Draw a process in BPMN
A BPMN view draws one business process in BPMN 2.0 notation, with pools and lanes, events, tasks, gateways and flows. In iyedy the process lives in the same model as your architecture, so the claims-handling process sits next to the Claims Platform that runs it.
On this page
Before you start
- A diagram you can edit, for example the Claims Platform.
- Credits for the Assistant: drawing a process with it uses credits, and the Assistant shows the estimate before you send. See How the Assistant uses credits.
- To look at a finished example first, open the sample (Open the sample in the palette): it holds a BPMN process.
Add the process
- Open the Assistant
Press Ctrl J. Describe the process in your words, its participants, its steps and its decisions:
“Draw the claims-handling process in BPMN: the policyholder submits a claim in the mobile app, a claims handler checks it, if the claim is a large one a senior handler approves it, then Payments pays the policyholder.” - Read the proposal
The Assistant proposes the process and its BPMN view. Nothing changes in the diagram yet: read the proposal, ask for a change in the same box if a step is wrong.
- Apply it
Select Apply. The process joins the model and iyedy draws its BPMN view. Applying saves a version you can go back to.
- Open the BPMN view
In the Views list, open the new BPMN view. To add another view of the same process, use New view, then BPMN.
Change the process later
You cannot place shapes on a BPMN view from the shelf: iyedy says Ask the Assistant to add to BPMN views. Describe the change instead, for example:
“In the claims-handling process, add a fraud check before the payment, done by the fraud team.”The Assistant proposes the change on the view, and you apply it or leave it.
What a BPMN view shows
- Pools and lanes for the organisations and roles that take part.
- Events (start, end, timers), tasks and gateways for decisions.
- Flows between them, and data stores where the process reads or writes.
The legend of the view names each symbol it uses. For the notation itself, see Notation guide.
Export a BPMN view
SVG, PNG and draw.io keep the drawing exactly. Mermaid loses information on a BPMN view, and PlantUML and C4-PlantUML do not take BPMN: their rows say Use draw.io, SVG or PNG. See Export formats.
If it doesn't work
BPMN is greyed out in the New view menu
The model has no process yet: Needs a process in the model. Add one with the Assistant first, as above.
“Ask the Assistant to add to BPMN views.”
Shapes from the shelf go on structural views only. Describe the change to the Assistant.
The Assistant proposes containers instead of a process
Say "BPMN" or "process" in your request, and name the steps and the roles. The Assistant then proposes a process with its view.
More symptoms in Diagram troubleshooting.
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