BPMN 2.0
BPMN 2.0: events, gateways and process notation
Business Process Model and Notation: events, gateways, pools and the flows between them - the notation business and IT are both supposed to be able to read.
7 articles69 min read
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What is BPMN?
A working introduction to BPMN 2.0: the five families of symbol, the difference between sequence flow and message flow, pools and lanes, the three levels of modelling, and when BPMN beats a UML activity diagram.
10 min read
Read in order
BPMN, one symbol set at a time
- 02EventsHow BPMN events work: start, intermediate and end by border weight, the message, timer, error, signal and conditional types by interior glyph, throwing versus catching, and boundary events as the way to model exceptions.Behaviour diagrams8 min read
- 03GatewaysThe BPMN gateway types explained: exclusive, parallel, inclusive, event-based and complex, splitting versus merging, default flows, and why an unbalanced inclusive gateway is the classic way to deadlock a process.Notation reference14 min read
- 04BPMN examplesFive worked BPMN 2.0 processes with complete diagrams: a two-pool onboarding collaboration, an expense approval with a rework loop, a support ticket with an escalation deadline, a subscription renewal against a black-box payment provider, and a returns process using an inclusive gateway.Behaviour diagrams11 min read
- 05How to draw BPMNA step-by-step procedure for drawing a BPMN 2.0 diagram: choosing the start and end events first, listing steps as verb phrases, drawing the happy path in one pool, adding gateways and loops, deciding whether a second pool is warranted, and the five checks that catch most defects.Modelling practice9 min read
- 06BPMN symbolsA reference for every BPMN 2.0 symbol: tasks and their type markers, subprocesses and call activities, the three event borders and their glyphs, the five gateway types, sequence against message flow, default and conditional flows, pools, lanes, data objects and artifacts.Notation reference9 min read
- 07BPMN vs activity diagramThe two notations draw the same process and diverge in four places: who reads them on sight, what a swimlane boundary is allowed to mean, how an interruption is drawn, and whether the file can be handed to an engine that runs it.Modelling practice8 min read
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