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Process mapping

Flowchart vs process map vs BPMN

Use a flowchart to explain a procedure to people, a process map to analyse how a business process works across teams, and BPMN when the diagram must follow a formal standard, typically to be executed by a workflow engine or exchanged between modelling tools.

By Flowchartio · Updated · 2 min read

Three tools, three purposes

  • A flowchart shows the order of steps and decisions. It is designed to be read by anyone, with a handful of standard symbols.
  • A process map is a flowchart used for analysis at team or company level, often with lanes, inputs and outputs, and notes about time, cost or pain points.
  • BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is a formal standard maintained by the Object Management Group. Version 2.0 was published in 2011 and is also an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 19510). It defines precise semantics for events, activities, gateways, messages and pools.

Side by side

  • Audience: flowcharts and process maps target business users; BPMN targets analysts and, when executed, developers.
  • Learning curve: a flowchart is readable without training. BPMN has dozens of event and gateway types that readers need to learn.
  • Precision: BPMN can express timers, message exchanges between organisations, compensation and parallel paths unambiguously. A flowchart expresses them informally.
  • Execution: BPMN 2.0 models can be run by workflow engines that support the standard. A flowchart is documentation.
  • Tooling: BPMN needs a modeller that respects the standard; flowcharts can be drawn anywhere, including as Mermaid code.

When a flowchart is enough

Most of the time. To document a procedure, train a team, discuss improvements or illustrate a README, a clear flowchart, ideally organised in swimlanes, is faster to produce and easier to read than a BPMN model.

When BPMN is worth it

  • The process will be automated in a workflow engine that executes BPMN.
  • Your organisation already standardises on BPMN for its process repository.
  • You need to model messages between independent participants, timers and exceptions precisely.
  • A regulator or client requires a formal model.

A practical path

Start with a flowchart, because it is the fastest way to agree on what actually happens. Once the team agrees, an analyst can translate it into BPMN if the project requires it: lanes become lanes or pools, decisions become gateways, start and end shapes become events. Doing it in that order avoids spending modelling effort on a process that is still being discussed.

For a broader view of diagram families, see types of flowcharts. For technical integrations, WSDL services as flowcharts shows how service operations can be mapped to steps without a full BPMN model.