Camunda Concepts

towards automation

Process Definition

  • The formal definition of the blueprint or template for all occurrences of the same process

  • Defines the activities, events and decisions in the process and the order in which they can occur

  • Otherwise described as

    • The model

    • The process (chain)

Process Application

  • An application that specialises in process execution with the bootstrapped process engine

  • Deploys (versioned) process archives to the process engine, containing:

    • Process definition(s)

    • Decision model(s)

    • …​ other resources

  • Allows process engine access to Java classes to execute

  • Exposes process engine services to the application

Process Instance

  • The occurrence of a process that is executed in conformance with the specification of a process definition. The data handled during execution distinguish one process instance from the other

  • Otherwise described as

    • A case

    • An occurrence

Process Variable

  • The occurrence of a data entity and value(s) as defined by the process definition in relation to a process instance

  • Otherwise described as

    • A data element

    • An attribute

    • An artifact

Concept Summary

Process Definition

What you model and deploy with a Process Application

Process Instance

What you execute in the Process Engine

Process Variable

What you handle in a Process Instance

Camunda Modeler Demonstration

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