BPMN Level 1 Palette

part 1 - modelling method and style

EIS, EIS, Baby![1]

  • Endings

  • Intent

  • Starts

background

  • Sometimes, it can be helpful to model a process from the end back to the start. This works particularly well if SMEs are likely to wander into exceptions in the forward direction because when you go back to front, you’re forced to choose the minimal set of steps to get there.

Endings, Intent, Start

  • Start by defining the intent: what is the goal of this process?

  • Define starting point(s)

  • Define end state(s)

  • Write that down!

General Structure

  • Model the happy path in a straight line, from left to right

    • Break from the line for alternative paths

  • Don’t use conditional flow from an activity to model exclusive paths - use the gateway instead

  • There is no need to merge immediately before a single end event for the process

    • Separate end events represent the different possible outcomes

Activities

  • Activities are named VERB-NOUN (imperative form, e.g. Act on Object)

  • Processes are named VERB-NOUN as well: Approve Request

  • Avoid using technical terms such as "Store Document" or "Read Account"

  • Describe what should happen, not how it happens

User Tasks

  • Don’t model the screen flow with separate user tasks!

    • Screen flow happens inside the atomic task and is normally not part of the business process

  • Don’t model tasks to "distribute work"

Gateways

  • Name of a diverging exclusive gateway is a question

    • Name represents the decision evaluated

    • Names of outgoing sequence flows from the gateway are answers to that question

  • Exclusive gateways receive exclusive conditions where possible

  • Don’t name parallel gateways

    • There is no decision or any process-specific semantics to its use

  • Don’t loop back to a diverging parallel gateway

  • Do not merge and split in the same gateway

Events

  • Events are named NOUN-VERB (past tense)

    • Examples: Customer Registered, Retention Period Expired

  • Name describes what has happened to trigger the event, e.g. Order Rejected

  • For timer events, indicating the period or moment is usually better

1. For those not familiar, a throwback to the original phrase in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Ice_Baby