Welcome to our eLearning course

„If you can‘t describe what

you are doing as a process,
you don‘t know what you‘re
doing.“
— W. Edwards Deming, Physiker (1900-1993)
 § Collaboration Hub
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§ Process Manager
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§ Workflow Accelerator
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Business Process Management (BPM) provides concepts,
methods and techniques for the representation,
administration, configuration, execution, and analysis of
business processes.
ü Common language that is comprehensible across organizational
and geographic borders
ü Expansion of process-driven business areas
ü Promotion of Collaboration concerning Business Processes
ü Better Understanding of processes in a company
ü Creates transparency
ü Process changes can be published easier
ü Simplifies business realignment
ü Unifomity und Standardization by using BPMN
Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)
is a graphical specification language, which
defines elements to model and document
business processes and workflows.
Fantastic! You have finished the introduction.

Feel free to go on with the next lesson.

Please use the course navigation on the left to
continue with the next lesson.
Welcome to the lesson:
“Basics of BPMN“
 ü Learn how to read and understand simple BPMN process models
ü Get to know QuickModel
ü Get an insight into Signavio Collaboration Hub

Hints
ü The lesson takes about 30 minutes
ü Please use the Discussion area to ask questions and make
comments.
ü You can hide or extend the menu (navigation) on the left at every
time.

Kontakt elearning@signavio.com www.signavio.com

Process models answer questions and should be easy for everybody to read. This
way, you can easily see and understand what is going on in your company and in other
departments.

§ Activities? § IT systems?
§ Responsibilities? § Information flow?
§ Decision points? § Outputs / Inputs?
§ IT systems? § Interaction points?
 The next Then the meal When the meal is
step is to buy can be prepared, it can be
groceries prepared eaten
The process
The hungry
starts when
person is
someone is
satisfied now
hungry

A simple BPMN 2.0 process

Our first, very simple model shows how one could possibly
react to being hungry and ways to satisfy hunger.
Plain Start Event Task Sequence Flow Plain End Event

These BPMN elements are essential for processes:

Start Event Initiates a process case

Task Activity that represents individual steps within a
process
Sequence Flow Connects the elements of a process
End Event Marks the end of the process case
Now we will move on to Gateways. They are used to control how the process flows.
In most processes, decisions must be made. In the process, decisions are displayed by
the exclusive gateway. This is the most commonly used gateway and it is usually called
XOR gateway. The Exclusive Gateway below splits our process into two paths/branches.

The exclusive gateway reads out the result of the

decision that was made in the previous task.

Either Cook Pasta or Grill steak.

Exclusive Gateways (XOR)

Trigger exactly one branch at an “either/or“ decision point to continue
the seqeunce flow.
A process model can have several end events. In this example you have a
selection of three alternatives and you have to decide for one. The end of
the process depends on the decision you have made by selecting a recipe.

The Exclusive Gateway There are three

splits our process into three possible endings in
alternative branches. this process.
In this example we have two Exclusive Gateways – one for splitting
the process into two branches and one for merging the branches
together.

The decision is made about which The Exclusive gateway

branch the process continues (merging) allows the process
using. In this case, it’s which meal to continue after the pasta is
is selected. cooked.

The exclusive gateway

(splitting) with the
decision to cook pasta.
Now we will take a look at loops in BPMN. Loops are used to show that a
part of a process might need to be repeated to get to the desired
outcome.
Here you can see a loop. If
the problem is not solved
the computer must be
tested again.
Sometimes activities must be performed simultaneously. This is represented by the
parallel gateway (AND). Take a look at the example below:

Here you can see a parallel After both activities are completed,
gateway. The steak is grilled the process continues. The parallel
AND the salad is prepared gateway synchronizes the paths
simultaneously. and the meal can be eaten.

Parallel Gateways (AND)

activates all following branches simultaneously. They will wait for all
branches to be completed before triggering the outgoing flow.
.
In this example the salad is being prepared in parallel to the main dish.
There are two possible combination options for preparing the meal:
steak and salad or pasta and salad.

The process waits until

both activities have
been completed.
Different combination options for preparing the meal.
Sometimes flexibility is needed in a process. This is represented by the Inclusive
Gateway (OR). In contrast to the parallel gateway, the branches here are optional.
However, at least one branch must be chosen.

