Tools Guide

IBM Blueworks Live

Cloud-based process modeling from IBM. Built for enterprise collaboration.

www.ibm.com/products/blueworkslive

At a glance

Category
Process Modeling
Best for
Enterprise teams in the IBM ecosystem who need cloud-based process discovery and documentation.
BPMN support
BPMN-style modeling with discovery maps. Limited BPMN XML export.
Collaboration
Cloud-native collaboration with comments, sharing, and approval workflows
Pricing
Enterprise pricing (contact IBM sales). No public pricing.

Strengths

  • +Cloud-based with no installation required
  • +Tight integration with IBM ecosystem (BPM, Watson)
  • +Discovery maps for collaborative process capture
  • +Good collaboration and sharing features

Limitations

  • -Locked into the IBM ecosystem
  • -No standard BPMN 2.0 XML export
  • -Expensive enterprise pricing
  • -Limited adoption outside IBM customer base

Our take

Blueworks Live is IBM doing cloud process modeling. The discovery maps are genuinely useful for workshops where you capture processes collaboratively. The downside is classic IBM - you are locked in, the pricing is opaque, and exporting your work to non-IBM tools is painful.

Learn BPMN

New to process modeling? Start with our free tutorials.

Retail

The Shoe Shop

Max is three weeks into his first job at MegaWorld Shoes. A customer wants a size 38 that isn't on the shelf. His manager is at lunch. All he has is a process diagram.

Motorsport

The Race Track

The pit crew has 7 seconds. Tires need changing, fuel needs topping up, and the engine needs checking — all at the same time. How do you model work that happens in parallel?

Cosmetics

Beauty Paradise

A cosmetics company is going digital. Customers can pick multiple treatments, and suppliers need to be coordinated. When one choice doesn't exclude another, you need a different kind of gateway.

See all 11 scenarios →

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