What is BPMN? A plain-English guide
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is an international standard for drawing business processes as diagrams. It defines a fixed set of symbols — events, tasks, gateways and flows — so that a diagram of "how work gets done" means the same thing to everyone who reads it. BPMN is maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG) and published as the ISO/IEC 19510 standard.
In short: if a flowchart is a casual sketch of a process, BPMN is the shared, precise language for the same idea.
Why BPMN exists
Every organisation runs on processes — onboarding an employee, approving an invoice, fulfilling an order. People describe these processes in documents, emails and meetings, and everyone pictures them slightly differently. BPMN removes that ambiguity by giving each concept exactly one symbol:
- A circle is an event (something happens).
- A rounded rectangle is a task (work is done).
- A diamond is a gateway (the path splits or merges based on a decision).
- An arrow is a sequence flow (what happens next).
Because the notation is standardised, a BPMN diagram is readable across teams, tools and companies — and, crucially, it can be precise enough to feed a workflow-automation engine.
The core BPMN symbols
You can read the majority of real-world diagrams with just five building blocks:
| Symbol | Shape | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Start event | Thin circle | Where the process begins (an order arrives, a form is submitted) |
| Task | Rounded rectangle | A single unit of work ("Review application") |
| Gateway | Diamond | A decision or branch ("Approved?") that routes the flow |
| Sequence flow | Solid arrow | The order in which steps happen |
| End event | Thick circle | Where a path of the process finishes |
Add pools and lanes (who does what), message events (waiting for something external), and timers (waiting for time to pass), and you can model almost any process. Our BPMN symbols reference covers the full set, and dedicated guides explain gateways, events and pools and lanes.
BPMN 2.0
"BPMN 2.0" is the current version of the standard (released in 2011 and standardised as ISO 19510). Its key advance over BPMN 1.x is a formal XML file format: a BPMN 2.0 diagram is stored as a machine-readable .bpmn XML file that any compliant tool can open. That is what lets you draw a process in one tool and execute it in another — for example, model in BPMN Studio and run it in Camunda or Flowable.
What is BPMN used for?
- Documentation — capturing how a process actually works today (the "as-is").
- Process improvement — designing how it should work (the "to-be") and comparing the two.
- Communication — giving analysts, managers and developers one diagram they all read the same way.
- Automation — handing a valid BPMN 2.0 model to an execution engine that runs the process.
Do you have to learn the notation?
Not necessarily. The reason BPMN sometimes feels intimidating is the size of the full specification — but you rarely need all of it, and you no longer have to draw it by hand. BPMN Studio lets you describe a process in plain English and generates a valid BPMN 2.0 diagram for you, which is also one of the fastest ways to learn the notation: you see how your words map onto the standard symbols. See how to create a BPMN diagram for a walkthrough, or just open the Designer and describe your first process.
Frequently asked questions
What does BPMN stand for?
BPMN stands for Business Process Model and Notation. It is a graphical standard maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG) and published as ISO/IEC 19510.
Is BPMN hard to learn?
The core is easy: a handful of symbols — start and end events, tasks, gateways and arrows — cover most diagrams. The full BPMN 2.0 specification is large, but you rarely need all of it. Tools like BPMN Studio let you generate valid BPMN from a plain-English description, so you can read and edit diagrams without memorising the full notation.
What is the difference between BPMN and a flowchart?
A flowchart is an informal, general-purpose diagram with no fixed rules. BPMN is a formal standard with precise semantics: specific symbols for events, gateways, message flows, pools and lanes, so a BPMN diagram means the same thing to any reader and can even drive an automation engine. See our BPMN vs flowchart guide for detail.
Who uses BPMN?
Business analysts, process-improvement teams, software developers, and operations managers use BPMN to document how work flows, agree on how it should change, and hand executable models to workflow engines like Camunda and Flowable.