BPMN
Definition
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is an ISO-standardized graphical notation for describing business processes, designed to be readable by both business stakeholders and technical implementers.
BPMN was developed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) in the early 2000s and became an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 19510) in 2013. It's maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG), the same body that manages UML.
BPMN's core elements:
- Events (circles): things that happen — start events, end events, intermediate events (timers, messages, errors)
- Activities (rounded rectangles): work that gets done — tasks and sub-processes
- Gateways (diamonds): decisions and parallel splits — exclusive (XOR), inclusive (OR), parallel (AND)
- Flows: sequence flows (solid arrows connecting activities), message flows (dashed arrows between pools), and data associations
- Pools and lanes: pools represent organizations or systems; lanes are swimlanes within a pool
BPMN sits between informal flowcharts and formal executable process languages. It's specific enough to be implemented by a BPMN engine (like Camunda or Activiti) but readable enough for a business analyst to review and critique.
On whiteboards, teams rarely draw strict BPMN — they use approximations: diamonds for decisions, boxes for tasks, circles for start/end. BoardSnap AI reads these informal BPMN-like diagrams and captures the process logic as structured output.
Examples
- Order fulfillment BPMN: Start → Receive order → Check inventory (gateway) → In stock: pick and pack → Out of stock: notify customer → Ship → End
- Loan approval: Application received → Credit check (parallel gateway) + Document verification → Review gateway → Approved/Rejected → Notify applicant
- Customer onboarding: Signup event → Send welcome email (task) → Timer event (3 days) → Follow-up check → Activated? → Yes: continue / No: escalate to CS
- IT incident: Alert received → Page on-call (task) → Severity assessment (exclusive gateway) → P1: war room / P2: async → Resolution → Post-mortem
Related terms
Snap a bpmn. Ship its actions.
BoardSnap turns any whiteboard — including this one — into a summary and action plan.