BPMN, Business Process Model and Notation, is the most practical and current Notation its the specific set of symbols and their rules of usage in describing a thing. There are notations created or adapted for use in BPM, just as in other fields. Flowcharting is an(...)'>notation used for Process Modeling is the act of creating visible illustrations, which can be static or dynamic, of what an organization does to produce services or products (optimally of value to one or more(...)'>process modeling, being used as an international standard.
Unlike flowcharts, it’s able to model complex process diagrams in an agile and intuitive way.
19.6 Communicating With Other BPMN Processes and Services Using Send and Receive Tasks. Send and receive tasks enable you to communicate with the other BPMN processes and services in your project. The only difference between message events and send and receive tasks is that you can add boundary events to the latter. BPMN 2.0 Mystery: Process dataInput and dataOutput.
However, not everyone completely understands its symbology.
In this post, we’ll present some process diagrams modeled with HEFLO and work these BPMN examples and their symbols to explain their usage and meanings.
Know more: Examples of process flowcharts that every business needs to have
3 examples of BPMN and their symbols
1- Service Desk Process Diagram
![Message Message](http://www.elma-bpm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Fig-33-700.png)
Service desk processes are widely used in technology service companies and aim to support and respond to internal and external customer calls.
In this example of BPMN, we will explain the meaning of two important symbols, the start and finish events.
Start events are represented by green circles and come in several types, such as multiples (with a hexagon inside the circle), when the process can start through different events; when more than one condition must occur to start the process (with a “plus” sign inside the circle); started by a message (contains an envelope inside the circle) among many others.
Check them out:
End events are represented by red circles and can also be multiple, or closing, when their occurrence always determines the end of the process (with a circle inside the circle), among many others.
Check out how some of them are presented:
See more about this process in these blog posts:
2 – Business trip request process diagram
This is one of the examples of BPMN that can most assist companies that insist on using emails for this type of task flow, because, when replaced by automation, they become much more agile and easy to control.
See diagram:
Note that there is now a blue circle, indicative of an event that is neither a starter nor an end, so-called intermediate events, such as sending a message (which appear in the diagram with an envelope); conditional events, which occur only in function of the occurrence of certain conditions; compensation events used to compensate for an earlier activity in the process.
Here are some examples of these BPMN symbols below:
Other very important symbols in BPMN are the tasks, rectangular boxes that indicate the actions you need to do.
They can be manual (with one hand with the index finger pointing to something); a message to send or receive (with the envelope inside); business rule tasks (symbolized by points and dashes in sequence) and that indicate that they must obey one rule, among many others.
Here are some of these BPMN symbols:
3- Expenses reimbursement process diagram
The last of our BPMN examples is the expense reimbursement process, which you can use after a business trip, for example:
In this case, another very important BPMN symbol, the deviation or gateway, symbolized by yellow diamonds appears.
A unique gateway (with an “X”), indicates that of the flow branches leaving the task, it can only follow one; since a parallel gateway (with a plus sign inside) can follow more than one branch at the same time; while an inclusive gateway (with a circle inside) also allows parallel flows to occur, depending on a predetermined condition.
See the symbols of these gateways and if you want to know more of them, access the post just below:
Check out: Gateways: exclusive, inclusive and many others!
Finally, the symbols below represent how BPM handles data, take a look:
More on BPMN? Watch the video below. It’s one of the lessons of HEFLO BPMN training.
Watch this video on YouTube
Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a standard maintained by the Object Management Group that allows businesses to document and communicate business processes uniformly using graphical notation.
The new version of Visio supports BPMN 2.0, which is the current version of the standard, and corresponding Diagram Validation rules. Using these rules, a user can check the visual correctness of a diagram against logical rules specified in the standard.
This article explains more about our new BPMN 2.0 support.
BPMN 2.0 overview
There are a number of significant differences between the BPMN 1.2 and BPMN 2.0 standards. One difference that influenced our BPMN 2.0 support in Visio was the introduction of different conformance types and conformance sub-classes to the BPMN 2.0 standard. The division of the standard into conformance classes recognized the varying uses of the BPMN standard: some users want a standard set of shapes to represent their processes while others want to create fully executable processes. Not all BPMN tools can or should be designed to support all possible uses of the standard.
When we talked to our customers about their BPMN 2.0 needs, most customers wanted a simple way to create process diagrams using a diverse but standardized set of shapes. This feedback led us to focus on exactly that scenario: stated in BPMN 2.0 terms, we focused on the Descriptive and Analytic sub-classes of Process Modeling Conformance.
Put more simply, the new Visio supports the most common BPMN 2.0 shapes, which constitutes about 360 graphically different shapes. The level of support we picked allows users to create both basic BPMN diagram, and more detailed diagrams with exception logic, resource and role information, basic data flow information and communication information between participants.
We do not support conversation diagrams—diagrams that use conversation nodes and conversation links—nor choreographies. These BPMN notions tend to be used less often, are typically used in more complex diagrams and are outside the conformance types we support. We also left the process execution components of the BPMN 2.0 standard to our partners.
Using the BPMN shapes in Visio
In the Visio start experience, the BPMN 2.0 template can be found both in the Featured area and in the Categories area under “Flowchart”. You can also use the search bar in the start experience to find the template.
When you open the template, you will find a core set of basic BPMN 2.0 shapes. For those familiar with BPMN support in Visio 2010, it may seem that the number of shapes we support has decreased. In fact, the opposite is true: with the addition of new BPMN 2.0 shapes, we support even more shapes.
Based on feedback from customers, only the basic BPMN 2.0 shapes are included in the BPMN Basic Shapes stencil. Other shapes can be derived from the basic shapes using the choices provided on the shapes’ right-click menu. Simply drag and drop the basic type of shape you want on to the canvas, select the shape, click on the right mouse button and select the different options from the menu. This greatly reduces searching through shapes to find the correct shape to drop on the page.
Here are some of the possible shapes that can be derived from the basic Task shape.
There are 36 Task shapes shown above and another 108 variations on the Task shape not shown. In addition, there are 64 types of Collapsed Sub-Process and 64 types of Expanded Sub-Process shapes. The list goes on: in total, we support about 360 graphically different BPMN shapes! Ultimately, this gives users a wide selection of shapes to express process diagrams. For example, the diagram below was built in the new Visio, and it shows a simple ordering process that uses a variety of BPMN 2.0 shapes.
Checking your diagram for errors
Given all the BPMN shapes and conditions specified in the BPMN standard, you may find it challenging to build a BPMN diagram that conforms to the standard. To help, Visio validates your diagram against 76 logical rules related to the visual correctness of your diagram and based on the BPMN 2.0 standard.
To validate your diagram, use the Check Diagram button on the Process tab to check for visual issues with your BPMN diagram. After you validate your diagram, any issues are listed in an Issues window.
To easily find shapes with issues, you can click on an issue and the corresponding shape will be selected. Once you fix the issues, you can check the diagram again to confirm that there are no longer any problems.
The power of Visio
All the other enhancements made to the new Visio also apply to the BPMN template: you can utilize all the productivity improvements in Visio to get your work done faster, apply new themes, variants and styles, and collaborate on a document through capabilities such as coauthoring and commenting. You can also share your diagram on Visio Services, which is part of SharePoint and SharePoint Online in Office 365: others can view and comment on your BPMN diagram even if they don’t have Visio.
Take advantage of all these changes today to create BPMN 2.0 compliant diagrams in the new Visio!
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