Drawing and defining Data Objects on business process diagrams
You can use Data Objects to model how documents, data, and other objects are used and updated during the process flow. Data Objects are artifacts that can represent many different types of objects, both electronic and physical. They do not have any direct affect on the Sequence Flow or Message Flow of the process flow, but they do provide information about what the process flow does.
A Data Object is represented by a portrait-oriented rectangle that has its upper-right corner folded over.
It is not mandatory to model Data Objects on a BPMN business process diagram. You might decide not to model Data Objects to show a business process flow without being cluttered by the extra details, or you can add the Data Objects to the diagram to provide more information without changing the basic behavior of the process flow.
To draw a Data Object symbol
1 Click the Data Object button; then click an area on the diagram.
2 You can specify the data that the Data Object symbol represents in the Corresponding Data property of its definition dialog box. A Data Object might represent a Class of objects (UML terminology) or an Entity (a relational data modeling term that means a logical table).
▪To open the definition dialog box of a Data Object symbol, on an open diagram, double-click the symbol.
▪In the Corresponding Data field, click Choices.
▪In the Select and Drag dialog box, drag one or more classes and entities into the Corresponding Data field.
3 You can specify the state that a Data Object is in on a business process diagram. By doing so, you show how the state of a data object changes during the course of a process flow. For example, a Reservation data object might go from the state of “Provisionally Reserved” to “Reserved” to “Cancelled” during the course of a flow.
To specify the state of a data object, in the Data Object definition dialog box, on the Symbol tab, in the State text field, type the state of the particular data object, and then click OK.
The state is displayed in brackets on the Data Object symbol, underneath its name.
Note Properties on the Symbol page of the Definition dialog box apply only to that instance of the symbol. Properties in the other tabs apply to the definition of the symbol, and are global throughout the repository.
For example, you might have the same Data Object definition represented by three separate symbols on the same diagram. Each represents the same definition (and therefore has the same values for all properties in the other tabs), but could have different values for the properties on the Symbol page.
4 To associate a Data Object with a Sequence Flow or a Message Flow, perform the following steps:
▪To select both the Data Object and the Sequence Flow or Message Flow you want to associate it with, press and hold down the SHIFT key while selecting both symbols.
▪Click Draw > Associate Data Object with Sequence Flow (or Message Flow).
A dashed line is added to the diagram, attaching the Data Object to the flow line, as shown in the following image.
Note If you connect a Data Object to a Message Flow, do not confuse the Data object with the message itself. It can, however, be thought of as the content of the message.
5 To include Data Objects in the process flow, draw associations from Data Objects to and from Processes.
Note A Data Object cannot receive or send a Message Flow line, nor a Sequence Flow line.
The following image shows a section of a business process diagram in which a Data Object, “Purchase Order [Complete],” flows by way of an association to a Process, and then the flow continues by way of a second association to a second Data Object, “Purchase Order [Approved].”
