BPMN modeling language

General concepts

The main purpose of the modeling language is to create a notation that is understandable to all participants in the business sphere, from business analysts who create initial sketches of processes, technical developers responsible for the implementation of the technology in which these processes will be presented, and finally to businessmen who will manage these processes and to monitor them.
Another equally important goal is the visualization through business-oriented notation of XML languages, such as BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services), designed to run business processes.

This specification reveals the concept and defines the semantics of business process diagrams (Business Process Diagram (BPD)) and combines the best methods developed in the field of process modeling. The purpose of BPMN is to standardize the notation of business process modeling in the presence of many different notations and points of view on modeling.

There are two main aspects to BPMN specification compliance:

Appearance of graphic elements BPMN . The key element of BPMN is the choice of shapes and icons used in graphic elements. The goal is to create a standard visual language that will be recognizable and understandable to all process developers, regardless of the source of the schema.

The semantics of BPMN elements . This language also defines how graphical elements interact with each other, including conditional interactions based on attributes that create behavioral changes to the elements. The matching tool should correspond to the given semantic descriptions.

BPMN Description
BPMN considers only modeling concepts applicable to business processes. This means that other types of modeling performed in organizations within a business activity are not covered in BPMN. For example, the following types of modeling will not be included in BPMN:

• Organizational structures and resources
• Functional diagrams
• Data models and information models
• Strategies
• Business rule

In addition, while BPMN reflects the flow of data (messages) and the relationship of data artifacts to actions, it is not a flow diagram of data.

BPMN Assignment

Business process modeling is designed to communicate a variety of information to a wide audience. BPMN describes many types of modeling and allows the creation of end-to-end business processes. BPMN structural elements make it easy to distinguish between parts of a BPMN scheme.

There are three main types of submodels within the end-to-end BPMN model:

• Private (internal) business processes
• Abstract (open) processes
• Collaborative (global) processes

Private (Domestic) Business Processes
Private business processes are internal to a particular organization; this type of business process is usually called workflow or BPM (business process management) processes. One private business process can be displayed in one or more documents, but under any conditions it must be completed within the organization.

Abstract (Open) Processes
They represent the interaction between a private business process and another process or participant. Only those processes whose actions have connections outside the private business process are considered abstract, they also include appropriate flow control mechanisms. All other "internal" actions of the private business process are not displayed in the abstract business process. Thus, the abstract process shows the sequence of messages that need to interact with a given business process ..
Abstract processes are contained within a region and can be modeled separately or within a larger BPMN schema to demonstrate the flow of messages between blocks of the abstract process and other objects. If the abstract process is located on the same scheme as the corresponding private process, then the blocks common to both processes can be combined.

Collaborative (Global) Processes
The collaborative process displays the interaction between two or more business objects. These interactions consist in the exchange of messages between these objects. The same collaborative process can be applied to a diagram in different languages, such as the ebXMLBPSS, RosettaNet, or the product of the W3CChoreography Working Group activity (these schemes are considered as one of the future directions of BPMN).

A collaborative process can be represented as two or more interacting abstract processes. In the abstract process, the actions of the participants in a collaboration can be viewed as “touch points” between the participants. The actual (running) processes are, in fact, more detailed and have more actions than abstract processes.

Types of schemes

Within and outside of these three submodels of BPMN, you can create many types of schemes. The types of business processes that can be modeled using BPMN are listed below:

• High level private process actions (not functional diagram)
• Detailed business process
• Original or old process
• Future or new process
• Detailed private process associated with one or more objects (or “Black Box” processes)
• The interaction of two or more detailed private business processes
• Interconnection of a detailed private business process with a collaborative process
• Two or more abstract processes
• Interconnection of an abstract process with a collaborative process
• Joint process
• The interaction of two or more detailed private business processes through their abstract processes
• The interaction of two or more detailed private processes through a joint process
• The interaction of two or more detailed private processes through their abstract processes and collaborative process

BPMN allows all of the above types of schemes. However, it should be remembered that in the case of a combination of too many sub-models, for example, three or more private processes with a message flow between each of them, the scheme may become difficult to understand. Thus, we recommend the developer to focus on the choice of the scheme, for example, a private process or a joint process.

Business Process Diagram

The set of basic elements of the business process diagram
It should be emphasized that one of the factors for the development of BPMN is the creation of a simple mechanism for creating models of business processes, at the same time capable of managing complex business processes. The way to solve the problem of combining these two conflicting requirements was to create graphical aspects of the notation for specific categories. In this case, the set of categories of notation is small, so the reader of the BPMN scheme can easily recognize the main types of elements and understand the scheme. Within the main categories of elements, additional changes and information may be added to ensure compliance with the requirements of complexity without significant changes to the basic sensations and impressions of the scheme. There are four main categories of elements:

• Schema Objects
• Communication objects
• Tracks
• Artifacts

Objects of the scheme - the main graphic elements, are used to determine the development of a business process. Three objects can be distinguished:

• Developments
• Actions
• Associations

There are three ways to connect objects with each other or with other information. There are three binding objects:

• Sequential flow
• Message flow
• Association

There are two ways to group the basic elements of modeling by means of “tracks”.

• Areas
• Tracks

Artifacts are used to enter additional information on the process. There are three standard artifacts, but a developer or modeling tool can add as many artifacts as needed. BPMN may make an additional attempt to bring a large collection of artifacts to a single standard for general use, or for vertical markets. This collection of artifacts includes:

• Data object
• Group
• annotation

Below is a list of the basic modeling elements described in the notation.

Basic modeling elements

Element	Description	Notation
Event	An event is something that “happens” during a business process. Events affect the course of a business process and usually have a cause (trigger) or impact (result). Events are open-center circles to enable internal markers to distinguish between different triggers or results. There are three types of events classified by time of impact on the process: Start, Intermediate Events, and End.
Act	Action is a term specific to the work performed by a company. The action can be elementary and non-elementary (composite). Action types that are part of the process model: Process, Subprocess, and Task. Tasks and subprocesses are rounded rectangles. The processes are either limitless or contained within a region.
Union	Combining is used to control the divergence and convergence of a sequential flow. Thus, it will denote branching, splitting, merging and linking routes. Internal markers will indicate the type of development control process.
Sequential flow	The sequential flow indicates the order in which the actions of the process will be performed.
Message flow	The message flow symbolizes the flow of messages between two participants, ready to be sent and received. In BPMN, two separate areas in the diagram will symbolize two participants (for example, business objects or business roles).
Association	An association is used to associate information with objects. Non-schematic text and graphic objects can be associated with schematic objects.
Region	The area represents the participant in the process. It also plays the role of a “walkway” and a graphic container for sharing aggregate actions from other areas, usually in the context of “business to business” situations.
Track	A path is a subsection within a region, its length is equal to the length of the region, both vertically and horizontally. Tracks organize and classify actions.
Data object	Data objects are treated as artifacts, as they do not directly affect the sequential flow or message flow of a process, but they provide input for what actions require execution and / or what they produce.
Group (rectangle around a group of objects for documentation purposes)	Grouping actions that do not affect the sequential flow. Grouping can be used for documentation or analysis. Groups can also be used to recognize the actions of an operation distributed across a region's width.
Text annotation (associated with an association)	Text annotation is a way to provide additional information for a BPMN student.