Process flows shape understanding

Wouter Verkerken
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(while Flow shapes understanding!)

A process flow brings the underlying architecture to life, doesn't replace it (and vice versa).

In technical documentation, flows that use the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard serve a vital role: they clarify processes in a consistent way.

What is BPMN?

BPMN is a standard for the graphical representation of business processes. By using this notation, you represent complex processes as diagrams that will be clear to understand for everybody involved.

BPMN-style process diagram with one pool divided into two horizontal swimlanes labeled “Swimlane 1” (top) and “Swimlane 2” (bottom). In Swimlane 1, a Start event circle on the left flows with a right-pointing arrow into a rounded rectangle labeled “Activity A.” An arrow leads from Activity A to a diamond-shaped “Gateway.” From the Gateway, the upper outgoing arrow is labeled “Yes” and goes to a rounded rectangle labeled “Activity B,” which then flows to a rightmost circle labeled “End event.” From the Gateway, a lower outgoing arrow labeled “No” goes down into Swimlane 2 to a rounded rectangle labeled “Activity C,” then an arrow leads right to another rounded rectangle labeled “Activity D.” From Activity D, an arrow goes upward to join the End event circle in Swimlane 1.

An effective process diagram helps users understand how tasks unfold, who’s involved, and what data moves where. It’s a model that creates insight, and that can even be used to navigate to more detailed underlying information.

Design for communication

Let's not confuse it with full reality, though. If you are using all specific BPMN events, gateways, artifacts... to the letter, you are building an architecture, not communicating it. That level of detail may overwhelm readers who simply need to understand their workflows.

So, next time you illustrate a process, remember that you are not capturing the system in detail; you are guiding the reader through it!

How do you balance clarity and completeness in your diagrams?