FLOW OBJECTS

Slide 28, 25/10/2022

Flow Objects (1 of 8)

- Flow objects are the main describing elements within BPMN and consist

of three core elements

- Activities

- Events

- Gateways

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Flow Objects – Activities (2 of 8)

- Activity describes the kind of work that must be done

- Represented with a rounded-corner rectangle

- Task
- Represents a single unit of work that cannot be broken down to a
further level of business process detail
- Sub-process
- Used to hide or reveal additional levels of business process detail
- Has its own self-contained start and end events
- Sequence flows from the parent process must not cross the
boundary

Slide 30, 25/10/2022

 Flow Objects – Activities (3 of 8)

Task (Atomic) Collapsed

Expanded Sub-Process
Sub-Process

A Task is an atomic activity within a process flow. A Task is used when

the work in the Process cannot be broken down to a finer level of detail.

Slide 31, 25/10/2022

Flow Objects – Activities, Naming conventions (4 of 8)

- … the label should begin with a verb in the imperative form

- followed by a noun referring to a business object, e.g. “Approve order”.

Slide 32, 25/10/2022

Flow Objects – Events (5 of 8)

- An Event is something that “happens” during the course of a Process.

Events affect the flow of the process and usually have a cause or an impact,
for example the arrival of a message, reaching a certain date or the
occurrence of an exception situation.
- Depending on its position, an event in a business process is categorized as
a start, intermediate or end event:

an end error event

Slide 33, 25/10/2022

Flow Objects – Gateways, Naming conventions (6 of 8)

- … the label should begin with a noun (again, this would typically be a

business object)

- and end with a past participle, e.g. “Invoice emitted”.

Slide 34, 25/10/2022

Flow Objects – Gateways (7 of 8)

Gateways represent a branching point or a point where various control

flows merge. Gateways are drawn as a diamond.

Depending on the symbol inside the diamond, it stands for an AND, OR,
XOR, an event-based or an complex-gateway.
- AND-,

- OR-,

- XOR-,

- Complex

- Event-based

Slide 35, 25/10/2022

Flow Objects – Gateways (8 of 8)

- AND = express parallelism; create and synchronize parallel flows

- OR = selects or merges one or more paths, at least one path is taken

- XOR = express decisions; from several outgoing sequence flows,

exactly one must be selected

- Complex = models complex synchronization behavior, x out of y

(used for merging)

- Exclusive Event-based Gateway = alternative paths that follow

the Gateway are based on
Events

Slide 36, 25/10/2022

 Exercise

- Exercise No. 11 – Cooking Process

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 DATA

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Data

Data is represented with the four elements:

1. Data Objects

2. Data Inputs

3. Data Outputs

4. Data Stores

Slide 39, 25/10/2022

 Data Objects

- Data Objects = represent information and material flowing in and out

of activities
= can be physical or electronic objects (paper, email)
= depict as a document with the upper-right corner folded

data object
(input)
data object
(output) data
association
(dotted arrow
with an open
arrowhead)

Slide 40, 25/10/2022

Data Stores

- Data Store = A Data Store provides a mechanism for Activities to

retrieve or update stored information that will persist
beyond the scope of the Process, e.g. a database for
electronic objects or a filing cabinet for physical ones.

Slide 41, 25/10/2022

 CONNECTING OBJECTS

Slide 42, 25/10/2022

Connecting Objects

There are four ways of connecting the Flow Objects to each other or
other information.

There are four Connecting Objects:

1. Sequence Flows (solid arrow)
2. Message Flows (dashed arrow)
3. Associations (dotted line)
4. Data Associations (see Data) (dotted arrow with an open arrowhead)

Slide 43, 25/10/2022

Connecting Objects – Sequence Flow

A Sequence Flow is used to show the order that Activities will be

performed in a Process.

A Sequence flow connect activities, gateways and events.

Slide 44, 25/10/2022

 Exercise

- Exercise No. 7 – Splitting and Joining

- Exercise No. 14 - Gateways

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Conditional Flow – Splitting without Gateways

Slide 49, 25/10/2022

Default Flow

For Exclusive Gateways or Inclusive Gateways, one type of flow is the

default condition flow. This flow will be used only if all the other outgoing
conditional flows are not true at runtime.

The default flow is

represented by
a diagonal slash
added to the beginning
of the connector.

Slide 50, 25/10/2022

Exception Flow

The exception flow occurs outside the normal flow of the process and is
based on an intermediate event attached to the boundary of an activity
that occurs during the performance of the process.

