Creating process blueprints

A process blueprint is a high-level diagram or map of a business process which visually represents the sequence of tasks, decisions, and interactions that make up a process. Creating a process blueprint helps understand the process flow from start to finish: it describes details about the activities in the process, the people who perform or know about the activities, the milestones that activities are performed in, and other details. In IBM Blueworks Live, a process blueprint consists of a discovery map, a process diagram, and documentation.

There are a few ways in which you can create a process blueprint: you can create it inside the application, import it, or use a template.

Creating process blueprints manually

You can create a new process blueprint from scratch. To do so, complete the following steps:
  1. Open a space within which you want to create a project.
  2. Click Create > Process Blueprint.
  3. Give your process a name.
  4. Click Create.

Creating process blueprints with AI

You can use AI to generate process blueprints from text descriptions or visual representations in image files.

For more information, see Generating process diagrams from text with AI and Generating process diagrams from images with AI.

Importing process blueprints

You can import an existing process diagram from outside of Blueworks Live, including diagrams that are authored in Microsoft Visio, in an XML process diagramming language, or in a BPMN authoring tool. For more information, see Importing process blueprints.

Using templates

You can create a process blueprint by using one of the template processes provided in the Blueworks Live library. To do so, complete the following steps:
  1. Go to Library > Templates.
  2. Select the template you need.
  3. Click Import.
  4. Optional: change the name of the process.
  5. Select the space which you want the process to belong to.
  6. Click Import.

Managing process blueprints

You can find all your process blueprints by going to Library > Processes.

To find all the process blueprints within a certain space, go to Library > Spaces and open the space to see its Processes section.

To move, copy, or archive multiple process blueprints, complete the following steps:
  1. Use Ctrl+click or Cmd+click to select each of the blueprints. Or, select the first blueprint and then use Shift+click to select the last blueprint and all blueprints in between.
  2. Release the key and click the drop-down menu at the top of one of the selected blueprints.
  3. Select Move, Copy, Archive, or Publish current version.

Next step

When you finish creating a process blueprint, you can go on to create its first component. For more information, see Creating discovery maps.

If you are using AI features to generate your process blueprint, refine your diagram with Blueworks Live IQ. For more information, see Editing process diagrams with Blueworks Live IQ.