BPMN editor

Updated
View as text
Open in Confluence
Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude

BPMN is a real notation with defined semantics. A gateway means something specific, and so does the difference between a message and a sequence flow. The editor enforces that, which is the point of using it instead of boxes and arrows.

#Why not just draw it

Because a process drawn freehand cannot be checked, handed to a process engine, or compared against another team's model. BPMN can.

The shape below is the sort of thing people draw in a flowchart when they mean a process. In BPMN, each of those symbols has a defined meaning.

A process, drawn loosely

#What the editor gives you

  • Validation. Invalid models are flagged as you build them.

  • The full palette. Events, gateways, pools, lanes, and message flows.

  • Standard XML. Exports as BPMN 2.0 XML that other tools can read.

#A few things that catch people out

  • BPMN will refuse things a flowchart allows. That is intentional; the error is usually a real modelling mistake.

  • Pools and lanes are structural, not decorative. Putting a task in the wrong lane changes who owns it.

  • For decision logic inside a process, use DMN rather than a chain of gateways. See DMN editor.

A process you can check, not just a picture of one.