Business processes and BPMN
The business process (trigger, activities, actors, outcome) and the BPMN 2.0 notation: pools and lanes, events, tasks, exclusive, parallel and inclusive gateways, sequence flows and message flows.
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Business process: what is it?
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A chain of activities, started by a trigger, that involves actors and ends in an outcome of value for an internal or external customer.
It is described by what triggers it, what is done, who does it and what it produces: processing an order starts from a received order and ends with a delivered one.
After invoicing, the customer gets an email, a paper letter, or both, depending on their preferences. Which gateway represents this choice?
- An inclusive gateway
- An exclusive gateway, because one channel has to be chosen
- A parallel gateway, because both mailings are possible
- An event-based gateway, because the choice depends on the customer
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An inclusive gateway
Only the inclusive gateway activates one or more branches according to conditions. The exclusive one activates just one, the parallel one activates all of them with no condition, and the event-based gateway follows whichever event occurs first.
A business process starts from a …, chains activities carried out by actors and ends in an ….
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A business process starts from a trigger, chains activities carried out by actors and ends in an outcome.
A process without a trigger never starts, and without an identifiable outcome you cannot tell when it is finished or whether it served any purpose.
BPMN 2.0: what is it?
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A standardised graphical notation for drawing a process with symbols that business people and developers read the same way.
Its name stands for Business Process Model and Notation. Its value is the common language: the same diamond or the same circle means the same thing to everyone, which avoids the misunderstandings of a free-form sketch.
A diagram links the company's task “Send the quote” to the customer's task “Read the quote” with a solid arrow, in two different pools. The reviewer rejects it. What is the fix?
- Put both tasks in the same pool to keep the solid arrow
- Replace the arrow with a dashed message flow
- Add an exclusive gateway between the two tasks
- Thicken the arrow to mark the border
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Replace the arrow with a dashed message flow
The sequence flow orders the activities of one participant. Between two participants, the exchange is a message. Merging the pools would erase exactly what the diagram wants to show: two separate organisations.