BPMN diagrams consist of a set of symbols and notations that represent different elements and activities within a business process.

What is BPMN diagram?

BPMN stands for Business Process Model and Notation, which is a graphical representation of a business process. A BPMN diagram is a visual tool that allows businesses to model and communicate their processes, making them easier to understand and manage.

BPMN diagrams use a standardized set of symbols and notation to represent various elements of a business process, including tasks, events, gateways, and flows. Tasks represent the steps or activities in a process, events represent triggers or outcomes, gateways represent decision points, and flows represent the paths that connect these elements.

BPMN diagrams are commonly used in business process management (BPM) to help organizations analyze, optimize, and automate their processes. They can be used to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement, as well as to design and implement new processes.

What are the commonly used symbols or shapes in a BPMN diagram?

In addition to the above common symbols or shapes, BPMN also includes other symbols such as data objects representing data elements in a business process, pools and lanes representing different business participants, annotations, etc.

Events:

Represent the beginning or end point of a business process, typically represented by circles or rounded rectangles. Common events include start events, end events, intermediate events, etc.

Gateways:

Represent decision points in a business process, represented by diamonds. Common gateways include exclusive gateways, parallel gateways, inclusive gateways, etc.

Flows:

Represent the sequence relationship between different business elements, represented by arrows. The direction of the arrow indicates the direction of the data or control flow. Common flows include sequence flows, message flows, timer events, etc.