how CMMN supports flexible, human-in-the-loop workflows in environments where structure meets unpredictability.
• When to Choose CMMN, BPMN, or DMN – Learn practical decision-making criteria to select the right modeling language for your scenario, including hybrid approaches.
• The Evolution of the CMMN Standard – Trace key milestones in the CMMN specification to understand how current best practices emerged from community collaboration and real-world use.

By the end, you should be able to:

• Explain what CMMN is and why it’s suited for knowledge-intensive, adaptive workflows.
• Compare CMMN with BPMN and DMN, identifying the right context for each.
• Recognize when a case model is more appropriate than a process flow.
• Trace the history and evolution of CMMN as a standard.
• Configure a clean, maintainable workspace for CMMN modeling.
• Apply foundational CMMN concepts to real-world examples of digital case management.

Together, we’ll build a strong base—not just for modeling, but for understanding how flexibility, expertise, and structure can coexist in enterprise processes. Let’s begin.