Chapter 3: Essential Process Modeling

Contents
1. First Steps with BPMN
2. Branching and Merging
3. Business Objects
4. Resources
5. Process Decomposition
6. Process Model Reuse
7. Recap
Essential Process Modeling

 Business process models are important at various stages of the BPM lifecycle.

 Before starting to model a process, it is crucial to understand why we are modeling it.

 There are many reasons for modeling a process: The first one is simply to understand the
process and to share our understanding of the process with the people who are involved
with the process on a daily basis. Indeed, process participants typically perform quite
specialized activities in a process such that they are hardly confronted with the complexity
of the whole process. Therefore, process modeling helps to better understand the process
and to identify and prevent issues.

 This step towards a thorough understanding is the prerequisite to conduct process

analysis, redesign or automation.

2
Process Modeling in the BPM Lifecycle

Management Processes

Define Vision Develop Strategy Implement Manage Risk

Strategy

Core Processes

Manage
Procure Procure Market Deliver
Customer
Materials Products Products Products
Service

35h B 30h Support Processes

15h Manage
Manage Personnel Information Manage Assets

A E
D
5m 3m 5m 10m 30m 2h 10m

15m 1.5h 10min

Chapter 3: Essential Process Modeling

Contents
1. First Steps with BPMN
2. Branching and Merging
3. Business Objects
4. Resources
5. Process Decomposition
6. Process Model Reuse
7. Recap
BPMN from 10,000 miles…

Based on popular graphical flowcharts:

- Core set of notation elements
- Each core element has various subtypes

A BPMN process model is a graph consisting of four types of core elements:

start end
activity event gateway sequence
flow
Let’s start modeling

Order-to-cash
A typical order-to-cash process is triggered by the receipt of a purchase order
from a customer. The purchase order has to be checked against the stock
regarding the availability of the item(s) requested. Depending on stock
availability the purchase order may be confirmed or rejected.
If the purchase order is confirmed, an invoice is emitted and the goods
requested are shipped. The process completes by archiving the order or if the
order is rejected.
 The most elementary form of relation is that of sequence, which
implies that one event or activity A is followed by another event or
activity B. Accordingly, the three most basic concepts of BPMN are
event, activity, and arc. Events are represented by circles, activities by
rounded rectangles, and arcs (called sequence flows in BPMN) are
represented by arrows with a full arrow-head.
7
 Start and end events have an important role in a process model:
the start event indicates when instances of the process start
whereas the end event indicates when instances complete.

 Once a process instance has been spawned, we use the notion of

token to identify the progress (or state) of that instance. Tokens
are created in a start event, flow throughout the process model
until they are destroyed in an end event. We depict tokens as
colored dots on top of a process model.

8
 Fig. 3.2 shows the state of three instances of the order fulfillment process:
one instance has just started (black token on the start event), another is
shipping the product (red token on activity “Ship product”), and the third one
has received the payment and is about to start archiving the order (green
token in the sequence flow between “Receive payment” and “Archive
order”).

9
Solution in BPMN: Order-to-cash

end
Reject order
activity Items not in
event
Order
stock
rejected
Check stock split gateway end
availability
Purchase
order
event
Items in
received stock Confirm Emit Archive
Ship goods
start order invoice order
Order
event fulfilled

Naming conventions
• Event: noun + past-participle verb (e.g. insurance claim lodged)
• Activity: imperative verb + noun (e.g. assess credit risk)
BPMN core elements

Activities capture work performed in a process

 Different types of activities

activity

Events represent the process’ triggers (start event)

and outcomes (end event).
 Different types of events
start end
event event
BPMN core elements

Gateways capture forking and joining paths in the control flow.

