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Business Process Modeling with BPMN

Knut Hinkelmann

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann

 Elements of BPMN

Elements of BPMN can be divided into 4 categories:

Flow Objects Connectors Artefacts Swimlanes

Data Objects
Activities
Sequence Flow Pool

Text Annotation
text
Events Message Flow
Lanes (within a Pool)
Group

Associations
Gateways

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Activities

An Activity is work that is performed within a Business Process.

An activity has a well-defined start and end.

■ A Task is an atomic activity, which is

not broken down further.

■ When marked with a [+] symbol, it

indicates a Subprocess.

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Activities

■ A Task is a unit of work, the job to be performed.

When marked with a [+] symbol it indicates a Sub-
Process, an activity that can be refined.
■ A Transaction is a set of activities that logically
belong together; it might follow a specified
transaction protocol. .
■ An Event Sub-Process is placed into a Process or
Sub-Process. It is activated when its start event
gets triggered and can interrupt the higher level
process context or run in parallel (non-interrupting)
depending on the start event.
■ A Call Activity is a wrapper for a globally defined
Sub-Process or Task that is reused in the current
process.

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Business Architecture - Business Process Modeling 4

 Types of Tasks

A User Task is executed by a person, with

the assistance of an application.

A Manual Task requires human involvement

to complete. In contrast to a User Task, a
Manual Task is expected to be performed
without an application

A Service Task does not require any human

interaction. It is completed automatically by
using some sort of an external service (web
service or application).
Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling
 Task Types
■ Types specify the nature of
the action to be performed.
■ They can be identified by a
symbol inside the object.

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Business Process Modeling, BPMN 6

 Subprocesses
■ A Subprocess is a compound activity, i.e. an activity with
subparts that can be described as a child-level process in
another process diagram.
■ Reasons for using subprocesses
♦ Top-down modelling
♦ Reuse and consistency
Details of subprocess «Process order»

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Activity Markers

■ Markers indicate execution behavior of activities /

subprocesses

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Business Process Modeling, BPMN 8

 Style Rules: Naming of Activities

■ Activities should be given names of the form VERB-NOUN.

♦ Check credit (action), not Credit check (function)
♦ Approve loan (action), not Loan approval (function) or
Loan approved (state)

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Order of activities

■ The sequence flow is used to describe the order of activities

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Start and End Events

■ A process must be triggered by a start event

■ Each flow must end in an end event

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Delay in the Process Flow

■ Intermediate events are used,

if some activity should be
delayed
Do you see the problem?
■ In the example,
♦ there is a delay after «send
? offer»
♦ the process continues with
«Process order», as soon as
the confirmation is received

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Events

Events are states that affect the flow of the process.

■ Events are represented as circles.

Start Event
■ The type of boundary determines
the type of Event
Intermediate Event ♦ Start Event: single line
♦ Intermediate Event: double line
♦ End Event: thick line
End Event
Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling
 Types of Start and End Events
■ Start Events and Intermediate Events
are triggers (catching)
Message
♦ Start event triggers a proces
♦ Intermediate event triggers an activity
■ Types of trigger events:
Timer ♦ Message Event: Arrival of a message
(application arrived) or object (product
delivered)
Conditional
♦ Timer: point in time (e.g. 19:00) or
duration (e.g. 2 hours)
♦ Conditional: Condition or business
rule (e.g. temperature above 200°)

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Events during Activity Execution

■ Events on the boundary of

an activity: catch an event
that occurs during the
execution of the activity
■ Events in sequence flow:
catch an event after the
execution of the previous
activity
■ Boundary events can be
♦ interrupting
♦ non-interrupting

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Catching and Throwing Intermediate Events

■ A catching intermediate event, with the

wide icon inside, means the process
waits for the trigger signal
♦ When the trigger signal arrives, the
process resumes on the sequence
flow
■ A throwing intermediate event, with the
black icon inside, means the process
generates the trigger signal
■ Note:
♦ Start events are catching
♦ End events are throwing
Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Business Process Modeling, BPMN 16
 Catching and Throwing

■ Throwing events can be used

Process 1 to synchronize processes
■ Example:
♦ When the task «check account»
in process 1 is finished, the
money is received (throwing
Process 2 event «money received»)
♦ As soon as the event «money
received» occurs, process 2 can
be continued and process 3 can
start.
Process 3

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Event-Types

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Business Process Modeling, BPMN 18

 Event types you need to know

Adapted from: Silver, B. (2011). BPMN Method and Style, Second Edition. Aptos, CA: Cody-Cassidy Press. Figure 7-2

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Business Architecture 19

 Style: Naming of Events

■ Events should be given names that represent a state

♦ Noun-State, e.g. Loan approved, Message received

♦ Duration (e.g. 2 hours) or point in time (e.g. 16:00, Monday)

♦ Condition, e.g. Temperature > 200°

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Exclusive Gateway

■ Only one of several alternatives should be executed:

■ Exclusive Gateway: marked with «X» (or without marker).

♦ Gateway is labelled with a question
♦ Outgoing sequence flows are labelled with possible
answers

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 Data-based vs. Event-based Exclusive Gateways

■ Compare:

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 Parallel Gateway

■ Several paths must be followed:

■ Parallel Gateway: marked with «+».

♦ All paths are executed
♦ Order of execution does not matter
♦ Executions can overlap
■ Parallel paths must be synchronized with parallel gateway.
Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling
 Inclusive Gateway

■ Several paths can be followed:

■ Inclusive Gateway: marked with «O».

♦ Any combination of paths can be executed
■ Inclusive paths must be synchronized with inclusive gateway

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Information Flow

■ Information flow within a process is represented with data

objects and data stores
■ Dats stores can be used to represent information flow
between processes

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Assigning Tasks to Performers

■ A Pool is a container for a business process or a participant in a

collaboration
■ A Lanes represent performers of a process
♦ A Lane can represent a role, an organisational unit or a system.
♦ Activities within a lane are executed by the performer that is
represesented by the lane
Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling
 Assigning Tasks to Performer (2)

■ An activity is the only BPMN element that has a performer.

■ Only the assignment of activities to lanes are important.
■ Gateways, events, data objects can be placed anywhere

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 External participants

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Rules for Pools and Lanes

■ External participants are modeled as (collapsed) pool

■ Exchange between pools is represented by message flow
■ Message Flow MUST NOT connect elements within a pool
■ Information flow within a pool is represented by
♦ data objects
♦ data store
■ Sequence flow MUST NOT cross pool boundaries

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Some Guidelines for Good Modeling

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Style: Primary Modeling Direction

■ There is a primary modeling direction

♦ left to right (horizontal lanes)
♦ top to bottom (vertical lanes)
■ Use back arrows only for loops

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Style Rules for Pools and Lanes

■ Use a black-box (=collapsed) pool to represent the Customer

or other external requester or service provider
■ Begin customer-facing processes with a Message start event
receiving a message flow from the Customer pool.
■ Label process pools with the name of a process; label black-
box pools with a participant role or business entity.

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling

 Style Rules for Pools and Lanes

■ If you can, model internal organizational units as lanes within

a single process pool, not as separate pools. Separate pools
imply independent processes.

Prof. Dr. Knut Hinkelmann Skyguide Workshop - Business Process Modelling