IT for Business

(ITC101)
Lecture Week 5

Business Process Model &

Notation (BPMN)
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the lecture, students will be able to :
 provide an overview and introduction to the Business Process
Modeling and Notation (BPMN).
 explain the general context and usage of BPMN, layered upon
the technical details defined in the BPMN 2.0 Specification.
 describe the basics of the BPMN notation that is, the types of
graphical shapes, their purpose, and how they work together
as part of a Business Process Model/ Diagram
 explain the different uses of BPMN diagram types, including
how levels of precision affect what a modeler will include in a
diagram
 define the value in using BPMN as a standard notation in
business practices
Background
 Although process mapping has been widely
used by many organizations already, it is often
complex, confusing and there is no standardized
way to implement it.
 There’s no single, unified procedure for
documenting processes, so anyone who isn’t
directly involved in the mapping process finds it
hard to understand the maps.
 To eliminate this confusion, BPMN came into the
picture.
Introduction:
Business Process Model & Notation
 This lecture provide learners an understanding of the
Business Process Model & Notation (BPMN) and why it
is a useful for process models and how it is created.
 Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a
standard that provides graphical notation for specifying
business processes in a Business Process Diagram
(BPD), based on traditional flowcharting techniques.
 A key to Business Process Management, it visually
depicts a detailed sequence of business activities and
information flows needed to complete a process.
 BPMN supports business process modelling for both
technical users and business users to represent
complex process semantics.
Introduction
• Its purpose is to model ways to improve efficiency,
account for new circumstances or gain competitive
advantage.
• The method has been undergoing a standardization
push in the past few years and is now often called by a
slightly different name: Business Process Model and
Notation, still using the BPMN acronym.
• It created a more detailed standard for business
process modeling, using a richer set of symbols and
notations for Business Process Diagrams.
• It differs from Unified Modeling Language (UML) used
in software design.
Overview of BPMN
 BPMN uses standardized symbols to make process
maps easier to understand for all relevant parties:
management, employees, and consultants.
 It offers a standard notation that’s readily understood
by everyone. All parties can easily analyse public and
private business processes.
 BPMN helps companies and organizations to:
 visualize business processes
 document processes
 analyse business processes
 discuss the processes using a common language
Simple BPMN Diagram
Purpose of BPMN
 BPMN is designed to be readily understandable
by all business stakeholders. BPMN is to support
business process management for both
business and technical users.
 These include business analysts who create
and refine the processes, technical developers
responsible for implementing them, and
business managers manage them.
 Consequently, BPMN serves as a common
language, bridging the communication gap that
frequently occurs between business process
design and implementation.
Benefits of BPMN
 The diagramming can be far easier to understand than
narrative text or process descriptions.
 It allows for easier communication and collaboration to
reach the goal of an efficient process that produces a high-
quality result.
 It also helps with communication leading to XML
(Extensible Markup Language) documents needed to
execute various processes
 BPMN notation models the steps of a planned business
process from beginning to end.
 It helps organizations to understand their internal
procedures visually and communicate the procedures in a
standard manner.
BPMN 2.0 diagram Elements and
Symbols (Notations)
 BPMN depicts these four element types for business
process diagrams:
1. Flow objects: events, activities, gateways
2. Connecting objects: sequence flow, message
flow, association
3. Swimlanes: pool or lane
4. Artifacts: data object, group, annotation
 These are the individual elements and how they are
used to define a business process.
 We will discuss the elements and shapes / symbols
in the upcoming slides.
Flow Objects: Tasks or Activity Symbols
 A particular activity or task performed by a person or
system. It’s shown by a rectangle with rounded corners.
 They can become more detailed with sub-processes,
loops, compensations and multiple instances.
 Tasks can include identifiers which specify their type -
this makes it easy for new stakeholders to quickly read
and understand your BPMN diagram.
 You don’t need to include every single task or step, only
the ones that are important.

None
No special task type is indicated.
Flow Objects: Tasks or Activity Symbols
A User Task is a typical “workflow” task in which a human
performer performs the task with the assistance of a
software application and could be scheduled through a
task list manager of some sort.

A Manual Task is a task that is expected to be

performed without the aid of any business process
execution engine or application.