Slide 51, 25/10/2022

Message Flow

A message flow is represented by a dashed arrow with a circle at the

starting point. It is used to show the flow of messages between two
processes (or pools). It can be used in conjunction with BPMN elements
that can send and receive messages.

Slide 52, 25/10/2022

Associations (1 of x)

An Association is used to link information and Artifacts with BPMN graphical

elements.

- Data Objects are linked to Activities.

- An Association is used to connect user-defined text (an Annotation) with

a Flow Object.

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 SWIMLANES

Slide 54, 25/10/2022

Pool & (Swim)Lanes (1 of 2)

The entire process is contained in a pool.

- BPMN Pools describe whole organizations and contain lanes.

- BPMN Lanes describe who is executing a specific set of tasks.
Expanded pool

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Pool & Lanes (2 of 2)

BPMN Lanes should represent specific roles.

BPMN Lanes should not represent individuals. Collapsed pool

Slide 56, 25/10/2022

Collaboration / Choreography Diagram

A collaboration is a synchronized interaction of two or more processes

without central control. The processes communicate by exchanging
messages.

A message flow can represent any kind of information exchange, for

example a phone call or the sending of an e-mail, a fax, or a letter. Messages
can also be connected to physical objects, e.g. a delivery of goods can be
modeled as a message flow in a collaboration.

Slide 57, 25/10/2022

 Allowed constructs when working with pools and message
flow

Slide 58, 25/10/2022

 Forbidden constructs when working with pools and message
flows

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 ARTIFACTS

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Artifacts

BPMN 2.0 provides three standardized Artifacts:

- Associations, (slide 51, dotted line)

- Groups, and
- Text Annotations (slide 51, dotted line)

Slide 61, 25/10/2022

Group (1 of 2)

Slide 62, 25/10/2022

Group (2 of 2)

- The rounded rectangle with the dash-dotted line is a group.

- It only serves presentation purposes, such as highlighting interesting

parts of a model, or grouping elements that belong together, as it is

the case here. The control flow logic of the model is not influenced by a

group.

- You can apply groups any way you like —even across pool boundaries.

Slide 63, 25/10/2022

Text Annotation

- We use annotations to supplement diagrams.

- An annotation is used for adding explanations, remarks, etc. to a certain

model element. Thus, annotations increase the understanding of a model.
They do not have any effect on the control flow logic of the model.

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Common mistakes: Process Model

Generally good quality models, but:

- Missing labels on (X)OR-split conditions, message flows, start/end events

- Two actions in one task (e.g. “Ship goods and invoice customer”) –

decompose into 2 tasks instead

- Too low level tasks such as “click X button” or “continue to X page on

website” – aggregate when performed by same resource (e.g. “Fill out

form”)

- Normal sequence flow crossing pools’ boundaries

Slide 65, 25/10/2022

 Exercise

- Exercise No. 8 – Birthday Party

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 ADDITIONAL MODELING
ELEMENTS

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Activity Markers

Marker:

- Loop Marker

- Multi-Instance Marker

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Activity Looping

- A loop task repeats until a defined condition either applies or ceases to

apply.

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Sequence Flow Looping,
Cycle

Sometimes we may require

to repeat one or
several activities.

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 Exercise

- Exercise No. 10 – Shopping Process

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Sequential and parallel multi-instance activities (1 of 3)

Example: Talent show on television

- “Performance” = sequential
- Sub-process “Determine Score” = sequential
- “Vote” = parallel

Slide 72, 25/10/2022

Sequential and parallel multi-instance activities (2 of 3)

- Useful when the same activity needs to be executed for multiple entities or
data items, such as:
- Request quotes from multiple suppliers
- Check the availability for each line item in an order separately
- Send and gather questionnaires for multiple witnesses in the context of
an insurance claim

Multi-Instance Multi-Instance
Task Sub-process

Slide 73, 25/10/2022

Sequential and parallel multi-instance activities (3 of 3)

A multiple instance (Multi Instance, markers: three vertical parallel lines)

repeats - parallel - all contained activities with different data (e.g. every WG
member selects a pizza) until the corresponding defined condition (e.g. all
WG members) is fulfilled.

Example for parallel multi-instance activities:

Quelle: Jakob Freund und Bernd Rücker: Praxishandbuch BPMN 2.0, Carl
Hanser Verlag, 3., aktualisierte Auflage, 2012, S. 78

Slide 74, 25/10/2022

 Ad-hoc Process ~ (1 of 2)

An ad-hoc sub-process is marked with a tilde.

Although the activities contained in such a sub-process are determined, the

order is not known in advance, because it will only emerge when the sub-
process is carried out. Typical examples are creative, knowledge-intensive
processes.

