Hi Ken,

Aris is a very comprehensive tool and fairly complex as well. As good as it is and as comprehensive, we found that collaborative engagement was challenging and whereas a BA level person with the correct training could get to grips with it, a business manager or process participant will struggle. It does also carry a fair price tag, but that is a matter of choice.

A tool we use called Process Master could be used alongside Aris for simplifying and speeding up the task of process discovery and documentation. This really easy to use tool can be given to business managers and assists  in their engagment and collaboration at least in the "as-is" part of the task. I have heard that Process Master are in the process of developing a connector so that you can export the BPMN diagrams and the documentation through XML to Aris and are doing this to manage round-tripping, so that you can use Process Master as the front-end to enable easy engagement. You can then export the documents through to Aris for analysis and all the other good things Aris provides, and retrieve from Aris into Process Master for update and further collaboration.

I have an early release brochure on this from PM and would gladly assist you to make contact and get a trial download - worth looking at www.processmaster.com . The pricing of the tool is also very favourable - hope this helps.

Regards

Nigel