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business-process-managementbpmn

Is there a standard notation for a 'switch' type BPM node?


Did not find a more suitable SE site, so asking this here.

In BPM, there are more-or-less standard ways of marking activities - like Start (green circle), Stop (red circle), Conditional (yellow diamond). An example I found is here.

Conditional is basically an 'if' in any programming language.

What I could not find any example of is a 'switch'.

I know that one could use multiple Conditionals, but I have to implement a user friendly way, so I'd like to know if there is any standard way of representing such a thing in BPM.


Solution

  • It depends on what you mean by "switch". If you want to switch process flow in one or another way you can use Complex Gateway. A Complex Gateway allows the modeler to specify any arbitrary rules needed to determine how to emit tokens or process arriving tokens.

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    BPMN Complex Gateways can be used for splitting or merging a complicated process flow scenario. However, it is not recommended practice as there are simpler and more practical inclusive and exclusive gateways. There is always better to use their combination. You can learn more about complex gateways here.