This section provides a summary of the BPMN graphical objects and their relationships. More details on the concepts will be provided in "Business Process Diagram Graphical Objects" on page 45 and "Business Process Diagram Connecting Objects" on page 113.
A goal for the development of BPMN is that the notation be simple and adoptable by business analysts. Also, there is a potentially conflicting requirement that BPMN provide the power to depict complex business processes and map to BPM execution languages. To help understand how BPMN can manage both requirements, the list of BPMN graphic elements is presented in two groups.
First, there is the list of core elements that will support the requirement of a simple notation. These are the elements that define the basic look-and-feel of BPMN. Most business processes will be modeled adequately with these elements. Second, there is the entire list of elements, including the core elements, which will help support requirement of a powerful notation to handle more advanced modeling situations. And further, the graphical elements of the notation will be supported by non-graphical attributes that will provide the remaining information necessary to map to an execution language or other business modeling purposes.