You can use one of several methods to model the business processes of your organization.

The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is the new industry standard for Business Process Modeling specified by the BPMI.org. If you are modeling business processes, use this diagram type as a best practice. The diagram enables you to model business processes within pools and swimlanes.

Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS, or BPEL for short) is an XML-based language for describing a business process in which all the tasks are implemented by web services. You can generate BPEL from a BPMN Business Process diagram.

Use Activity Based Costing when the model is completely built and you want to perform cost analysis.

System Architect provides simulation of Process Models and Process Charts using Lanner’s WITNESS simulation tool as the engine.

If you are using the IDEF (Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) DEFinition) methodology, you can use the IDEF3 Process Flow diagram. You can draw process flows within swimlanes on this diagram.

These deliverables comprise a traditional Business Process Modeling notation. You can model processes within swimlanes on both the Process Chart and the Process Map. Originally, the Process Chart was intended as a diagram to model processes without swimlanes; the Process Map provided swimlane capability. Now, both diagrams enable you to model swimlanes, so you only need to use Process Maps if you particularly want some sort of separation between diagrams that only have process flows drawn, and diagrams that have the same process flows drawn within swimlanes.