The beginner’s guide to using BPMN in business

What is BPMN?

Seeing is believing. A picture is worth a thousand words. Show me, don’t tell me. It’s idioms like these that have made Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) hugely popular across many different types of businesses, industries and professions. But what exactly is BPMN and how does it work?

In a nutshell, BPMN is a standardized flow chart method that allows you to create and share easy-to-understand diagrams. These diagrams can visually model the steps of a business process from end to end.

Example of BPMN address change process diagram (above)

While there are several methods for modeling processes out there, BPMN has quickly become the de-facto standard for process modeling, and for a good reason.

What are its capabilities?

One of the most significant benefits of BPMN lies in its ability to produce flow charts that are as simple or as complex as needed. That makes it easy for business stakeholders at all levels (technical or non-technical) to understand them.

It’s this quality that likely accounts for the popularity of BPMN. A 2016 survey found that 64% of businesses are interested in adopting BPMN to simplify their business processes. The goal is simple for most companies: save money by reducing costs and improving productivity.

Why is it needed?

The stakes are high. Consider these stats from a 2018 survey of businesses:

37% percent of respondents reported that their organizations have multiple, high-level business process projects underway
93% of the organizations in the survey are engaged in numerous process improvement projects
79% said they were using process software tools to model the processes they were analyzing and planning to change
In addition, 65% of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that BPMN processes and technologies have helped their organizations improve efficiency, versatility and customer satisfaction
However, the majority (52%) of respondents said that they only occasionally model or document their company processes

Aside from boosting efficiencies, other relevant motivations for supporting business process work include:

Increasing customer satisfaction
Enhancing organizational responsiveness
Improving business coordination and control
Introducing a new product or business line
Complying with new regulations
Responding to unique events like a merger or acquisition

From IT, financial services, insurance and manufacturing, to education, telecommunications, retail, computers and software, every company can benefit from improved business or organizational processes.

How is BPMN used?

The goal of BPMN is to give everyone a clear view of a process from start to finish. It helps provide a visual path that’ll bridge the gaps, showing the sequence of business activities needed to get from one end of a process to the other.

Here are a few of the benefits that businesses can reap by using BPMN:

Easier communication and collaboration to reach a goal
Simple visual representation of the steps
Ability to customize based on stakeholders’ roles (e.g., analysts, process participants, managers, developers, external teams and consultants)
Identifying issues in the processes that may need a solution
Insight into potential areas for improvement
Encourage higher-quality results

Process modeling examples

Business-oriented

Many professionals and organizations want to model a very high-level, people-centric process. In this case, sticking to a handful of symbols requires less in-depth knowledge of BPMN, so the notation is simple. Conversely, these models can also be adjusted to be extremely detailed for IT and other technical stakeholders.

Here are just a handful of examples of the types of processes these flow charts can visually depict:

Handling customer call complaints
Selling products on online
Manufacturing workflow
Processing insurance claims
Job hiring flow charts
Onboarding methods

Example of BPMN process with gateway diagram

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Technical-oriented

As mentioned previously, you can make diagrams as granular as needed. For example, depicting IT-centric process flows, coding and more:

B2B web services
Visualizing the execution of code within a program
Illustrating the structure of a website or application
Seeing how visitors navigate a website
Showing the flow of data in systems like data entry, processors and communication networks

In more intricate versions, you’ll be able to model complex business events, such as messages, timers, business rules and error conditions. Let’s explore more of these intricate versions of BPMN.

Elements and symbols in BPMN 2.0

BPMN notation has five basic categories of elements and, within those, many different shapes and symbols. Here’s a quick overview:

Flow objects

These show behavior in a business process and include:

Activities: Work performed or tasks of a person or system (shown as a rectangle with rounded corners).
Events: What happens during a process: Start, Intermediate and End (shown as circles).
Gateways: Depict the sequence flow path in a process (shown as diamonds). Additional details can include decision points.

Data objects

These offer information about the data in a process. Data is represented in four ways:

Data inputs (shown as a page with one corner bent and right arrow) are tasks that are data-dependent. They can’t move forward until specific data is collected.
Data outputs (shown as a page with one corner bent and solid right arrow) are used to show when the process generates data.
Data collection (shown as a page with one corner bent w/three solid lines in the bottom center) is any act of data collection required in the process (e.g., a survey).
Datastores (shown as a container) are used as a place to collect any data gained from the process.

Connecting objects

These connect the flow objects to each other, or other information, and show the flow of a process:

Sequence flows (shown a solid right arrow) depict the order of the activities performed.
Message flows (shown as a dashed right arrow with a circle on the left side) depict messages and order of flow between participants.
Associations (shown as a dotted line) link text and artifacts to an event.

Swimlanes

This term represents pools and lanes.

Pool: The “container” for a single process.
Lanes: These classify activity inside the pool. Shown horizontally or vertically, they break up the pool into sections to show responsibility and the location of events.

Artifacts

These give extra detail about the process. There are two types of artifacts:

Groups: Shown as notched boxes, these go around a group of elements to show they’re related.
Text annotations: These are simply notes (preceded by a single left bracket) that readers can easily see without drilling-down. Also known as comments.

Simplify BPMN with software

When it comes to creating your flow chart, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, especially if you’re just getting started with BPMN.

Using a software tool will allow you to create your diagrams faster and make your business process model more effective. Be sure to choose software that enables you to:

Start diagramming quickly by easily creating professional. BPMN flow charts with ready-made templates and samples.
Give your diagrams a professional, appealing look with premade themes and effects.
Leverage intuitive capabilities like drag and drop, align and position, and auto-connect to build diagrams more efficiently.
Work in a content ecosystem that delivers the core set of BPMN 2.0 shapes and beyond, which constitutes hundreds of graphically different symbols.
Have a level of support that allows for the creation of both basic BPMN diagrams, and more detailed diagrams with exception logic, resource and role information, basic data flow information and communication information between participants.
Check for errors by validating your diagram against 76 logical rules related to visual correctness based on the BPMN 2.0 standard and presents a list of issues for you to review.
Load your own custom set of logistical rules related to visual correctness.
Share your work freely as a secure web-based link, attachment, image, or PDF and reply to comments online.
Collaborate with others using co-authoring, commenting and annotation.
Co-edit diagrams with your team to maintain a single version of the truth and minimize version conflicts.
See who’s working on specific parts of the diagram, get notifications about changes and choose when to merge those changes into a master file.
Integrate data-linked diagrams into Power BI dashboard. This integration can help drive operational and business intelligence so you can understand the overall picture better.
Automate business process workflows yourself, expediting the creation process, and giving IT more time to focus on strategic initiatives
Access diagrams from nearly anywhere in a browser or iPad® app.

Tips for getting started

From established businesses process owners to analysts, there’s a benefit to simplifying your business processes, no matter how simple or complex they may be. If the information seems a little overwhelming, keep this in mind: you can create a simple BPMN flow chart and then build on it from there.

If you want to see it in action, there are plenty of templates and how-to videos that’ll help you create a basic diagram and then you can add some detail as you get more comfortable. You can learn more about using BPMN compliant process and software with this step-by-step guide.

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