BPMN Tool

1. Create your workspace

Open a Creately workspace in Creately’s BPMN tool and share it with other team members you wish to collaborate with during the BPM life cycle. You can use this workspace to centralize everything from brainstormed ideas and to gather data to process models.

2. Define the scope of the process

Creating a BPMN diagram starts with identifying the process you would be diagramming and understanding its scope. This entails identifying who will be using the BPMN diagram and how it will be used. Defining these parameters together with your team beforehand will allow you to create a BPMN diagram that will be more helpful and easy to understand.

3. Gather relevant information

Together with the key stakeholders, map out the important details related to the process, like its substeps, starting and endpoints, responsible parties, etc. Using multi-user editing and real-time mouse cursors, streamline working on the diagram simultaneously with your team members.

4. Create your BPMN diagram online

Open the BPMN shape library in Creately BPMN software and start dragging and dropping the relevant shapes onto the canvas to visualize the key process details you mapped out earlier. The diagram should start with a start event icon and end with an end event icon. Alternatively you can use any of the BPMN examples available on Creately’s BPMN online editor. You can track the changes others make with live mouse tracking with labeled cursors.

5. Add activities and swimlanes

Then using activities, depict the tasks of the process. Ensure each step belongs within a swimlane representing a responsible party. With Creately’s free BPMN software, you can easily connect these shapes and add the next shape with the Plus Create option, quickening the drawing process even further.

6. Add gateways and events

Wherever the process splits or could take multiple paths, add a gateway. And wherever an event takes place, such as a message being sent, insert events to describe the process better.

7. Proofread your BPMN diagram with your colleagues

Revisit the visualized diagram and ensure that others in your team understand it. You can capture the recommendations and questions of the stakeholders via contextual comments and comment threads to add annotations and clarifications easily. Use the version control features available on Creately’s online BPMN tool to track changes and revert to previous versions if necessary. This can help your team keep track of the progress of the project and ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals.

8. Share and Publish

Share the BPMN file with your team members or stakeholders by exporting it in different formats or sharing it with a public or private link. Integrate the BPMN modeler with project management tools to keep track of progress and ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals.