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Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a graphical notation that describes the logic of steps in a business process. This notation has been specially designed to coordinate the sequence of processes and messages that flow between participants in different activities.
• BPMN is an internationally accepted process modeling standard.
• BPMN is independent of any process modeling methodology.
• BPMN creates a standardized bridge that reduces the gap between business processes and their implementation.
• BPMN enables you to model processes in a unified and standardized way so that everyone in an organization can understand each other.
BPMN, or BPMN 2.0 as the current notation is referred to, provides a common language that allows all the parties involved to communicate processes clearly, completely and efficiently. In this way, BPMN defines the notation and semantics of a Business Process Diagram (BPD).
BPD is a diagram based on the ‘flowchart’ technique, designed to present a graphical sequence of all the activities that take place during a process. It also includes all relative information for making an analysis.
BPD is a diagram designed for the use of process analysts who design, control and manage processes. In a BPD diagram there are a series of graphical elements that are grouped into categories.
These are the chief graphical elements that define the behavior of the processes. Among the Flow Objects, you can find:
Events: They consist of something that happens during a business process; they affect the flow of the process and usually have a cause and a result.
In the examples below, we will use start, end and timer; these elements are events and are classified in three types.
BPMN includes many ways of starting or ending a process, and there are also many things that can happen during the process, so there are different types of starting events, end events and intermediate events.
• Activities: These represent the work that is carried out as part of a business process. The activities may be compound or not, which is why we use examples of two existing types of activity:
There are different kinds of tasks: Simple, automatic, manual, user, and others. There are also different kinds of sub-processes: embedded, reusable, etc.
Having these different kinds of elements available allows us to diagram the processes in greater depth, thereby providing more information and clarity to the user.
• Gateways: These are modeling elements used to control the divergence and convergence of the flow. There are 4 types of gateways:
o Exclusive Gateway
o Event-Based Gateway
o Parallel Gateway
o Inclusive Gateway
The Loan Request Process handles the necessary activities to receive, analyze and approve loan applications submitted by customers of a financial entity.
A simplified version of this process consists of a couple of activities. First, a customer submits a loan request together with the required documents, then, the information submitted is verified and the application is studied. Finally, the amount of the loan is disbursed, if approved. The Loan Request Process BPMN diagram is as follows:
As you can see, within a business process diagram, there is a set of graphical elements that allow us to model it.
The business process diagrams are contained in objects known as pools that allow us to represent the responsibilities in a process or simply identify the process. BPMN also allows depicting the process performers through separators known as Lanes. For this case the pool is called Loan Request and the lanes represent the Branch, the credit factory and the back office as can be seen in the diagram.
We can identify three types of elements that describe the process behavior:
Tasks represent the work that is performed
Events that, for this case, are used only to identify the start and end of the process
Decision elements, known in BPMN as gateways, are represented by diamonds and indicate a branching point in the flow. Such elements are connected by sequence lines to represent how the process flows.
Let´s analyze in detail the function of each element within the process.
At the beginning, we find a start event that indicates the process start. Processes can be started in many ways, so BPMN provides a set of start events (simple, message, signal, among others) to model those behaviors. We will see some of those events in detail later.
Then there are two tasks. The first represents the record of the loan request information and the second, the verification of the applicant information. When the information is verified, a branching point must evaluate if it was successfully verified or if the applicant is rejected. This evaluation is made through an exclusive gateway that chooses one of the possible paths based on process data. If the applicant’s information is correct, the loan request will be studied, if not the process will be finished.
A similar situation occurs when the loan study is done: the Loan Approved? Exclusive gateway evaluates the result of the study and according to this, notifies the rejection of the loan or disburses the funds.
Finally, we find a Terminate End Event, that indicates the process finishes when the applicant was rejected, the loan was not approved or the amount of the loan was disbursed.
BPMN provides a clear basis for any business process models and is pivotal for any organization looking to streamline their operations and enhance efficiency. With its standardized graphical notation, BPMN facilitates clear communication, clarifies responsibilities between stakeholders and ensures all tasks are carried out within a business process.
Find out more about Bizagi’s BPM solution and how it can help you to model, design, automate and manage every business process on a single low-code platform.