(Collapsed) Ad-hoc sub-process

Expanded ad-hoc sub-process

Slide 75, 25/10/2022

Ad-hoc Process ~ (2 of 2)

Contained activities can be executed

- in any order,
- several times or
- be omitted.

Which symbols may occur?

Slide 76, 25/10/2022

 Exercise

- Exercise No. 6 – PC Treasure Hunt as a Process

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Modeling of Exceptions – Exception Flow (1 of 2)

Slide 78, 25/10/2022

Modeling of Exceptions – Exception Flow (2 of 2)

- Non-Interrupting Intermediate Escalation Event (dashed line)

-> For an Escalation Event that does not interrupt the Activity to which
it is attached, the boundary of the Event is dashed.

− Interrupting Intermediate Error Event (solid line)

-> A catch Intermediate Error Event can only be attached to the

boundary of an Activity, i.e., it MAY NOT be used in normal flow.

Slide 79, 25/10/2022

 Exercise

- Exercise No. 9 – Birthday Party II

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 SUBPROCESS

Slide 81, 25/10/2022

Syntactical rules for subprocesses

- Start with one start event

- Finish with at least one end event

- Sequence flows cannot cross sub-process boundaries

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Possible Sub-processes (1 of 2)

Slide 83, 25/10/2022

Sub-processes (2 of 2)

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 LINK EVENT

Slide 85, 25/10/2022

Link Event

A Link Event is a mechanism for connecting two sections of a Process.

Slide 86, 25/10/2022

 Types of Events and their Markers (1 of 2)

Start Intermediate Intermediate Intermediate Intermediate End

Top-Level Catching Boundary Boundary Throwing

interrupting Non-
interrupting

None

Message

Timer

Slide 87, 25/10/2022

 Types of Events and their Markers (2 of 2)

Start Intermediate Intermediate Intermediate Intermediate End

Top-Level Catching Boundary Boundary Throwing

interrupting Non-
interrupting

Escalation

Error

Terminate

Link

Slide 88, 25/10/2022

 EXAMPLES

Slide 90, 25/10/2022

An Event-Based Gateway example using Message Intermediate
Events

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An Event-Based Gateway example using Receive Tasks

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Complex Gateway

- Using complex gateways to realize m out of n merges.

Slide 93, 25/10/2022

A Group around Activities in different Pools

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Message Flows connecting to the boundaries of two Pools

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Message Flows connecting to Flow Objects within two Pools

Slide 96, 25/10/2022

Timer Events

Slide 97, 25/10/2022

Message Events

When used to “catch” the message, then the Event marker will be unfilled.
When used to “throw” the message, the Event marker will be filled.

Slide 98, 25/10/2022

 ANALYSIS AND
OPTIMIZATION

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Syntax and Semantic

Syntactic Errors
- Missing start or end event
- Missing (input-/output arrows)
- Message flows instead of sequence flows
- Sequence flows instead of message flows
- Intermediate event instead of end or start event etc.

Semantic Errors
- An AND-gateway joins an OR- oder XOR-gateway
- Wrong gateway logic
- Not synchronizing joining gateways

Slide 100, 25/10/2022

Process Analysis

Slide 101, 25/10/2022

Times in Business Processes

Slide 102, 25/10/2022

Process optimization –
Reduction of processing time

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Process optimization – Eliminate

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Process optimization – Collapse

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Process optimization – parallelise

Slide 106, 25/10/2022

Process optimization – relocate

• Start activities earlier if there is no causal dependence

(e.g. E can only be made after C, but is independent of B and D)

• A=3, B=2, C=4, D=3, E=1

-Processing time: 3 + (5) = 8
➢ tasks B + D (= 5) takes as long as tasks C + E (= 5)

Slide 107, 25/10/2022

Summary of optimization alternatives

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Representation of business situations

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Compensation Event

- Compensations can be modeled without transactions.

- For this, throwing compensation end or intermediate events can be used.
- They contain filled rewind-symbols.

Slide 111, 25/10/2022

Compensation Event

- Typical examples (of transcations) are

- the booking of a train or flight journey
- the reservation of a rental car
- the charge of a credit card
- the contracting of a service provider

- A transaction can either be carried out in its entirety, or not at all.

- If something goes wrong, the transaction must be rolled back.

Slide 112, 25/10/2022

Compensation Event

- This (compensation) task is only used in the context of the compensation

event and is therefore only integrated in the process diagram via
associations and never sequence.

Slide 113, 25/10/2022