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A guide to the core elements within the business process modelling notation
www.bpmn.co.uk
The Anatomy of a Process Model
Introduction to BPMN 2.0 | Anatomy of a Process Model 2
Pool
Intermediate
Start Event Sequence Flow Event
End Event
Gateway
The BPMN 2.0 specification defines three levels of process modelling conformance:
Pools Lanes
A pool is used to define either a group of participants such as an area within an A lane is used to define a specific
organisation or an external entity that collaborates within a process. participant or role within a process.
A process model is normally created from the perspective of a single participant A lane may be contained within a
the white box pool, and contains the detail of that process. Black box pools are pool..
considered external to the scope of the process (although not necessarily outside of
the organisation), and do not show flow and activities. Black box pools may be
collapsed and rotated, but do not have to be.
Black
Box
..or may itself be broken down into
other lanes:
White
Box
Events
Introduction to BPMN 2.0 | Core Concepts | Events 7
Within the flow of a process, one or more lanes (roles) will perform a number of activities.
Collapsed
Task Sub Process
A task is something that a lane A sub process summarises
(role) does during the process. a group of activities, and can
A task is a granular (atomic) be expanded out into further
Expanded
z or does not
activity that cannot detail. Sub processes can z
need to be broken down any be shown as collapsed (with
further. the [+] symbol), or
expanded.
Flow
Introduction to BPMN 2.0 | Core Concepts | Flow 9
Association
Used to attach artefacts
Message Flow (such as data objects)
The flow of to activities.z
information as
z
Messages
between
Participants
Sequence Flow
The sequence shows the order that activities are
performed within a process.z
Gateways
Introduction to BPMN 2.0 | Core Concepts | Gateways 10
Gateways Inclusive
Gateways are used to control the Follow one or more paths
flow of the process by routing,
splitting and merging.
z
There are six types of gateway - z
the simplest examples are shown:
Exclusive Parallel
Follow only one path Follow all paths
z z
Artefacts
Introduction to BPMN 2.0 | Core Concepts | Artefacts 11
www.bpmn.co.uk