A Service Task is a task that uses some sort of service,

which could be a web service or an automated
application.
Flow Objects: Tasks or Activity Symbols

A Receive Task is a simple task that is designed to wait

for a message to arrive from an external participant
(relative to the process).

A Send Task is a simple task that is designed to send a

message to an external participant (relative to the
process).

A Script Task is executed by a business process engine. The

modeler or implementer defines a script in a language that the
engine can interpret. When the task is ready to start, the engine
will execute the script. When the script is completed, the task will
also be completed
Flow Objects: Tasks or Activity Symbols
A Business Rule Task provides a mechanism for the process
to provide input to a Business Rules Engine and to get the
output of calculations that the business rules engine might
provide. The input/output specification of the task will allow the
process to send data to and receive data from the Business
Rules Engine.

A Event Sub-Process is a type of activity within a process,

but it also can be “opened up” to show a lower-level process.
This is useful for process decomposition or general process
organization.

A Call Activity is a type of activity within a process. It provides

a link to reusable activities: for example, it will call a task into
the Process (see upper figure on the left) or another Process
(see lower figure on the left).
Flow Objects: Events
 A trigger that starts, modifies or completes a process.
 Event types include message, timer, error,
compensation, signal, cancel, escalation, link and
others.
 There are three types of events. Start Events,
Intermediate Events, and End Events.

 All of these can be either “catching” and “throwing” on

event type depending on their function.
 We will explain catching and throwing in the next slide.
Catching & Throwing
 Catching events are events with a defined trigger. They
are started once the trigger has activated or fired.
 Throwing events are triggers for catching events and are
triggered by the process.
Flow Objects: Events Symbols
Start event symbol - Signals the first step of a process.

Non-interrupting Start Events can be used to initiate an Event Sub-

Process without interfering with the main process flow.

Intermediate event symbol - Represents any event that occurs

between a start and end event.

Non-interrupting Boundary Events can be attached to the

boundary of an activity. When they are triggered, flow will be
generated from them, but the source activity will continue to be
performed.
The End Event indicates where a path in the Process will end. A
Process can have more than one end. The Process ends when all
active paths have ended. End Events have no outgoing sequence
flows..
Flow Objects: Events Symbols
Receive messages to start a Process or in the middle of a Process,
either in the flow or attached to the boundary of an activity.

Send messages in the middle or at the end of a Process path.

Timer symbol - A time, date, or recurring time and date triggers the
process, aids intermediates processes, or completes the process.

Escalation symbol - A step reacts on an escalation and flows to

another role in the organization. This event is only used within an
event sub-process. An escalation occurs when someone at a higher
level of responsibility within the organization becomes involved in a
process.

A throw Escalation Event will cause the escalation conditions that

will trigger the catch Events.
Flow Objects: Events Symbols
Link symbol - A sub-process that is part of a larger process.

Error symbol - A caught error at the start, middle, or end of a

process. An event sub-process with an error trigger will always
interrupt its containing process.
Cancel symbol - Reacts on a transaction that was cancelled within a
sub-process. In an end event, the cancel symbol represents the
triggered cancellation of a process.

Conditional symbol - A process begins or continues when a

business condition or business rule is met.

Compensation symbol - A refund that’s triggered when operations

partially fail.
Flow Objects: Events Symbols
Signal symbol - A signal that communicates across different
processes. A signal symbol can begin a process, facilitate it, or
complete it..
The Multiple Event is used to summarize several event types with a
single symbol. The event is triggered if any one of those types is
satisfied.
The Parallel Multiple Event is used to summarize several event
types with a single symbol. The difference between this event and
the Multiple Event is that the Parallel Multiple is only triggered if all of
those types are satisfied. They can be used at the start of a Process
or an Event Sub-Process, in the middle of the flow, or as a Boundary
Event.

