Understanding BPMN diagrams for process management

When developing workflows for a product it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. Yes, you can start with drafting out a product requirements document (PRD), but it can be tricky to separate out a document into easily communicable user stories. This is where a diagramming tool comes in.

By mapping out your workflow as a team, you arrive at a clear understanding of what you want to achieve without the confusion that can accompany piles of documentation. While there are a number of ways to approach this, BPMN diagrams (Business Process Model and Notation) standardize the process and provide a framework for you to easily adapt within your product team.

In this article, you’ll learn what BPMN diagrams are, the elements that go into one, and how you can go about creating and applying one.

What is a BPMN diagram?

A BPMN diagram is a visual representation of the steps, activities, and flows of processes within your organization. The diagrams use specific symbols to make elements of a process easily recognizable.

The BPMN organization defines its charter as, “A standard Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) will provide businesses with the capability of understanding their internal business procedures in a graphical notation and will give organizations the ability to communicate these procedures in a standard manner. ”

Elements of a BPMN diagram

A BPMN diagram consists of a series of categories that each contain elements visually represented by specific notation. For the present article, only the basic elements and behaviors are defined, as they should be enough for the basic BPMN diagrams you would use as a PM.

Here’s an example of a process model representing the process of order fulfillment with card authorization:

You’ll notice how the diagram has consistent notation to mark each element of the workflow. Below is a chart that outlines what the most common notation refers to:

Rules for a BPMN diagram

Besides the basic elements of a diagram, you also must follow some specific rules. Here, you’ll find the most important ones, but for the complete list, consult the list on the BPMN.org website:

Steps of creating a BPMN diagram

As with any specification, in order to create a BPMN diagram, there are a few steps to follow:

1. Define the scope of the process — Why does this process exist? What is its goal?
2. Gather the relevant information — Interview stakeholders and review any existing documentation. You need to understand:
   1. Who is involved? Helps identify the actors (the lanes)
   2. What do they do? Helps identify the inputs, outputs, tasks, events, and decision points
   3. Where do they do it? Helps identify the various pools
3. Identify the elements you need in your process
4. Draft the process
5. Assign elements to swimlanes
6. Add details and context where needed
7. Validate and refine — You want to review the model with relevant stakeholders and subject matter experts in order to identify any missing points or inaccuracies. This is an interactive process
8. Finalize and share the diagram — Depending on your audience you want to have different levels of detail

Applying BPMN to the 4D framework

Now that you have a sense of what a BPMN diagram is, let’s look at how you can use one with the 4D framework for product management — discover, design, develop, deliver.

Discover

In the discovery phase, BPMN can be useful to summarize findings by mapping “as is” versions of processes and helping uncover customer pain points or gaps.

It can also help visualize how a new product integrates into an existing ecosystem, ensuring that the product is viable from a business perspective.

Design

In this phase, product requirements are defined in more detail. This is where BPMN is extremely helpful especially in defining the “to be” version of processes and model workflows, interactions between systems, and journeys.

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BPMN diagrams support the refinement process and help build shared understanding.

Develop

BPMN diagrams created in the previous stage are used by developers in building the product. They are supporting the definition of technical requirements, as well as for the QA team when testing the system.

Deliver

BPMN diagrams can be used to plan and optimize the deployment process, including roll-out strategies, user training, and support processes.

Now, let’s look at an example. Say we wanted to build a tool to support the gathering of customer feedback:

Final thoughts

Diagrams help you visually represent complex processes so that your documentation can easily be understood by your team and stakeholders. To this end, BPMN standardizes the process and provides a common language so that elements have a unique notation that signifies their meaning without unnecessary words.

So the next time you work on a PRD, ask yourself whether your text could benefit from the support of a visual representation of the workflow or process involved.

Good luck!

Featured image source: IconScout

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