Creating subprocesses and artifact links in BPMN diagrams

A subprocess is an BPMN activity that can contain activities, gateways, events, and sequence flows. Specialized types of subprocesses exist such as an ad hoc subprocess, which is a group of activities that do not have sequence relationships. A subprocess can be linked to an artifact such as a use case.

Before you begin

You must have a BPMN diagram that contains a process.

Procedure

  1. In the Palette, click SubProcess. To select a specialized type of subprocess, click the arrow beside SubProcess.
  2. In the diagram editor, click inside a process to insert the subprocess.
  3. Optional: In the Properties view, on the General page, you can select ordering, completion conditions, and a Cancel instance for an Adhoc subprocess.
  4. To add an artifact to a subprocess, in the Properties view, on the General page, under artifacts, click the browse icon, and navigate to an artifact, such as a use case artifact.

Results

You can now add elements to the subprocess as you would a process.

Example

The following example shows a subprocess:The following example shows a subprocess.

The following example shows an ad hoc subprocess: The following example shows an adhoc subprocess:
Note: Clicking the plus sign (+) icon for a subprocess shows the elements that it contains.
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