BPMN Swimlanes

A swimlane is a colorful name for a not-so-colorful object. Basically, it designates a row on a business process diagram–the name itself comes from the competitive swimming process of dividing a pool up into rows or lanes so that individual swimmers won’t bump into each other while racing or swimming. Seen from the air, a pool so designated might look fairly similar to an empty business process diagram.

The names listed within a business process diagram’s swimlane are the people or organizations responsible for a given activity. They start at the left, and are followed in the succeeding lanes by the breakdown of the various processes. So, for example, if the “customer order” process is described in the lanes next to a swimlane marked “Joe,” then Joe is the person responsible for customer orders.

In addition to being assigned to individuals (such as our friend Joe), swimlanes can also be assigned to departments. in the case of an automated system, process, or task, they can even be assigned to a program within the larger software architecture. So, if the above company’s customer order process was automated, its swimlane might contain the name “JOE.serv,” or even better, “JOEBOT.”

A multinational company might even have a more expanded system, in which case swimlanes might contain names of entire regions. These regions would then, on the business process diagram, be responsible for the given process. It’s important to note that in some cases, swimlanes are represented by a column, rather than a row.

Popularity Index: 1%

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...