BPMN and Process Mapping: More Essential Than Ever
With over 70% of organizations now using business process modeling as a core component of their operations, it’s clear that process visualization is more than just a trend—it’s a necessity. As businesses continue to adapt and scale they need to visualize and standardize processes regularly. Here we walk through how process modeling standards like BPMN and UML can be used alongside enterprise architecture techniques to support teams as they design and optimize workflows, and align processes with strategic objectives and technology.[i]
If your team wants to improve a process that’s important for delivering products or services, one of the first steps will be to settle on a common understanding of that process. Process models are one of the easiest ways to capture and communicate about how teams carry out work. Diagrams are a great way of working through both the current business process, and mapping out improvements.
What is Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)?
Business process models depict how activities, tasks, and decisions are executed within an organization. These models help answer key questions, such as:
- What impact will proposed changes have on our order fulfillment process?
- Which manual data entry tasks can we digitize to make customer service more efficient?
- How can we standardize project management processes across regional offices for consistent service delivery?
These insights help identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, and drive better decision-making. BPMN or Business Process Modeling Notation is a specific notation or standard used for creating detailed business process models. It uses a set of standard symbols to map out the steps in a business process.

Advantages of Business Process Modeling Tools & Standards
Adopting standard notations like BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) and UML (Unified Modeling Language) can bring real advantages to a team, maintaining consistency and clarity across an organization’s documentation. When everyone uses the same visual language, it reduces confusion and supports better communication. BPMN is ideal for creating detailed process diagrams, while UML extends to software systems and business process mapping.
What Are Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) Symbols?
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN 2.0 is the latest version) provides a set of standard symbols for creating process diagrams. These symbols include lines, arrows and shapes to describe processes:
Categories (Key Elements) of BPMN
- Flow Objects such as Event, Activity and Gateways
- Connectors: include Sequence Flows, Message Flows, and Associations that define the relationships between different elements
- Artifacts: such as Data Objects, Groups, and Annotations that provide additional context to the process
- Swimlanes: used to organize and visually separate different parts of the process
As you can see, BPMN offers a very detailed and descriptive range of diagram elements. However, not every organization will need to use the full range of BPMN symbols. For many, starting with a simplified subset of BPMN symbols can be a more practical approach. This allows teams to focus on creating clear and straightforward process models without getting overwhelmed. Further BPMN notation elements can then be added as work progresses.
What is Universal Modeling Language (UML)?
Universal Modeling Language (UML) is another graphical language used for modeling processes and designing software systems. It is often associated with software engineering, but UML can also be used to create detailed diagrams that illustrate workflows and interactions. UML covers a broader range of system behaviors, including use case diagrams, sequence diagrams, and activity diagrams.
Flowcharts & Digital Whiteboarding
Flowcharts and digital whiteboarding offer a more casual approach, where teams collaborate to map out processes and identify improvements. While flowcharts often lack the formalized notation of BPMN or UML, this simplicity makes them an excellent choice for brainstorming, team collaboration, and visualization of workflows.
Difference between BPMN and UML
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is a graphical notation used to model business processes and workflows, focusing primarily on the flow of tasks, events, and decisions in a process. UML (Unified Modeling Language), on the other hand, is a broader modeling language used for software and systems engineering.
Difference Between a Flowchart and a BPMN Diagram
A flowchart is a simple diagram used to represent the sequence of steps in a process, often using basic shapes like rectangles, diamonds, and arrows. It is more informal and commonly used for illustrating straightforward workflows. A BPMN diagram,provides greater detail with elements such as events, gateways, and swimlanes, making it more suited for complex processes and professional business modeling.
Who uses BPMN diagrams?
BPMN diagrams are used by business analysts, process managers, and enterprise architects to model and analyze business processes. They help stakeholders, including IT professionals and business leaders, communicate and improve workflows. Because BPMN is a standardized language, it is widely used in industries like finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and IT services where there is a need for clear, accurate process documentation and optimization.
Can BPMN integrate with other systems and tools?