 Different types of gateways

gateway
Sequence flows represent the order in which activities and events
will be performed.
They can be assigned a condition to distinguish between alternative
branches.
sequence
flow  Different types of flows
Process model vs process instances: The tokens game

Order #1
Order #2
Order #3
Reject order
Items not in
Order
stock
rejected
Check stock
availability
Purchase
order Items in
received stock Confirm Emit Archive
Ship goods
order invoice order
Order
fulfilled

A process model depicts all the possible ways a given business

process can be executed, while a process instance captures
one specific process execution out of all possible ones.
A little bit more on events…

A start event triggers a new process instance start

by generating a token that traverses the event
sequence flow (“tokens source”)

An end event signals that a process instance has

completed with a given outcome by consuming end
event
a token (“tokens sink”)
Let’s reconsider our order-to-cash example

[…] If the purchase order is confirmed, an invoice is

emitted and the goods requested are shipped. The
process completes by archiving the order. […]

Reject order
Items not in
Order
stock
rejected
Check stock
availability
Purchase
order Items in
received stock Confirm Emit Archive
Ship goods
order invoice order
Order
fulfilled
Solution: Order-to-cash

Reject order
Items not in
Order
stock
rejected
Check stock
availability split Emit invoice
Purchase
order Items in
received stock Confirm Emit Archive
Ship goods
order invoice order
Order
split join fulfilled

Ship goods
Mapping, Abstraction, and Purpose of a Model

Models are abstractions from real world phenomena,

developed for the purpose of reducing overall complexity.

Models aggregate information and document only relevant

aspects of the real world

Models are being developed:

1. in a specific modelling subject
2. for a specific target audience
3. with a specific modelling purpose in mind
What’s the relevant model?

?
 When modeling a business process, we need to keep in mind the specific
purpose and target audience for which we are creating the model. There
are two main purposes for process modeling:
1. organizational design.
2. and application system design.

19
Chapter 3: Essential Process Modeling

Contents
1. First Steps with BPMN
2. Branching and Merging
3. Business Objects
4. Resources
5. Process Decomposition
6. Process Model Reuse
7. Recap
Branching and Merging

 Activities and events may not necessarily be performed sequentially. For

example, in the context of a claim handling process, the approval and the
rejection of a claim are two activities which exclude each other. So these
activities cannot be performed in sequence, since an instance of this
process will perform either of these activities. When two or more activities
are alternative to each other, we say they are mutually exclusive.

21
Branching and Merging

 To model these behaviors we need to introduce the notion of gateway.

The term gateway implies that there is a gating mechanism that either
allows or disallows passage of tokens through the gateway. As tokens
arrive at a gateway, they can be merged together on input, or split apart
on output depending on the gateway type. We depict gateways as
diamonds and distinguish them between splits and joins.

 A split gateway represents a point where the process flow diverges while
a join gateway represents a point where the process flow converges.

22
Branching and Merging

1) Exclusive Decisions
 To model the relation between two or more alternative activities, like in the case of
the approval or rejection of a claim, we use an exclusive (XOR) split. We use an
XOR-join to merge two or more alternative branches that may have previously
been forked with an XOR-split. An XOR gateway is indicated with an empty
diamond or with a diamond marked with an “X”. From now on, we will always use
the “X” marker.

23
A little more on gateways: XOR Gateway

An XOR Gateway captures decision points (XOR-

split) and points where alternative flows are merged
(XOR-join)
condition

XOR-split  takes one outgoing branch

¬ condition

XOR-join  proceeds when one incoming branch

has completed
Example: XOR Gateway

Invoice checking process

5
Exercise 3.1

Model the following fragment of a business process for assessing

loan applications (loan origination process).

Once a loan application has been approved by the loan provider, an

acceptance pack is prepared and sent to the customer. The acceptance
pack includes a repayment schedule which the customer needs to agree
upon by sending the signed documents back to the loan provider. The latter
then verifies the repayment agreement: if the applicant disagreed with the
repayment schedule, the loan provider cancels the application; if the
applicant agreed, the loan provider approves the application. In either case,
the process completes with the loan provider notifying the applicant of the
application status.
2) Parallel Execution
 When two or more activities do not have any order dependencies on each
other (i.e. one activity does not need to follow the other, nor it excludes
the other) they can be executed concurrently, or in parallel. The parallel
(AND) gateway is used to model this particular relation. Specifically, we
use an AND-split to model the parallel execution of two or more branches,
and an AND-join to synchronize the execution of two or more parallel
branches. An AND gateway is depicted as a diamond with a
 “+” mark.

27
A little more on gateways: AND Gateway

An AND Gateway provides a mechanism to

create and synchronize “parallel” flows.