The process waits until all

Single branch, have been completed
two branches, before the process
or all branches continues.

Inclusive Gateways (OR)

are used if one or more conditions are possible. When merging, they wait
for all incoming branches before continuing the sequence flow.
Possible combinations:

One option Two options All options

§ Only steak § Steak & salad § Pasta, steak &
salad
§ Only salad § Pasta & steak
§ Only pasta § Pasta & salad
In BPMN responsibilities (organizational units, departments, individuals, roles) for
activities are represented by Swimlanes – Pools & Lanes. A process always belongs
to one pool and an activity always belongs to one lane.

The pool has

two lanes

The sales department

creates the invoices

Swimlanes
represent roles and responsibilities in the process. They can be divided
into pools (organizational units) and lanes (departments / individuals /
roles).
In this example process, the different tasks are clearly assigned:
Once the credit application has been received the clerk checks the application. If the
application is correct, the team leader releases the application. The application can
then be approved by the head of department. Finally, the credit is granted.

Each task is assigned to

one lane (responsibility).
Of course more than
one task can be assigned
to a single lane.
Jack, Johnny and Jim decide to cook a meal. Everyone has tasks assigned.
 Now all three
friends are able
to eat.

Note
Additional participants are an extension to the BPMN standard.

If a task is assigned to multiple participants, this is represented in

Signavio by Additional Participants.
Great! You have finished the first lesson!

Please use the course navigation on the left to

continue with the next lesson.
Exercise: QuickModel – modeling
processes easily and quickly
QuickModel allows you to edit your diagrams particularly quickly as it is based on
tabular process modeling. Activities and information you enter into a table are
automatically converted into a graphically represented diagram.

QuickModel
offers you tabular process recording, whereby diagrams can be created
quickly and easily without any modeling knowledge.
✓ You work completely independent from a modeling
language

✓ You work faster as there is no need to worry about

graphical arrangement of model elements

✓ Because of a tabular arrangement, comparing and

completing information is way easier than in the Editor

✓ Placing attribute values in a table is clearer than in a

model
Name of the
process Name of the company

End event
Start event

Acitivity (Task) Activity table

Responsible
person

Automatically
generated
diagram
preview
✓ Completing Information in existing process diagrams
✓ Shape processes collaboratively
✓ Capture processes
✓ Modeling without BPMN 2.0 background knowledge
In the upper part, please
enter an organization, a
process trigger, and a
process result

In the table you can list

activities and responsibilities.
The table can be completed
or edited at any time.
The diagram is generated instantly while entering values into the table.
Super! You finished the exercise!

Please use the course navigation on the left to

continue with the next lesson.
Welcome to the lesson
“Advanced BPMN basics“
 We are already familiar with start and end events in processes.
Now let's look at other BPMN 2.0 events – Intermediate Events. These
represent conditions or milestones in the process.

We will also take a look at Subprocesses, Data Objects, IT Systems and

Message Flows in this lesson.

Hints
ü The lesson will take about 30 minutes
ü Please do not hesitate to post comments in the discussion area
ü For a better overview you can hide the course navigation on the left side

Kontakt elearning@signavio.com www.signavio.com

In the process below you can see a Plain Intermediate Event. It is used to
represent important states or milestones in a process and has no further
function.

Plain Intermediate Event –

Here we have reached our
main goal.

Plain Intermediate Events

represent conditions or milestones in a process.
In some cases messages, goods or items must be received before the process
flow can continue. This is represented by the Message Intermediate Event. The
example below shows that the pizza must be received before it can be eaten.

This Message Intermediate Event delays the

process, because the sequence flow has to
wait until the pizza is received..

Message Intermediate Events

for receiving messages or goods

.
Timer Events can start the process or delay them.

Planned delay of the

Timer Start Event process. Waiting for the
point in time “8 a.m.“
Timer Intermediate
Events
Points in time, recurring
points in time, or
timespan delays.

The process starts

Planned delay for a Timer Start
every week
break (duration) Events
Points in time to start a
process
Sometimes a process has more than one possible outcome - and the branch
taken is dependant on which outcome occurs. This is represented by Event-
based Gateways. The event that occurs first determines the next branch taken
in the process. Until one event occurs, the process will wait. In the example
below, we will call the pizzeria if they do not deliver the pizza within 60 minutes:

Eventbased Gateway Events that may occur

Event-based Gateways
are instances that base subsequent decisions on event occurrences –
they wait for actual events to happen. Usually triggered by a third party.
Event-based Gateways can also be used to model loops. In this example,
we want to make sure that we don’t wait forever if the pizzeria is not
delivered in time.

