Refining Processes

Use subprocesses and embedded subprocesses for refining a process.

General process steps are refined successively in a top-down process in process modeling, i.e. defined in more detail. This is one of the reasons that BPMN recognizes the difference between subprocesses and embedded subprocesses.

• A subprocess is an independent process which is called by another process. It always has one empty start event but can also have other start event definitions specified by other event definitions to be independently called.
  The calling element is the call activity.
• An embedded subprocess is a process which is defined within the embedded process and encapsulated there in its own flow node, the embedded subprocess. Embedded subprocesses can be used for combining detailed steps of a process into a more general step. Embedded subprocesses can also prepare their own visibility area for attributes, encapsulate transactions, react to events and errors or be used as compensation for a transaction.

An embedded subprocess can be converted into a reusable subprocess with a call activity in Innovator; the same conversion is also possible vice versa.