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Introduction to BPMN
Stephen A. White, IBM Corporation
Abstract
This paper is intended to provide a high-level overview and introduction to the Business Process
Modeling Notation (BPMN). The context and general uses for BPMN will be provided as a
supplement to the technical details defined the BPMN 1.0 Specification, which has been recently
completed and released to the public. The basics of the BPMN notation will be discribed—that is,
the types of graphical objects that comprise the notation and how they work together as part of a
Business Process Diagram. Also discussed will be the different uses of BPMN, including how levels
of precision affect what a modeler will include in a diagram. Finally, the value in using BPMN as a
standard notation will be defined and the future of BPMN outlined.
What Is BPMN?
The Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) has developed a standard Business Process
Modeling Notation (BPMN). The BPMN 1.0 specification was released to the public in May, 2004.
This specification represents more than two years of effort by the BPMI Notation Working Group.
The primary goal of the BPMN effort was to provide a notation that is readily understandable by all
business users, from the business analysts that create the initial drafts of the processes, to the
technical developers responsible for implementing the technology that will perform those
processes, and finally, to the business people who will manage and monitor those processes. BPMN
will also be supported with an internal model that will enable the generation of executable
BPEL4WS. Thus, BPMN creates a standardized bridge for the gap between the business process
design and process implementation.
BPMN defines a Business Process Diagram (BPD), which is based on a flowcharting technique
tailored for creating graphical models of business process operations. A Business Process Model,
then, is a network of graphical objects, which are activities (i.e., work) and the flow controls that
define their order of performance.
BPMN Basics
A BPD is made up of a set of graphical elements. These elements enable the easy development of
simple diagrams that will look familiar to most business analysts (e.g., a flowchart diagram). The
elements were chosen to be distinguishable from each other and to utilize shapes that are familiar to
most modelers. For example, activities are rectangles and decisions are diamonds. It should be
emphasized that one of the drivers for the development of BPMN is to create a simple mechanism
for creating business process models, while at the same time being able to handle the complexity
inherent to business processes. The approach taken to handle these two conflicting requirements
was to organize the graphical aspects of the notation into specific categories. This provides a small
set of notation categories so that the reader of a BPD can easily recognize the basic types of