Events that may occur

Do you remember
the loop from
Lesson One?

Termination
of the loop

Conditional Intermediate Events

Reacting to changed business conditions or integrating business rules.
Deadlines (exit conditions) are represented in process models using
Attached Intermediate Events. When the pizza selection takes longer than 30
minutes, we will cook pasta instead of ordering pizza.

The Intermediate
Timer Event is
attached to the task.

Attached Intermediate Events

allow the represantation of exit conditions
Collapsed Subprocesses group multiple tasks together. They are used to reduce
the complexity of process models for a better overview and to reuse in other
processes.

Collapsed
subprocess

Opened
subprocess
 External communication partners are represented as Collapsed Pools.
The Message Flow shows the exchange of information. Using a collapsed pool will hide
all internal activities of the pizzeria, because it is not important for us to know how they
work.

Message flow
Sending Message
Event – The pizzeria
will be informed that
we ordered a pizza. Collapsed Pool
(Black box)

Message flows
represent communication between pools.
In processes, we want to show the necessary documents or additional
information. This is represented in BPMN by Data Objects.

The order is a Data Object

Associations
combine data objects
with activities

Data Objects
represent information (documents) that are necessary for
the process.
IT Systems show what systems to use for activities. A Text Annotation can be
used to add extra information to flow objects. Take a look at the example below.

The order system as

an IT system.

The required
information for
this task shown as
text annotation.
Another way to add information to flow objects (like Tasks, Pools, IT Systems, …) in
BPMN is to define and use attributes. Attributes are not visible in process models:

The attributes of the

task ‘Cook meal’
 Example of a process architecture. It depicts the
Process landscape
hierarchy of the processes in a company.

Management processes
Process landscapes

1. Value chain Core processes

Enabling processes
2. Process areas

3. End-to-End
BPMN 2.0

4. Sub
 Management
processes

Core processes

By using the plus

symbol you can
switch to the next
deeper process
level.

Enabling processes

Process landscape
That is how the highest level of a process landscape could look like. It
gives a faster overview on the company‘s processes.
Excellent! You finished the lesson on Advanced
BPMN knowledge!

Please use the course navigation on the left to

continue with the next lesson.
The Collaboration Hub
- The Collaboration Hub is one of the most powerful tools of the
Signavio Process Manager for collaborative work. It allows you to
view and discuss diagrams in a community. You can decide by your
own who to give access to your Collaboration Hub and which
diagrams you would like to publish. To gain access to your
Collaboration Hub, your colleagues do not even need an account for
the Signavio Process Manager.
ü Establishing a profound knowledge base
ü Supporting a transparent and communicative working
environment
ü Ensuring each participant of the organization is up to date
ü Gathering roles, responsibilities and hierarchies at a glance
ü Giving feedback to particular process steps

By using the Collaboration Hub, users get all

important information in one place so that processes
work fluently and efficient.
ü Switch between different diagrams

ü Search published diagrams, files, or glossary entries

ü Examine glossary entries via directory tree

ü Navigate to linked and linking objects

Navigation bar
with extended
Search and
directory
structure

Glossary divided
in categories
The central diagram view gives detailed information on the
diagram and represents it visually.
Process
documentation

Process
Participating level
roles

Documents

Person in charge
The Profile contains general information like the process level of the
diagram in the process hierarchy. Furthermore it contains process
activities and core information (attributes) in the level of diagrams,
such as documentation, process triggers, and linked documents.
The Aktivities-Tab contains detailed information on all activities
(tasks). The activities can be filtered by the executing role
 Breadcrumb bar

Process hierarchy pyramid

By using the process hierarchy pyramid and the breadcrumb bar

you can easily determine the process level of a diagram in the
process landscape at a glance.

The process hierarchy pyramid visualizes the level of the current

diagram.
You did it! You finished all of the lessons and
therefore gained first-rate knowledge of BPMN and
Signavio Collaboration Hub!

You‘re all geared up for our upcoming e-learning

courses!