The graphical notations achieve this objective by streamlining and simplifying divergent processes into compact, bite-sized bits of readily digestible information. The resulting process map closely resembles a flowchart that can be intuitively understood by non-technical business users. Decisions and alternatives are mapped using gateways (represented by lozenges), and all of the process shapes are then linked. With BPMN, modeling processes simply involves modeling the event that triggers the process and then mapping all of the activities or events (represented by rectangles) that occur until an outcome is reached. Since 2005, when parent BPMI merged with the Object Management Group (OMG), the latter has been in charge of maintaining the Modeling Notation. The representation diagram is somewhat similar to a flowchart, though not exactly the same.

Conceived and developed by the Business Process Management Institute (BPMI), Business Process Modeling Notation, or BPMN for short, is a graphical method of representing business processes within a business process model.

Business processing modeling notation