The BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is from the origin a representation type of processes in the business environment. It was developed at IBM in 1986 and has been established in version 2.0 since 2011.
Due to the few easy to understand characters based on 4 basic shapes (rounded rectangle, rotated square/rhombus, circle and arrow), the application is easy to understand and learn in the course of editing. This defined type of presentation makes it easy to ensure a clear structure, even for third-party documentation.
Individual tasks of a process, are represented as activities by rounded rectangles and assigned to the respective responsible swimlane. These swimlanes run parallel to each other, like the swim lanes in a swimming pool, and each represents a separate area needed to perform this process. These can be departments, people or IT systems and other resources.
The activities required for a business process are displayed one after the other in chronological order and linked to each other by exactly one input and output arrow.
If there are multiple choices between activities or decisions are required, additional “gateways” are inserted, indicated by squares rotated 45 degrees. With these forks the possible options are shown and marked if only one of them can or must be chosen. Each arrow originating from the gateway is named with the possible option and reconnected to the parallel other activities at the next possible time.
The end of an optional/parallel process path is also represented with a gateway symbol. The level of detail of the processes can be deepened depending on the stage of processing or presented with less information for the big picture.
The additional tools necessary for the fulfillment of the process, which do not have any activity per se, are represented as a data object visually like a sheet of paper with a dog-ear) and placed at the activity with dashed arrows.
Advantages
– visually clear assignment possible in terms of time and organization
– Start and implementation very simple
– Introduction also possible after classic whiteboard/postit brainstorming by moving the slips of paper into the correct arrangement
Disadvantages
– Space requirement is depending on the level of detail h.her
– Creativity can be limited too early by process representation
