Hi,
Where do I position an event/task box that involves decision makings from multiple stakeholders using BPMN. I have a swim lane allocated for each stakeholder. Do I position the event box within the swing lane of the main stakeholder and then have message flows (as decisions) from other stakeholders to the event box?
Please let me know the correct way of doing this.
Thanks
Derek
dzhou wrote Hi, Where do I position an event/task box that involves decision makings from multiple stakeholders using BPMN. I have a swim lane allocated for each stakeholder. Do I position the event box within the swing lane of the main stakeholder and then have message flows (as decisions) from other stakeholders to the event box? Please let me know the correct way of doing this. Thanks Derek
Hi Derek,
Can you provide a bit more details? Are you saying that a given task can be performed by more than one type of user/role? If that is the case, maybe you have not fully abstracted your roles/stakeholders. For example, if the tasks is "Login to the System" and both the Student and the Instructor need to perform this step, then maybe you need a third actor/role called something like "Authorized User" which would have it's own swimlane.
- Adrian
Greetings Derek,
Lets say that stakeholdres (A, B and C) have separate pools (I assumed pools because you refer to message flows). At some point in each pool, A, B and C get together and make a "collective" decision and you want to represent this activity. Well you could let A, B and C each have an activity called "make decision", that is each participate in a decision. To denote a "collective" or group activity that spans stakeholdres, draw a group artifact around the three "make decision" activities. You'll have a big dotted sqound (square with round edges) that includes the "make decision" activities from each Pool. Thats probably the easiest way to denote that some activities occur in a group.
View the processes of each participant as a unique experience; that is, A will participate in "make decision". Likewise for B and C.
Hope this helps, and that I've interpreted your questions correctly.
warm regards,
K
Actually, what you are asking to do is a common problem with BPMN.
The reality is that BPMN does not easily represent joint decisions or meetings. Indeed, the assumption is (as with all Flow Diagraming techniques where activities are represented sequentially) one role or swimlane is always deemed to be responsible for the work (i.e. it is virtually impossible to accurately represent a shared activity).
Using the Group concept is one way of doing it (see previous post).
Another is to create a new swimlane that represents the team. In the end, swimlanes are merely annotations on the diagram (as are Groups).
Actually you might get more mileage if you looked into Role Activity Diagrams as against procedural flow charts like BPMN that are segmented by Roles. RADs model how roles change state as a result of the action and interactions (between Roles) that occur. The best reference on this technique is Martyn Ould's "Business Process Management - A Rigorous Approach". There is also a free Eclipse tool for modeling using RADs from www.instream.co.uk . RADs offer an excellent contrast to the procedural nature of flow diagrams ... they help people see where their contribution fits into the overall collaboration of the process.
Hope this helps - Derek Miers - author of the "BPMN Modeling and Reference Guide" (which I co-authored with Stephen White, the main author of the BPMN Specification itself). I would suggest that you track down a copy (best to get it from the publisher rather than Amazon). See www.bpmfocus.org for the links.
Thanks kmajoos!
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