The most effective process modeling extends beyond workflows to visualize how proposed changes to a process will ripple through other linked systems and functions. To carry out this type of modeling, analysts and architects need tools which can be used to link models to broader architectural elements, including data, applications, and technology infrastructure.
These integrations help identify how processes interact with various systems, applications, and databases, revealing dependencies and potential areas for optimization. Teams can answer questions such as:
- “Which parts of the organization supports this process?
- “Which applications are essential to this process?”
- “Do we have the right infrastructure in place to ensure this process is reliable and efficient?”
For example, by mapping a new AI tool to an application, we might reveal hidden connections to a sensitive database, like a CRM. This understanding of process interactions with applications and data helps identify risks and ensures that tools or services align with security and compliance standards.
Many standalone process modeling tools offer a simple interface for basic modeling, but concentrate solely on processes without linking them to broader capabilities or technical datasets. In contrast, when using process modelling in ABACUS, it’s straightforward to use BPMN or UML to describe processes, and then create links and visualizations that connect process components to business capabilities, applications and databases or other infrastructure.
Integration of BPMN into Enterprise Architecture
Strong enterprise architecture integration also relies on tools that connect to relevant data sources using features like built-in synchronization or API integrations. This ensures that information flows smoothly between systems, automating data updates and establishing consistency across business processes, technology components, and organizational strategies.
Using BPMN in Enterprise Architecture
Questions architects often ask during process management tasks are:
- Can we map out both current and planned states of a process?
- Can we predict the impacts of changes on operations, resources and costs, before these changes are implemented?
- What kind of visuals and metrics can we show the teams as part of our reporting?
By visualizing both current and future process models side-by-side in ABACUS, teams can:
- Identify gaps and inefficiencies: Pinpoint areas for improvement by comparing current and future states
- Assess the impact of changes: See how proposed modifications affect operations, resources, and costs
- Trace process evolution: Understand how processes will change over time
You can also merge your chosen process notation with your existing model and start modeling processes using existing components in your architectures. This is enabled by ABACUS‘s flexible metamodel, configurable viewpoints and out of the box libraries.
In BPMN, where pools and lanes represent participants in a process, such as role, department or even application, you can map these component types to swimlanes in your configured viewpoints. Similarly, data objects in BPMN can be linked to data entities in your repository. This helps you connect processes to other areas of your architecture, providing a comprehensive view of your enterprise without unnecessary duplication.
Using Process Models in Reports
Building dashboards with relevant process diagrams, visualizations, analysis or other content is great way to start off on a strong footing when communicating with different stakeholders or departments.
Teams can use process models to report on the current state, identify bottlenecks, and track performance against benchmarks. These dashboards can also include visualizations like heat maps or metrics drawn from technical datasets that show which parts of a process are the most time-consuming or resource-intensive.
Impact analysis helps businesses to understand the ripple effects of changes to a process. For instance, if a step is modified or a new technology is integrated, modelling tools can show how these changes will affect other linked processes, applications, or business functions.
User Permissions and Process Models
To support effective collaboration and secure access to process models within an organization, different users should have varying levels of access or editing rights. For example, Modelers—those responsible for creating and refining process models—should have full control over designing and modifying these models. However, other users within the organization might only need to be Viewers of these models and visualizations. Therefore, it is best to provide them with read-only access to the dashboards and visual representations of the process models.
A lot of modelling work is also done by Solution Architects, who can use process models and other diagrams, to visualize and analyze the workflows associated with various applications and infrastructure. Solution architects often also employ icons from platforms like AWS or Google Cloud to create clear deployment views and infrastructure diagrams that capture the architecture of planned new solutions.
Process Modeling vs. Process Mining
Process mining uses data from IT systems (e.g., ERP or CRM systems) to detect how processes are currently being executed in the enterprise.
Process modeling allows teams to map out new processes and optimizing existing ones. Architects also consider the broader context of the organization’s business strategy, application portfolio, cost and risk metrics, and technical infrastructure. Teams can also use models to gain an overview of the effect on strategies, capabilities, processes, systems, and technology infrastructure. They can identify dependencies and redundant systems as they improve resource allocation and process efficiency.
Using BPMN, Linked To Architecture & Technology
Process Modeling and Architecture