AND-split  takes all outgoing branches

AND-join  proceeds when all incoming

branches have completed
Example: AND Gateway

Airport security check

Revised solution

Order-to-cash

Reject order
Items not in
stock Order
rejected

Check stock
availability XOR-split Send invoice
Purchase
order Items in
received stock
Archive
Confirm order
order
Order
AND-split AND-join fulfilled

Ship goods
Exercise 3.2

Model the following fragment of a business process for assessing

loan applications.

A loan application is approved if it passes two checks: i) the applicant’s loan

risk assessment, done automatically by a system, and ii) the appraisal of the
property for which the loan has been asked, carried out by a property
appraiser. The risk assessment requires a credit history check on the
applicant, which is performed by a financial officer. Once both the loan risk
assessment and the property appraisal have been performed, a loan officer
can assess the applicant’s eligibility. If the applicant is not eligible, the
application is rejected, otherwise the acceptance pack is prepared and sent
to the applicant.
XOR / AND are not always what we need...

Order distribution process

A company has two warehouses, one in Amsterdam, the other in
Hamburg, that store different products. When an order is received, it is
distributed across these warehouses: if some of the relevant products
are maintained in Amsterdam, a sub-order is sent there; likewise, if some
relevant products are maintained in Hamburg, a sub-order is sent there.
Afterwards, the order is registered and the process completes.
Solution 1

Order distribution process

XOR-split XOR-join

AND-split AND-join
Solution 2

Order distribution process

AND-split AND-join

XOR-split XOR-join
3) Inclusive Decisions
 To model situations where a decision may lead to one or more
options being taken at the same time, we need to use an inclusive
(OR) split gateway. An OR-split is similar to the XOR-split, but the
conditions on its outgoing branches do not need to be mutually
exclusive, i.e. more than one of them can be true at the same time.

35
OR Gateway

An OR Gateway provides a mechanism to

create and synchronize n out of m parallel
flows.
cond1

OR-split  takes one or more branches

condn
depending on conditions

OR-join  proceeds when all active

incoming branches have completed
Solution using OR Gateway

Order distribution process

Exercise 3.3

Model the following fragment of a business process for assessing

loan applications.

A loan application may be coupled with a home insurance which is offered at

discounted prices. The applicants may express their interest in a home
insurance plan at the time of submitting their loan application to the loan
provider. Based on this information, if the loan application is approved, the
loan provider may either only send an acceptance pack to the applicant, or
also send a home insurance quote. The process then continues with the
verification of the repayment agreement.
Rework and Repetition

 So far we have seen structures that are linear, i.e. each activity is
performed at most once. However, sometimes we may require to
repeat one or several activities, for instance because of a failed
check.

 To model rework or repetition we first need to identify the activities,

or more in general the fragment of the process, that can be
repeated. In our example this consists of the sequence of activities
“Prepare ministerial response” and “Review ministerial response”.
Let us call this our repetition block.

39
Rework and repetition

Address ministerial correspondence

In the treasury minister’s office, once a ministerial inquiry has been received, it is
registered into the system. Then the inquiry is investigated so that a ministerial response
can be prepared.
The finalization of a response includes the preparation of the response itself by the
cabinet officer and the review of the response by the principal registrar. If the registrar
does not approve the response, the latter needs to be prepared again by the cabinet
officer for review. The process finishes only once the response has been approved.

XOR-join: entry XOR-split: exit

point point
Exercise 3.4

Model the following fragment of a business process for assessing

loan applications.

