Chapter 4 Building an Analysis Business Process Model

Flows (BPM)

A flow describes an interaction between two objects with potential exchange of data. It is represented as a line going from one object to another. It is a route the flow transits on to link objects. The routing of the flow is made using guard conditions defined on the flow. If the condition is true, the flow is passed to the next object in the sequence.

The flow link is represented as a simple line with a direction (arrow):

Two flows can be defined between the same source and destination objects (parallel flows).

You can draw a flow from and to the following business process diagram objects:

From\To	Start	Decision	Synchronization	Process	End
Start	—				—
Synchronization	—
Decision	—
Process	—
End	—	—	—	—	—

= allowed

— = not allowed

Dragging a flow to a different object
You change the object at either end of a flow by clicking the flow to select it, and dragging one of the attach points to a different object.

Outgoing flows in an executable BPM allow you to manage process events.

For more information about flows in an executable BPM, see section Defining flows in an executable BPM in chapter Building an Executable BPM: Working with Service Description Objects.

Message format

You can associate a message format to a flow in case of data exchange between objects, in order to define the type of the accessed data. With the Check Model feature you can verify the coherence between the message format defined in the flow and the message format accepted by the object.

For more information about message formats, see section Message Formats (BPM).

For more information about the Check Model feature, see chapter Working with Business Process Models.

Linking shortcuts

A flow can link shortcuts. As process shortcuts in a diagram designate the invocation of external processes, a flow between two process shortcuts designate a transition between two processes invocation.

Constraints on flows

Reflexive flows only exist on processes (same source and destination process)

Flow creation in a collaborative or executable BPM
You cannot create a flow in a top-level diagram for a collaborative or executable BPM. For these types of models, flows can only be created under a decomposed process.