To continue our BPM training, today let's dig deeper in BPMN 2.0 more specific: activities, what is an activity in BPMN and how we can use it.

According to BPMN 2.0: an activity represents “Work that company or organization perform using business processes”

An activity is a rounded corner rectangle and named according to the work that has to be done.

There are two main types of activities in BPMN definition:

• Atomic
• Compounded

An atomic activity is defined as a task and represents an individual action in a process that doesn’t need to be broken down any further

A compound activity is defined as a sub process and represents work in a process that can be broken down to a final level of process model detail, a sub process can be represented in an expanded view that shows its details or in collapse view that hides its details.

Collapsed Sub Process Sample

A special type of activity is a call activity which references reused globally defined task or subprocess, call activity is represented with a thick border

  

Beside these main types of activities, BPMN 2.0 defines different behaviors and properties of activities which are visually annotated with standardized symbols.

For example a repeatable activity, a user performed a task, an automated task, and a transnational subprocess.

BPMN: Business Process Modeling Notation.

Ever since i have started my career in software development i noticed that there was a huge need for a common language that needs to exist between business owners and software providers. flowcharts, UML diagrams, Use cases they all been there but still look very techy for business users. when i was introduced to BPMN i felt like this is it, this is the notation that can fill the gap between us & business users.

BPMN is designed to facilitate communication and understanding of business processes. the way all components are arranges in a process form, it makes it very easy for everyone to map a workflow.

BPMN provides a way to quickly diagram business functions.

Use it to draw a process graphically

The visual model will be translated quickly and easily into software that will run the process.
With BPMN, business people can define what they want, simply but with a high degree of precision; and IT professionals can communicate with each other and with business people about the model in a clear, common framework.

BPMN works for any kind of management, operation and support process.

By developing a model with BPMN, you can collaboratively improve communications with decision makers about the nature and health of a process; you can collaboratively initiate improvements – and you can collaboratively move toward automating those improvements.

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For the past 3 or 4 years i have been presenting many BPMN diagrams in front of different business users which i know that they have never heard of BPMN before... and guess what they used to understand what the diagram shows, that's the beauty of BPMN its simple and everybody can understand it.

That simplicity comes from the fact that BPMN consists of 3 Main Elements:

• Event
• Activity
• Gateway

we can also add a fourth element which is the line that connects these elements known as Sequence Flow.
From the above elements we can have number of Sub-elements or what they are called: The Descriptive Conformance Sub-class, i will mention the most commonly used ones next.

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Event Types in BPMN 2.0

• Start Event:As the name implies, the Start Event indicates where a particular Process will start.
• Intermediate Events: occur between a Start Event and an End Event. They will affect the flow of the Process, but will not start or (directly) terminate the Process.
• End Event:As the name implies, the End Event indicates where a Process will end.

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Activities in BPMN 2.0

An Activity is work that is performed within a Business Process. An Activity can be atomic (a Task) or non-atomic (compound like sub-process). The types of Activities that are a part of a Process are: 

1. Task, 
2. Sub-Process, 
3. and Call Activity, which allows the inclusion of re-usable Tasks and Processes in the diagram. 

Activities represent points in a Process flow where work is performed. They are the executable elements of a BPMN Process.  

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Activities in BPMN 2.0

An Activity is work that is performed within a Business Process. An Activity can be atomic (a Task) or non-atomic (compound like sub-process). The types of Activities that are a part of a Process are: 

1. Task, 
2. Sub-Process, 
3. and Call Activity, which allows the inclusion of re-usable Tasks and Processes in the diagram. 

Activities represent points in a Process flow where work is performed. They are the executable elements of a BPMN Process.  

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