ad-hoc

ad-hoc

An activity, usually a subprocess, that is marked as not proceeding in a predetermined order. While the activity cannot be sequenced in any predefined way, a condition is defined so it can be determined when the ad-hoc activity is completed. Typically, ad-hoc subprocesses have no or limited sequence flow.

artifact

graphical object, graphic

An object in the diagram that does not affect process behavior or sequence flow, but that is used for documenting, illustrating, or decorating the diagram.

association

callout

A relationship between two objects on a diagram that is not sequence or message flow. It is represented graphically by making the callout line visible and dotted. The compensation association is an exception; it is implemented with a specially formatted connector line.

cancel

cancel

A signal that is sent by a partner in a business transaction and that is received by all partners. They are sent by a cancel action in an activity (a BPMN cancel end event) and caught by a cancel exception.

compensation

compensation

Mark and implement an additional action intended to be a reversal or undo of an action that was taken by an activity that has already completed, should the process itself not complete normally. For example, the compensation for a “Charge customer card” activity might be an activity to “Reverse charges.” Compensation activities are indicated by being connected to a compensation exception on the normal activity that it compensates. The connection is a compensation association.

conditional

condition or expression (in a by expression input constraint)

A condition occurs in the model that is defined by an expression reaching a value. In iGrafx, any non-zero value for the expression is considered True, and by default in BPMN diagrams the condition is considered satisfied when the expression changes from False to True.

entity

partner

An independent process, service, business partner, and so on that can receive, send, or reply to messages. BPMN pools are interpreted as partners by iGrafx, as are separate process diagrams within the same document.

error

fault

Faults are usually used to signal an anticipated but not handled condition has occurred in the process, in the environment it is executing within, or in a partner to whom a message was sent. For example, a fault could be used to signal that the Order Book activity failed because the Out of Stock condition was encountered. Faults can be sent by the process itself to break out of a hierarchy of subprocesses, but they are usually used to represent unusual or undesirable conditions that occurred in the outside world. Faults are caught by an activity with a Fault exception (a fault that occurs while the activity is executing). This immediately terminates the activity, and transactions take the fault exception path.

event

activity (constrained)

An activity that waits for or generates an event. Examples are faults, messages, expression values (BPMN Conditional events). Activities that generate these or respond to them are represented as circles. Indicators in the circle show what type of event it is.

expanded embedded subprocess

container shape

A container shape in iGrafx is a shape that surrounds other shapes and their connections. Container shapes own the contained shapes in the sense that they move when the container moves, and they are deleted if the container is deleted. Container shapes are used to implement expanded embedded subprocesses for BPMN.

expanded subprocess

subprocess

A subprocess shape on a diagram that displays the details of the implementation of the process within it. In iGrafx, embedded subprocesses display as expanded, and are implemented using container shapes.

flow container

swimlane

A generic term for either a BPMN pool or lane.

fork

duplicate

In BPMN diagrams, gateways or activities that duplicate transactions, causing transactions (tokens) to follow more than one output path.

gateway

activity (constrained)

In BPMN, separate flows are typically created or merged at gateways. Gateways are represented as diamond shapes. Modeling concepts such as merge, duplicate, join, and decision typically are represented by gateways.

intermediate event on the activity boundary

boundary or border event, exception

A connection to an activity that marks the path that is taken if the event occurs during the execution of the activity. It is represented with a circle on the activity border that contains an indicator of what type of event it is in both BPMN and Process diagrams. Exception is the modeling concept; boundary or border event is the diagrammatic representation of it.

Join at end behavior

join before complete

The specified behavior of a BPMN process is that all parallel paths must be terminated or completed before the process itself is completed. iGrafx supports the separate paths, or transaction family members, completing the process independently. Join Before Complete, the default in iGrafx for new BPMN process diagrams, means that all paths are completed before the process is completed.

lane

child swimlane

A subdivision of a parent swimlane, often used to represent organization boundaries within it.

loop

loop or repeat

Functionality to represent that the work at an activity is repeated sequentially for a specified number of times, or until a condition occurs. It is equivalent to a loop created by a decision after the activity that sends the transaction back to the activity until the count or condition occurs.

message

message

A named synchronizing signal between two partners that can carry data values.

message flow

connector line (dashed)

A connector line drawn between two BPMN pools or activities within them. These lines are intended to document a message synchronization between the process in the BPMN pools. Messages themselves are defined in the Define Messages dialog box and their use is specified in the Properties dialog box.

multi-instance activity

multi-instance parallel or sequential activity

A modeling concept in which the work at an activity is duplicated multiple times, either in parallel or sequentially. It is represented with an indicator on the diagram.

parent lane, parent pool

parent swimlane

A swimlane that has been subdivided into child swimlanes.

pool

floating swimlane

In iGrafx, the first level of swimlane hierarchy can have space separating them. This is used to represent BPMN pools. Connector lines (automatically formatted as dashed lines) can terminate or originate on a floating swimlane boundary, representing message flow in BPMN. Also called a Swimlane®.

process instance

transaction, family

A transaction in iGrafx is one instance of the execution of the process. If parallel paths of execution exist, the transaction duplicates into a family of transactions that can be synchronized later at a collection by family. In BPMN, a transaction (a family member) is usually referred to as a token.

process property

transaction attribute

An unfortunate confusion in terminology is that the word process is often used to refer to a process instance. In iGrafx, transaction (or family) attribute is data held on a transaction or a token in a process instance. A process-location attribute is a global value that is common to all instances of (transactions in) the process.

reusable subprocess

subprocess

A subprocess that is called from a parent that is independent of the parent process and that may be invoked from multiple places in the same parent or from multiple parents.

sequence flow

connector line

A connection between two activities that represents passing control and the transaction (token) from one activity to another. Contrast message flow, which is a synchronizing signal sent between two independent processes.

timer (TimeDate)

Event (scheduled)

An absolute point in time, for example Friday at 4:00. In iGrafx, scheduled Events are defined on the Model menu by choosing Events.

transaction

business transaction

In BPMN, transactions refer to a pattern of message exchange between cooperating partners that is not considered complete until all partners agree that it has completed successfully. Any partner can cancel the business transaction, and all partners must be prepared to reverse any action taken by the transaction that was cancelled. The term was most likely derived from the notion of a database transaction, and can be compared to it. iGrafx refers to these as business transactions to distinguish them from simulation transactions.