Terminate symbol - Triggers the immediate termination of a process

step. All related instances are terminated at the same time..
Flow Objects: Gateway Symbols
 Gateways in a BPMN are used to control how the
process flows.
 In BPMN diagram, only sequence flow will affect the flow
of the process, and message flow should not affect the
flow of the process.
 Gateway is a kind of flow objects that is used to direct
sequence flows of a process based on certain condition.
 A Gateway is represented with a diamond shape and
determine decisions, merging and joining of paths.
 It serves as a gate, it will determine whether to let a
certain flow pass, therefore gateways possibly control the
selection of outgoing flow that pass through the gateways
Flow Objects: Gateway Symbols
The Event Gateway, when splitting, routes sequence flow to only
one of the outgoing branches, based on conditions. When merging,
it awaits one incoming branch to complete before continuing the
flow.

The Exclusive Gateway can be displayed with or without the “X”

marker, but the behaviour is the same.

The Inclusive Gateway, when splitting, allows one or more

branches to be activated, based on conditions. All active incoming
branches must complete before merging.

The Parallel Gateway, when splitting, will direct the flow down all
the outgoing branches. When merging, it awaits all the in branches
to complete before continuing the flow.
Flow Objects: Gateway Symbols
The Event-based Gateway is always followed by catching events or
receive tasks. The flow of the Process is routed to the subsequent
event/task which happens first. When merging, it behaves like an
Event Gateway.
The Exclusive Event-based Gateway can be configured such that it
can be used to start a Process, based on the first event that follows it
(see the lower figure on the left).
The Parallel Event Gateway is only used for starting a Process. It is
configured like a regular Event Gateway, but all of the subsequent
events must be triggered before a new process instance is created.

The Complex Gateway defines behaviour that is not captured by

other gateways. Expressions are used to determine the merging and
splitting behaviour.
Practical Use of Gateways
Connecting Objects: Flow Shapes
A Sequence Flow is represented by a solid line with a solid arrow-
head and is used to show the order (the sequence) in which
activities will be performed in a process or choreography diagram.

A Message Flow is represented by a dashed line with an open

arrowhead and is used to show the flow of messages between two
separate process participants (business entities or business roles)
that send and receive them.

An Association is represented by a dotted line, which may have a

line arrowhead on one or both ends, and is used to associate text
and other artifacts with flow objects.

A Data Association is represented by a dotted line with a line

arrowhead and is used to associate data (electronic or
nonelectronic) with flow objects. Data Associations are used to show
the inputs and outputs of activities.
Markers Objects in BPMN 2.0
 Markers show the output behaviour of a task.
 The markers listed below can be present for a task. Some
of these markers are documented using a control that is
available for the task.
Open - icon appears in a sub-process or transaction, after adding
details within the object and subsequently clicking the Collapse
control in order to hide the details.

A Loop Marker is used to represent an activity that will be executed

multiple times until the condition is satisfied. The condition can be
validated either at the start or end of the activity.
Markers Shapes (II)
A Parallel Multi-Instance Marker is used to represent an activity
that can be executed as multiple instances performed in parallel. The
number of instances will be determined through a condition
expression that is evaluated at the start of the activity.

A Sequential Multi-Instance Marker represents an activity that is

similar to a Parallel Multi- Instance activity, but its instances will be
executed in sequence. The second instance will wait until the first
instance is completed and so on.

The Adhoc Marker is a tilde symbol and used to mark a Sub-

Process for which the normal sequence patterns are relaxed and its
activities can be performed in any order at the discretion of the
users. Tasks can start any time without any direct dependency on
other tasks.

A compensation task is an activity that is used as an alternative in

case of failure during the execution of another (normal)
Artifacts: Data Objects, Groups and
Annotation
 It is an additional information that developers add to
bring a necessary level of detail to the diagram.
 There are three types of artifacts:
 A data object shows what data is necessary for an
activity.
 A group shows a logical grouping of activities but
doesn’t change the diagram’s flow.
 An annotation provides further explanation to a part
of the diagram.
 We will look at the different artifacts in the next slides.
Artifacts: Groups and Annotation
Groups are used as an organizational tool
to represent common tasks in one place.

An Annotation Marker is a mechanism

for a modeler to provide additional text
information (i.e., notes) for the reader of
a BPMN diagram.
Annotations can be connected to other
objects through an Association flow line.
Artifacts: Data Object Shapes
A Data Object represents the data that are used as inputs and
outputs to the activities of a process. Data Objects can represent
singular objects or collections of objects.

