TOOLS
Enterprise business modelers have several categories of tools to assist them in their efforts:
Whiteboards: An enterprise business modeler's most valuable day-to-day tool is a whiteboard. With a whiteboard, you can sketch ideas with others, invite them to review these ideas, and then quickly and easily modify them. With a digital camera, it's easy to snap a picture of a whiteboard sketch and send it to coworkers.
Modeling tools: Software-based modeling tools like System Architect from Popkin (http://www.popkin.com) and Enterprise Modeller (http://www.enterprisemodeller.com) are excellent business process modeling tools.
Diagramming tools: Tools such as Microsoft Visio (http://www.microsoft.com), Tablet UML (http://www.tabletuml.com), and CorelDraw (http://www.corel.com) let you draw diagrams freehand and present them in a fashion that makes the most sense to their audience.
Business activity monitoring (BAM) software: BAM software monitors transactions between various systems within your organization, providing insight into the amount of business processing that is currently going on. Examples of such tools include webMethods Optimize (http://www.webmethods.com), which is an add-on to webMethods enterprise application integration (EAI) software, and Halo (http://www.ispheres.com), which works with a wide range of transaction-based products.