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Acceptable Actors to use in a BPMN diagram?

I'm trying to model a User Account creation process whereby an Admin goes about creating a new User Account.

Is it acceptable to have Actors who are of a different type in a BPMN/Swim Lane diagram?

So for example, the Actors in this case are 'Client Administrator' and 'Software Portal System'.

My ex manager says you're not supposed to mix an 'Actor' who is the person performing an activity with an Actor of a different type (i.e. software system).

I, of course, think he is wrong as I've seen BPMN diagrams with a human Actor and software/hardware systems interfacing each other before.

i.e. here: http://blog.joget.org/2012/04/joget-workflow-v3-part-1-process-design.html

I'm looking for guidance from the Stakeoverlow brains trust.

Thanks!

Solution

  • BPMN provides Pools for modeling actors, which represent roles, like 'Client Administrator', or specific agents such as organizations (like Amazon in processes involving Amazon) or IT systems.

    The BPMN 2.0 specification (in 9.2 Pool and Participant on p. 112) says:

    A Pool is the graphical representation of a Participant in a Collaboration. A Participant can be a specific PartnerEntity (e.g., a company) or can be a more general PartnerRole (e.g., a buyer, seller, or manufacturer).