Once a loan application is received by the loan provider, and before

proceeding with its assessment, the application itself needs to be checked
for completeness. If the application is incomplete, it is returned to the
applicant, so that they can fill out the missing information and send it back to
the loan provider. This process is repeated until the application is found
complete.
Components of a modeling language

Modelling Language
Vocabulary

Syntax Semantics Notation

Components of a modeling language: Vocabulary

Vocabulary: set of modeling elements of

Modelling Language
the language (BPMN: activities, gateways,
Vocabulary events…)

Syntax Semantics Notation

Components of a modeling language: Syntax

Syntax: set of rules to govern how these

Modelling Language
elements can be combined (BPMN: start
Vocabulary events only have outgoing sequence flows
whereas end events only have incoming
sequence flows).
Syntax Semantics Notation
Components of a modeling language

Modelling Language
Semantics: bind these elements, including
their textual descriptions, to a precise
Vocabulary meaning (in BPMN: activities model
something actively performed during the
business process, while XOR gateways
Syntax Semantics Notation
model exclusive decisions and simple
merging points).
Components of a modeling language: Notation

Modelling Language Notation: set of graphical symbols for the

visualization of the elements (in BPMN:
Vocabulary
labeled rounded boxes to depict activities
and the circles with a thin border to depict
Syntax Semantics Notation start events).
Chapter 3: Essential Process Modeling

Contents
1. First Steps with BPMN
2. Branching and Merging
3. Business Objects
4. Resources
5. Process Decomposition
6. Process Model Reuse
7. Recap
Business Objects (aka artifacts)

 A business process entails different organizational aspects such as functions,

business artifacts, humans, and software systems.
 These aspects are captured by different process modeling perspectives:
 the functional perspective, which indicates what activities should happen in
the process,
 and the control-flow perspective, which indicates when activities and events
should occur.
 Another important perspective that we ought to consider when modeling
business processes is the data perspective.
 The data perspective indicates which information artifacts (e.g. business
documents, files) are required to perform an activity and which ones are
produced as a result of performing an activity.

48
Business Objects (aka artifacts)

Can be:
 Physical or digital information artifacts (e.g. an order on paper, an invoice on PDF)
 Physical material (e.g. a box containing the ordered goods)

49
Our Order-to-cash process, again

Send
invoice

Confirm Archive
Items in order order
stock Order
fulfilled
Check stock
Ship goods
availability
Purchase
order Items not in
received stock
Reject order
Order
rejected

The purchase order document serves as an input to the stock

availability check against the Warehouse DB. Based on the
outcome of this check, the status of the document is updated,
either to “approved” or “rejected”. If the order is approved, an
invoice and a shipment notice are produced. The order is then
archived on the Orders DB.
50
Business Objects in BPMN
A Data Object captures an artifact required
Purchase Invoice (input) or produced (output) by an activity.
order

 Can be physical or electronic

Emit
invoice

A Data Store is a place containing data objects that

must be persisted beyond the duration of a process
instance.
Oracle CRM Client info
Data stores are represented as an empty
cylinder with a triple upper border. They are
Retrieve client
information connected to activities via data associations.

It is used by an activity to store (as output) or retrieve

(as input) data objects.
51
Solution
Invoice
Purchase
Purchase
Order
Order
[approved]
Purchase Purchase Send [approved]
Order Order invoice
[checked]

Confirm Archive
Items in order order
stock Order
fulfilled
Check stock
Ship goods
availability
Purchase
order Items not in
received stock
Reject order
Order Orders DB
rejected Shipment
notice
Warehouse DB

Purchase
Order
[rejected]

The purchase order document serves as an input to the stock availability check against the Warehouse
DB. Based on the outcome of this check, the status of the document is updated, either to “approved” or
“rejected”. If the order is approved, an invoice and a shipment notice are produced. The order is then
archived on the Orders DB.
52
Business Objects in BPMN

 To avoid cluttering the diagram with data associations that cross sequence
flows, we may repeat a data object multiple times within the same process
model. However, all occurrences of a given object do conceptually refer to the
same artifact. Fig. 3.14 Purchase order is repeated twice as input to “Check
stock availability” and to “Confirm order” since these two activities are far away
from each other in terms of model layout.
 data objects allow us to model the information flow between process activities.
Bear in mind, however, that data objects and their associations with activities
cannot replace the sequence flow.

 Sometimes we may need to represent the state of a data object. For instance,
activity “Confirm order” takes a Purchase order as input, and returns a
“confirmed” Purchase order as output: input and output objects are the same,
but the object’s state has changed to “confirmed”.
53
Exercise 3.5
Is there any missing data
object or data store in the
example below?
Do we always need to model data objects?

