Subprocesses and linked processes

Subprocesses and linked processes allow you to capture the right level of detail about the activities in your process without over-complicating your diagram. A subprocess groups related activities into one parent activity, while a linked process is a call to another stand-alone process.

Table 1. Subprocesses and linked processes
Activity Type	Icon	Description
Subprocess		A process that is a part of a larger process. Typically, related activities within a process that are grouped together to hide lower-level complexity of the process. The plus sign indicates that this is a collapsed subprocess. The minus sign indicates that the subprocess is expanded.
Linked process		An activity that links to, or calls, another stand-alone process.

Adding subprocesses

Use a subprocess activity when you want to group together a set of steps in your process, allowing that group to be collapsed or expanded depending on the level of detail required. For example, in a Security Badge Request process, you might have a set of steps required for creating the badge. The details of these steps might be interesting to the facilities personnel who are producing the badge, but less important to other people who want to see a high-level view of the process.

To add a subprocess activity, complete the following steps:

Hover over a flow line and click the add button .
Select Insert a Subprocess.

To convert an existing activity to a subprocess activity, complete the following steps:

Right-click the activity.
Select Convert to Subprocess.

To convert a set of elements to a subprocess, complete the following steps:

Select the elements that you want to convert in one of the following ways:
- Use Ctrl+click or Cmd+click.
- Select the first element and then use Shift+click to select the last element and all other elements in the shortest path.
- Click the Marquee Select button and draw a rectangle around the elements you want.
Note: The elements must be contiguous
Right-click and select Convert to subprocess.

Adding linked processes

Use a linked process activity when you want to make a call to a separate stand-alone process from within your process. For example, an Expense Reimbursement process might call a separate Funds Disbursement process that is called by several other processes.

To add a linked process activity, complete the following steps:

Hover over a flow line and click the add button .
Select Insert a Linked Process.

To convert an existing activity to a linked process activity, complete the following steps:

Right-click the activity.
Select Link to Process.
Specify the name of the process that you want to link to.

You can navigate between the calling process and the linked-to process by clicking the link icon on the activity element. To return to the parent process, use the breadcrumb trail at the top of the diagram area.