A Data Input is an external data input for the entire process. It is a

kind of input parameter.

A Data Output is the data result of the entire pro- cess. It is a kind of
output parameter.

A Data Store is a place where the process can read or write data
(e.g., a database or a filing cabinet). It persists beyond the lifetime of
the process instance.

A Collection of Data Objects represents a collection of data elements

related to the same data entity (e.g., a list of order items).
Pool and Swimlane
 Although the key concept is that of process, the definition
of actors is considered first. This is because all processes
are owned by (performed by) a particular, identifiable
actor.
 Actors are identified on process models by boxes in
which processes are contained. These boxes are known
as either ‘pools’ or ‘lanes’.
 Pool represents a Participant in a Process. It is also
acts as a graphical container for a set of processes
performed by the participant that can be described in
sequence.

Example of a pool
Pool and Swimlane
 A pool represents major participants in a process. A
different pool may be in a different company or
department but still involved in the process.
 Swimlanes within a pool show the activities and flow for
a certain role or participant, defining who is accountable
for what parts of the process.
Pool
Doctor
Clinic

Nurse

Lanes
Pool and Lanes
 Pools can be documented and shown as either a “White
Box” or “Black Box”:
 White Box Pool contains all the details of a Process
contained within it.
 Black Box Pool does not or details are shown to the
reader but hidden from the reader in a “Black Box” Pool.
Sub-models within a BPMN diagram
 BPMN diagrams are used to communicate with diverse
audiences, both non-technical and technical.
 There are sub-models that allow the diverse viewers to
easily differentiate between sections of the diagram. These
sub models are:
 Private business processes. These are internal to a specific
organization and don’t cross pools, or organizational
boundaries.
 Abstract business processes. These occur between a
private/internal process and another participant or process. The
abstract process shows the outside world the sequence of
messages needed to interact with the private process.
 Collaboration business processes. These show the
interactions between two or more business entities.
Other Diagrams in BPMN 2.0
 In BPMN 2, there are these other diagram types:
conversation, choreography and collaboration.
– Choreography diagram: Shows interactions between
two or more participants. It also may be expanded with
sub-choreographies.
– Collaboration diagram: Shows interactions between
two or more processes, using more than one pool. All
combinations of pools, processes and choreography
may be used in a collaboration diagram.
– Conversation diagram: In general, this is a simplified
version of a collaboration diagram. It shows a group of
related message exchanges in a business process. It
may be expanded with sub-conversations.
BPMN Usage
 BPMN is not appropriate for modeling organizational
structures, functional breakdowns, or data flow models.
 Although BPMN depicts some information flows in
business processes, it’s not a Data Flow Diagram (DFD.)
 Below are the specification of modeling principles and
concepts excluded from BPMN:
– The linking of business strategies, critical success factors, and
value drivers to processes.
– The relation between organizational structures, including
business competencies, capabilities, and resources to
processes.
– Functional breakdowns of business functions into process
tasks.
– Specification of information objects and thereby information
flow within the process models.
Useful Tips for BPMN Diagram
1. Clearly define the scope of the process with a beginning
and end.
2. You might first map the current business process to
highlight inefficiencies before modeling a better way with
BPMN.
3. Aim for BPMN diagrams that fit on one page, even if the
page is poster-sized, as some are.
4. Lay out sequence flows horizontally. Show associations
and data flows vertically.
5. You can create different versions of the diagram for
different stakeholders, depending on the level of detail
needed for their role.
Modeling Scenario
 Let’s say we want to model a process in BPMN and the
process induces some business rules.
 Scenario: we want to create a bill.
– In order to create the bill, a discount needs to be computed.
– The sum of the order and the customer type are the relevant
criteria to compute the discount. A simple diagram for the
scenario should be as below:
Sample Scenario
Scenario : Request for Service
Scenario : Ordering Pizza
Interactive Session
 Class discussion
– Define business process modeling notation BPMN.
Explain its importance in the enterprise.
– Explain the role of BPMN on the business process
diagram?

 Practical Question
Create a simple BPNM diagram for a company you
are familiar with. Explain the process through the
diagram.
 ny
A
Questions?