The shapes panel contains a subset of the BPMN objects. These are the building blocks of a diagram. The basic set consists of Event, Process, and Data Object. The advanced set consists of 3 types of gateways.


Basic and advanced shapes



Event

This represents the start or the end of a (sub) diagram

Process

This represents any executable action. For processes, action parameters need to define to further specify the functional behaviour.

Data object

This is for documentation purposes only; data objects are not executed

Exclusive gateway

An exclusive gateway is used to create alternative paths within a Process flow. For a given instance of the Process, only one of the paths can be taken

Inclusive gateway

An inclusive gateway specifies that one or more of the available paths will be taken. They could all be taken, or only one of them.

Parallel gateway

Parallel gateways are used to represent two tasks in a business flow. A parallel gateway is used to visualize the concurrent execution of activities. A parallel gateway models a fork into multiple paths of execution, or a join of multiple incoming paths of execution.