Introduction to BPMN and How to Create BPMN Diagrams

BPMN Overview

Want to visualize your processes or workflows? This article introduces BPMN and demonstrates how to use BPMN software to design BPMN diagrams.

What is BPMN?

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a widely adopted standard for modeling business processes. It helps with process analysis, improvement, or reengineering by visualizing the entire workflow, showing the order of activities and the flow of information between participants.

Uses of BPMN Diagrams

BPMN symbols are simple enough for anyone—business analysts, developers, managers, or non‑technical stakeholders—to understand and use for creating and improving processes, monitoring changes, or simply grasping future workflows. The notation serves as a common visual language that reduces miscommunication across different roles.

Understanding BPMN Diagrams

BPMN uses a set of graphical elements to describe a process, making the logic easy to comprehend. It is primarily used to design and read both simple and complex business process relationship diagrams.

BPMN Symbols

BPMN elements are divided into five basic categories, each representing a distinct aspect of a business process.

Lanes

Lanes are graphical containers that represent process participants. There are two types of lanes: pools and lanes.

Flow Elements

Flow elements connect to form a business workflow. They define the behavior of the process and include three types: events, activities, and gateways.

Connecting Objects

Connecting objects link flow elements together. There are four types of connectors: sequence flow, message flow, association, and data association.

Data

Data represents the information needed or produced during process execution. The four data types are data objects, data inputs, data outputs, and data stores.

How to Draw a BPMN Diagram

From the main menu select Diagram > New .

In the New Diagram window choose Business Process Diagram and click Next .

Select an existing BPMN template or choose Blank to start from scratch, then click Next .

Enter a diagram name and click OK .

Drag and drop shapes from the diagram toolbar onto the canvas.

Use the resource palette to complete the diagram: hover over a shape, click the resource icon, drag it out, and select the shape to automatically create a connector.

When finished, export the diagram as an image (JPG, PNG, PDF, SVG, etc.) via Project > Export > Diagram as Image and share with colleagues.