Lane
A Lane is a horizontal or vertical subdivision within a Pool that organizes activities by role, department, or system. It shows who or what is responsible for activities within that partition. For example, an "Order Processing" pool might have lanes for Sales Rep, Warehouse Staff, and Finance, making it clear who handles each step. For example, in a hiring process, you might have lanes for "HR Manager", "Technical Interviewer", and "Hiring Committee" — each lane contains only the tasks that role performs.
What is a Lane?
A Lane partitions a Pool to show responsibility or organizational structure. Activities placed in a lane indicate who performs them-a role, department, system, or any other categorization.
Visual Representation
A Lane displays as a horizontal or vertical band within a Pool. It has a label (usually on the left or top) identifying the responsible party.
Key Characteristics
- Responsibility assignment: Shows who owns activities
- Pool subdivision: Lanes exist only within Pools
- Flexible categorization: Can represent roles, departments, systems, phases
- Sequence flows cross: Flows can cross lanes to show handoffs
Common mistake
Creating lanes for systems or departments instead of roles. Lanes should represent who does the work, not where or how.
How it connects
Common Use Cases
Department Assignment
Organize activities by Sales, Processing, and Fulfillment departments to show workflow handoffs.
Role Visualization
Partition a Pool into Manager, Employee, and System lanes to clarify responsibilities.
System Segregation
Separate activities performed by different IT systems to show integration points.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related BPMN Elements
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