BPMN 2.0 Elements

BPMN elements are the building blocks used to represent the various components and activities within a business process. These elements are designed to be easily understandable by all business stakeholders, including business analysts, developers, and business managers.

Element Types

BPMN elements can be categorized into several types, each serving a specific purpose in the modeling of business processes:

  1. Flow Objects: The main elements that define the behavior of the process.

    • Events: Represent something that happens during the process (that are start, intermediate, end).

    • Activities: Tasks or subprocesses that are performed (that is, user tasks, service tasks, script tasks).

    • Gateways: Control the flow of the process by determining branching, forking, merging, and joining of paths. image::bpmn-elements/comment-link.png[]

  2. Connecting Objects: Elements that connect flow objects and define the flow of the process.

    • Sequence Flows: Indicate the order of activities in the process (sequence flow).

    • Message Flows: Show the flow of messages between different participants or processes (message flow).

    • Association: Links artifacts to flow objects, providing additional information (compensation flow).

    • Compensation Flows: Connects a Compensation handler with compensating activity (compensation flow).

    • Comment Links: Shows the object the comment is attached to (comment link).

  3. Swimlanes: Visual elements that organize the activities in a process by grouping them into different roles or responsibilities.

    • Pools: Represent major participants in a process (e.g., organizations).

    • Lanes: Subdivisions within a pool that represent specific roles or responsibilities.

  4. Artifacts: Additional information that can be attached to the process to provide context.

    • Data Objects: Represent data that is required or produced by activities.

    • Groups: Visual elements that group different tasks but do not affect the flow.

    • Annotations*: Provide additional information about the process.

Markers

A marker refers to specific symbols or indicators used within the graphical representation of a process to convey additional information about the activities or events.

Markers are visual elements that provide quick insights into the behavior or characteristics of a process element. They help to differentiate between various types of activities, events, or gateways.

Types of markers:

  • Subprocess Marker: A plus sign (subprocess marker) in the upper left corner of a rounded rectangle indicates that the activity is a subprocess that can be expanded to show its internal details.

  • Event Markers: Different symbols within circles can indicate the type of event (e.g., message, timer, error) and whether it is a catching or throwing event.

  • Multi-instance markers: Three short vertical (multi parallel) or horizontal (multi sequential) lines indicating that an activity (task or subprocess) can be executed multiple times in parallel or sequentially.

  • Compensation marker: A rewind symbol (compensation marker) indicating this activity is a compensation handler.