Data objects help the reader understand

the flow of business data from one activity
to the other. However, the price to pay is
an increased complexity of the diagram.
Thus, we suggest to use them only when
they are needed for a specific purpose.
BPMN Text Annotations

A Text Annotation is a mechanism to provide additional text information to the model

reader.

 An annotation is depicted as an open-ended rectangle encapsulating the text of the

annotation, and is linked to a process modeling element via a dotted line (called
association) .

Includes packaging For blocked invoices

Clear vendor
Ship goods line items

56
Exercise 3.6

Put together the four fragments of the loan assessment process that
you created in Exercises 3.1–3.4.

Hint. Look at the labels of the start and end events to understand the order
dependencies among the various fragments. Then extend the resulting
model by adding all the required business objects. Moreover, attach
annotations to specify the business rules behind i) checking an application
completeness, ii) assessing an application eligibility, and iii) verifying a
repayment agreement.
Chapter 3: Essential Process Modeling

Contents
1. First Steps with BPMN
2. Branching and Merging
3. Business Objects
4. Resources
5. Process Decomposition
6. Process Model Reuse
7. Recap
 Resources

59
Resources

 A further aspect we need to consider when modeling business processes is the

resource perspective.
 This perspective, also called the organizational perspective, indicates who or what
performs which activity. Resource is a generic term to refer to anyone or anything
involved in the performance of a process activity.
 A resource can be:
• A process participant, i.e. an individual person like the employee John Smith.
• A software system, for example a server or a software application.
• An equipment, such as a printer or a manufacturing plant.

60
Resources

Resource class:
A group of (active) resources that are interchangeable, e.g. a role, an
organizational unit or the whole organization.

61
Resources in the order-to-cash example

The order-to-cash process is carried out by a seller’s organization which

includes two departments: the Sales department and the Warehouse &
Distribution department.
The purchase order received by the Seller has to be checked against the
stock. This is done via an ERP module within the Warehouse &
Distribution department.
If the purchase order is confirmed, the Warehouse & Distribution
department ships the goods. Meantime, the Sales department emits the
invoice. The process concludes with the order being archived by the Sales
department.

62
BPMN Elements – Pools & Lanes

Pool
Captures a resource class. Generally used to model a business party (e.g. a
whole company)

Lane
Captures a resource sub-class within a resource class by partitioning a pool.
Generally used to model departments (e.g. shipping, finance), internal roles (e.g.
Manager, Associate), software systems (e.g. DBMS, CRM) or equipment (e.g.
Manufacturing plant)
Pool

63
Solution: Order-to-cash

14
Exercise 3.7

Extend the business process for assessing loan applications that you
created in Exercise 3.6 by considering the following resource
aspects.

The process for assessing loan applications is executed by four roles within
the loan provider: a financial officer takes care of checking the applicant’s
credit history; a property appraiser is responsible for appraising the property;
an insurance sales representative sends the home insurance quote to the
applicant if this is required. All other activities are performed by the loan
officer who is the main point of contact with the applicant.
Exchanging information between business parties

Order-to-cash
The purchase order sent by the Customer is received by the Seller and
checked against the stock. This is done via an ERP module within the
Warehouse & Distribution department. If the purchase order is not
confirmed, the Sales department sends an order rejection to the
Customer, otherwise it sends an order confirmation.
Next, the Warehouse & Distribution department ships the goods and sends
a shipment notification to the Customer. Meantime, the Sales department
emits the invoice and sends it to the Customer. The process concludes
with the order being archived by the Sales department.

66
BPMN Elements – Message Flow

A Message Flow represents a flow of information or materials between

two process parties (Pools)
Message

A Message Flow can connect:

• directly to the boundary of a Pool  captures a message to/from that party
• to a specific activity or event within that Pool  captures a message that triggers a
specific activity/event within that party

Pool 2

Pool 2
Receive
Pool 1

Pool 1

Send Receive
Send

67
BPMN Elements – Start Message Event

The start message event triggers a process by the receipt of a message

when an incoming message flow is connected to the event

Message

Message
received

68
Solution: Order-to-cash

69
Pools, Lanes and Message Flows: syntax

1. The Sequence Flow cannot cross the boundaries of a Pool

2. Both Sequence Flow and Message Flow can cross the boundaries of Lanes
3. A Message Flow cannot connect two flow elements within the same pool

19
Black box or white box?
When are messages sent or received?
A Send activity will send the outgoing message upon activity completion.
(An activity that is the source of a message—such as “Emit invoice” in the Seller
pool ).
A Receive activity won’t start until the incoming message has been
received. (An activity that receives a message—such as “Get shipping address”).

