BPMN

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a graphical notation that defines the steps in a business process.

BPMN is a standard set of diagramming conventions for describing business processes. It is designed to visualize a rich set of process flow semantics within a business process and the communication between independent processes.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is the standard for modeling business processes and web service processes.
BPMN is a core enabler of Business Process Management (BPM), a new initiative in enterprise architecture, which is concerned with managing change to improve business processes.

The primary goal of BPMN is to provide a a business process modeling notation that is understandable by all business users, from the business analysts that create the design of the processes, to the technical developers responsible for implementing the technology that will perform those processes, and finally, to the business managers who will manage and monitor those processes.

The secondary goal of BPMN is to ensure that XML languages designed for the execution of business processes, like BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services), can be visualized with a business-oriented notation.

BPMN enables developers, analysts and business managers the ability to communicate business processes in a standard manner.
The business users should be able to easily read and understand a BPMN business process diagram.
The process developers should be able to easily read and implement a business process diagram without further details.

BPMN is the current modeling standard within the business modeling community.
Unlike object-oriented modelling techniques, BPMN takes a process-oriented approach to process modelling, that is more conducive to the way business analysts model.
BPMN is intended to supply sufficient information to allow it to be the source of an executable process.

BPMN consists of a diagram, called the Business Process Diagram (BPD). The BPMN Business Process Diagram has been designed to be easy to use and understand, but also provides the ability to model complex business processes.

To model a business process workflow, you set the business process starting event, business decisions, workflow branching (gateways) and workflow outputs & results.

BPMN, which maps directly to BPEL, was developed with a solid mathematical foundation – the Pi-Calculus branch of Process Calculi. This is a formal method of computation for dynamic and mobile processes which ensures that business processes can be directly mapped to any business modeling executable languages for immediate execution.