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Certification Reference Materials
Resources to Support Your BPM Certification Preparation
The best way to choose what to review is to start with the Coverage Map and the BPM Skills Self-Assessment. The Coverage Map shows what the exam is designed to assess. The self-assessment helps you identify areas where additional preparation may be useful. Use those two tools to decide which resources, courses, articles, or reference materials are most relevant to you.
The materials gathered here are provided to support preparation, deeper review, and targeted study in specific areas of BPM practice. Some are foundational references that helped shape the discipline over time. Others provide practitioner guidance, standards, frameworks, or BPMInstitute.org perspectives that may be useful when you want more depth on a particular topic.
How to Choose What to Review
Core Preparation Tools
These resources help you understand the exam scope, assess your readiness, and focus your preparation before exam day.
Coverage Map
Review the six exam coverage areas and weighting so you understand what the exam is designed to assess.
View the Coverage Map.
BPM Skills Self-Assessment
Check your strengths and identify areas where additional preparation may be useful.
View the self-assessments.
Certified BPMP Exam Study Guide
Focus your final review with sample exam questions, answer explanations, exam overview material, references, and coverage-area detail.
View the BPM Certification Exam Study Guide.
BPM Courses That Support Preparation
Training is not required to sit for the BPM Certification Exam, but many candidates use BPM courses or certificate programs to build or strengthen knowledge in areas covered by the exam.
Use these courses selectively based on your background, self-assessment results, and preparation needs.
Core BPM preparation courses
- BPM 101
- Process Modeling, Analysis & Design
- Process Measurement & Metrics
- Establishing Business Process Governance & Center of Excellence
Additional BPM practice and leadership courses
- Customer Experience Modeling, Analysis and Design
- Methodologies and Approaches for BPM
- Advanced Facilitation Skills
- Organizational Change Management
Process modeling and BPMN
Explore BPM Courses.
Explore BPM Certificate Programs.
View the Interactive Learning Paths Guide.
BPMInstitute.org Articles and Practitioner Resources
BPMInstitute.org has been publishing focused business process management content, including articles, research, white papers, and webcasts since 2003.
These resources can be useful when you want additional perspective on a specific BPM topic, method, or practice area. Use them for targeted reinforcement when you want to explore a topic in more depth.
Reference Materials
They are provided for reference. They are not a required reading sequence, and candidates are not expected to read every item before taking the exam. Use them selectively when you want more background on a specific concept, method, framework, or area of practice.
- Burlton, Roger; Business Process Management: Profiting From Process; SAMS, 2001.
- Davenport, Thomas H.; Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology; Harvard Business School Press; 1992.
- Franz and Kirchner; Value-Driven Business Process Management; McGraw-Hill; 2012.
- George, Rowlands, Price, and Maxey; The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook; McGraw-Hill; 2005.
- Harmon, Paul; Business Process Change: A Manager’s Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes; Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; 2003.
- Harmon, Paul; Business Process Change, 2nd Edition; Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; 2007.
- Jeston and Nelis; Business Process Management: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations; Routledge, 2011.
- Keyte and Locher; The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping; Productivity Press; 2004.
- Madison, Dan; Process Mapping, Process Improvement, and Process Management; PatonPress; 2005.
- Pyzdek and Keller; The Six Sigma Handbook, Third Edition; McGraw-Hill; 2009.
- Rummler and Brache; Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space in the Organization Chart; Jossey-Bass; 1995.
- Sharp and McDermott; Workflow Modeling: Tools for Process Improvement and Application Development 2nd Edition; Artech House, 2009.
- Silver, Bruce; BPMN Method & Style, 2nd Edition; Cody-Cassidy Press; 2011.
- Smith and Fingar; Business Process Management: The Third Wave; Meghan-Kiffer Press; 2003.
- Spanyi, Andrew; Business Process Management is a Team Sport – Play It to Win!; Anclote Press, 2003.
- Spanyi, Andrew; More for Less: The Power of Process Management; Meghan-Kiffer Press, 2005.
- Fingar, Peter;Â Systems Thinking: The “Core” Core Competency for BPM, BPTrends, September 2005
- Rosemann, Michael;Â Potential Pitfalls of Process Modeling – Part A, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 12 No. 2, 2006, pp. 249-254 (fees may apply)
- Rosemann, Michael;Â Potential Pitfalls of Process Modeling – Part B, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 12 No. 3, 2006, pp. 377-384 (fees may apply)
- Silver, Bruce;Â Three Levels of Process Modeling with BPMN, BPMS Watch, April 2008.
- Madison, Daniel J.;Â Becoming A Process-Focused Organization, BPM Institute, 2007.
- Verner, Laury;Â The Challenge of Process Discovery, BPTrends, May 2004.
BPM practitioners should be aware of these frameworks.
- APQC Process Classification Framework
http://www.apqc.org - Supply Chain Council’s Supply-Chain Operations Reference model (SCOR), v9.0
http://supply-chain.org - Introduction to the Value Reference Model (VRM)
http://www.value-chain.org/en/cms/1960/
Where to Go Next
Use the Coverage Map to understand what the exam covers. Use the BPM Skills Self-Assessment to identify areas where you may want more preparation. Use the Study Guide for focused exam review when you are getting closer to exam day. When you are ready to sit for certification, register for the Online BPM Certification Exam.
