Glossary of terms

A general concept denoting a unit of work in a process model. In BPMN an activity can be atomic (a task) or compound (a sub-process).

A family of agile approaches to development based on the 2001 Agile Manifesto. Contrasted with heavy, plan-driven methodologies.

An architectural framework and platform for describing business processes, created by August-Wilhelm Scheer. It includes EPC as its key notation.

A type of connection in BPMN used to link artifacts (data objects, annotations, groups) to flow objects.

A chronological record of all actions performed in a process. Critical for regulated industries and compliance.

An XML language for describing executable processes in an SOA architecture. An OASIS standard widely used in the 2000s.

Improving business processes through evolutionary change, as opposed to radical BPR.

A management discipline that brings together the approaches, methods and tools for managing an organization’s business processes.

An industry consortium of the 2000s that developed the original version of BPMN. It merged with OMG in 2005.

A graphical notation for describing business processes, an OMG standard adopted as ISO/IEC 19510:2013.

A class of software supporting BPM practice. It includes process modeling, execution, monitoring and analytics.

Radical reengineering of business processes, a concept from Michael Hammer and James Champy (1993). It calls for rethinking processes from scratch.

An activity in BPMN that references a reusable process or sub-process.

An open-source BPM platform known for native BPMN and DMN support. Since version 8 (2022) it is built on the Zeebe event-streaming architecture.

An approach to managing loosely structured processes where the sequence of actions is not fixed in advance. Formalized in the CMMN standard.

A type of BPMN diagram describing the exchange of messages between participants without revealing their internal processes.

An OMG standard for describing adaptive, loosely structured case processes.

A type of BPMN diagram showing the participants’ processes in pools and the message flows between them.

A mechanism for undoing previously performed process actions when certain conditions arise. An alternative to a transactional rollback.

The degree to which the real execution of a process (per the logs) matches a reference model. One of the three types of process mining.

The sequence of execution of actions in a process. In BPMN it is represented by sequence flows.

The time from the start to the completion of a single process instance. A key performance metric.

A BPMN artifact representing the information entities passed between activities.

A classic structured-analysis notation for describing data flows between processes and stores.

The automatic reconstruction of a process model from event logs without a prior model.

The basic process-improvement cycle in Six Sigma: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.

An OMG standard for formalizing business rules through declarative decision tables.

A modern term replacing BPMS. It emphasizes low-code and the integration of digital channels.

A notation for describing business processes through an alternation of events and functions. Developed by August-Wilhelm Scheer.

A BPMN element denoting something that happens during a process. Start, intermediate and end events are distinguished.

A method of collaborative business-process modeling through the identification of domain events. Created by Alberto Brandolini.

Running a process model in a BPM engine. Each run creates a process instance.

The expression language in DMN, designed for writing business rules.

A connecting element in BPMN. Sequence flows, message flows and associations are distinguished.

A classic notation for describing algorithms and processes. Standardized as ISO 5807:1985.

An EPC element denoting an active action. It alternates with events.

A BPMN element that controls the splitting or merging of flows. Types: XOR, AND, OR, Complex, Event-based.

A functional-modeling methodology based on the ICOM model. A US federal standard (FIPS PUB 183).

A methodology in the IDEF family for describing the temporal sequence of processes.

In the context of a BPMS — an execution-error state of a process that requires intervention.

A Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement through many small changes. It underlies the Toyota Production System.

A numeric metric reflecting the performance of a process or department.

A subdivision of a pool in BPMN denoting the role or department that performs the activities.

The full time a unit takes to pass through the value stream. It includes both working time and waiting time.

An approach to managing production aimed at eliminating waste. It grew out of the Toyota Production System.

In BPMN — a unit of communication between processes or participants. Passed through message flows.

A Japanese term for waste — operations that add no value. One of the three key TPS terms alongside mura and muri.

An international non-profit consortium, the body behind the UML, BPMN, CMMN, DMN and SysML standards.

The coordination of the execution of several services or processes from a central point of control.

A continuous-improvement cycle: plan, do, check, act. The basis of Kaizen.

A mathematical model of concurrent systems that underlies the theory behind many BPM notations.

A container in BPMN representing a process participant (an organization, system or role). It holds lanes.

A specific run of a process model. The same process can have many concurrent instances.

A family of techniques for automatically analyzing processes from the event logs of enterprise systems.

The employee responsible for the effectiveness and efficiency of a specific process in an organization.

A technology for automating routine operations with software robots that mimic a user’s actions in interfaces.

Defining the boundaries and scope of a project or process. Often formalized through SIPOC.

A connecting element in BPMN denoting the order of execution of activities within a single process.

A type of task in BPMN performed automatically by an external system through an API call.

A type of event in BPMN that propagates to all subscribed listeners. Used for broadcast communication.

A high-level tool for defining process boundaries through a table of suppliers, inputs, steps, outputs and customers.

A quality-management methodology based on statistical control and reducing process variation.

A compound activity in BPMN containing an internal process. It can be embedded or called.

An alternative name for a lane in BPMN. Sometimes used as a synonym for a pool.

The production rhythm that synchronizes a process with customer demand. Calculated as available working time per unit of demand.

An atomic unit of work in BPMN. User, service, script, manual and other task types are distinguished.

A conceptual unit in the execution semantics of BPMN. Each process start spawns a token that moves across the diagram.

A special type of sub-process in BPMN with atomicity guarantees. All actions either complete successfully or are compensated.

The Unified Modeling Language, an OMG standard. It includes activity diagrams applicable to BPM.

A type of task in BPMN performed by a person through a system interface.

A high-level notation for depicting the value chain at the level of an organization’s core processes.

A Lean tool for visualizing the full value stream while revealing waste.

A sequence of connected activities that form a process. Often used as a synonym for a business process.

A Japanese term for spreading best practices between departments. An important element of a mature Lean culture.

Camunda’s distributed process engine, the core of Camunda Platform 8. It uses an event-streaming architecture.