The best way to understand BPMN is to see it applied to real problems. These five examples cover different industries and progressively introduce more BPMN elements — from simple gateways to parallel work and loops.
New to BPMN? Read What is BPMN? first for a quick introduction to the notation.
1. Order fulfillment
E-commerce / Retail
A customer places an order. The warehouse checks stock. If available, the order is picked, packed, and shipped. If not, the customer is notified and the order is cancelled.
What this shows: How to model a process with two possible outcomes (shipped vs cancelled), how lanes separate Sales from Warehouse responsibilities, and how a message start event shows the process is triggered by an incoming order.
2. Leave request approval
HR / Any organization
An employee submits a leave request. The manager reviews it. If approved, HR updates the calendar. If rejected, the employee is notified with a reason.
What this shows: How to model a three-role approval workflow, how conditional sequence flows label each path out of a gateway, and how the process reaches different end states based on the decision.
3. Invoice approval
Finance / Accounting
An invoice arrives. Accounting verifies it. Small amounts are approved directly. Amounts over a threshold require management approval. Rejected invoices go back to the supplier.
What this shows: How to model amount-based routing (a common pattern in finance), how to chain two approval steps, and how rejection creates a separate path back to the sender.
4. Patient admission
Healthcare
A patient arrives. Reception checks insurance — uninsured patients pay a deposit first. After registration, a nurse assessment and doctor assignment happen in parallel. Once both are done, the patient is admitted.
What this shows: How parallel gateways fork work into concurrent paths and join them back. The nurse and doctor work simultaneously — the process waits for both before proceeding.
5. Software bug fix
Software development
A bug is reported. The developer triages it: critical bugs get an immediate hotfix and deploy. Non-critical bugs go to the backlog, then through the normal sprint cycle: implement, PR, QA review, test, deploy.
What this shows: How to model a fast track (hotfix) alongside a normal path, how a loop handles test failures (QA rejects → developer fixes → QA retests), and how two lanes separate Development from QA.
Elements used across these examples
| Element | Symbol | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Start event | Thin circle | All five |
| End event | Bold circle | All five |
| Task | Rounded rectangle | All five |
| Exclusive gateway | Diamond with X | Order, Leave, Invoice, Bug fix |
| Parallel gateway | Diamond with + | Patient admission |
| Lanes | Horizontal bands | All five |
Try it yourself
These examples cover the elements used in 80% of real-world BPMN diagrams. Pick a process from your own work and model it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use these BPMN examples in my own projects?▼
Yes. All diagrams on this page are free to use for learning, documentation, or presentations. They are modeled in standard BPMN 2.0 and can be opened in any BPMN-compatible tool.
What BPMN elements do I need for most processes?▼
Start events, end events, tasks, exclusive gateways, and lanes cover about 80% of real-world processes. Add parallel gateways when tasks can happen simultaneously, and message events when organizations communicate.
How complex should a BPMN diagram be?▼
Keep it readable. If a diagram has more than 15-20 tasks, consider breaking it into sub-processes. The goal is communication, not completeness. Start simple and add detail only where it matters.
Where can I practice creating BPMN diagrams?▼
Our free exercises walk you through real scenarios step by step. Start with The Shoe Shop for your first diagram, then work through progressively harder scenarios across nine industries.