Pool 2

Pool 2
Receive
Pool 1

Pool 1
Send Receive
Send

72
When are messages sent or received?
• Message B is first received
before Activity can start.
• Message A is sent after,
upon Activity’s completion
• First, message B is
received, before Activity can
start.
• Then, message A is sent,
upon Activity’s completion

73
Process (or Orchestration) Diagram

Models a single business party and can be:

Public view (black box)

Private view (white box)

Auctioning Service

Conduct auction

Send auction Send auction Send auction

creation creation completion
confirmation confirmation notification
Auction
begins

74
Collaboration Diagram

Models a global business process between at least two business parties (each
modelled by a Pool)

Send delivery
notification
Seller

Send auction Send

Send
creation payment
payment ack.
request details
Private
Auction Auction process
creation Auction completion
request creation notification
confirmation Goods
Payment sent
details Payment notification
Auctioning Service

Conduct auction acknowledgement

Delivery
Send auction Send auction Send auction acknowledgement
creation creation completion
confirmation confirmation notification
Auction
begins

Auction
Bid Bid
completion
acknowledgement
notification
Bidder

Public
process
75
Exercise 3.8

Extend the model of Exercise 3.7 by representing the interactions

between the loan provider and the applicant.
Chapter 3: Essential Process Modeling

Contents
1. First Steps with BPMN
2. Branching and Merging
3. Business Objects
4. Resources
5. Process Decomposition
6. Process Model Reuse
7. Recap
Process decomposition
Process decomposition

An activity in a process can be decomposed into a “sub-process”

Activities

Use this feature to:

1. Improve understanding by breaking down large models
2. Identify parts that should be:
 repeated
 executed multiple times in parallel
 interrupted, or
 compensated
Example: Sub-Process

Invoice Process Process

received Invoice Payment

Process Invoice
no
mismatches

Enter Invoice /
Check Invoice
Credit Note
Mismatches
Details

mismatch
exists
Block Invoice
Identify possible sub-processes

Acquire raw materials

Ship and invoice

Solution
Exercise 3.9

Identify suitable sub-processes in the process for assessing loan ap-

plications modeled in Exercise 3.6.

Hint. Use the building blocks that you created throughout Exercises
3.1–3.4.
Chapter 3: Essential Process Modeling

Contents
1. First Steps with BPMN
2. Branching and Merging
3. Business Objects
4. Resources
5. Process Decomposition
6. Process Model Reuse
7. Recap
Embedded or global sub-processes?
Process Reuse

By default, a sub-process is “embedded” into its parent process (i.e. it is stored

within the same file)

In order to maximize reuse, it is possible to “extract” the sub-process and store it as

a separate file in the process model repository

Such a sub-process is called “global” model, and is invoked via a “call” activity

(normal) Call
activity activity
Example: process reuse

Call activity is the

default choice to
maximize reusability
Example: sub-process with multiple end events

Quote-to-order
Chapter 3: Essential Process Modeling

Contents
1. First Steps with BPMN
2. Branching and Merging
3. Business Objects
4. Resources
5. Process Decomposition
6. Process Model Reuse
7. Recap
Recap

1. BPMN activities capture units of work in a process

2. Events define the start and end of a process, and signal something that happens
during the execution of it
3. Gateways model exclusive and inclusive decisions, merges, parallelism and
synchronization, and repetition
4. A process model depicts all the possible ways a given business process can be
executed, while a process instance captures one specific process execution out of all
possible ones
5. Data objects capture a physical or digital business object required to execute an
activity or trigger an event, or that results from the execution of an activity or an event
occurrence
6. Pools generally model resource classes while lanes are used to partition pools
7. Sub-processes represent activities that can be broken down in a number of internal
steps, as compared to tasks, which capture single units of work