Conversation Diagrams

You can visualize a high level representation of groups of messages (conversations) transmitted between two or more participants in a domain using a Conversation diagram. The goal is to present a summary of the messages that flow between a group of participants in a domain. You group sets of messages into conversations thus hiding the complexity of the choreography of the underlying messages. The conversations (hexagonal elements) are connected to the participants that engage in the conversation. This creates an overview of how the participants interact together. Just as in human speech it is possible simply to say that two (or more) parties engaged in a conversation about a topic without going into the detail of what was said.

Conversation diagram with four Participants showing an overview of their interactions (conversations).

To create BPMN elements and relationships on Conversation diagrams in either BPMN 2.0 or BPEL formats, you can use the BPMN 2.0 Conversation pages of the Diagram Toolbox.

Access

Use any of the methods outlined here to display the Diagram Toolbox, then click on Search to display the 'Find Toolbox Item' dialog and specify 'BPMN 2.0 Business Process'.

Ribbon	Design > Diagram > Toolbox : > Specify 'BPMN 2.0 Conversation' in the 'Find Toolbox Item' dialog
Keyboard Shortcuts	Ctrl+Shift+3 : > Specify 'BPMN 2.0 Conversation' in the 'Find Toolbox Item' dialog
Other	Click the icon on the Diagram caption bar to display the Diagram Toolbox, then > Specify 'BPMN 2.0 Conversation' in the 'Find Toolbox Item' dialog

BPMN 2.0 Conversation Elements

Item	Use to
Conversation Model	Extend a composite Activity that defines the logical relationship of Message exchanges between two or more business entities.
Conversation	Extend a Class element to group a set of Message Flows together based on a certain concept.
Pool	Extend a Partition element to logically organize an Activity.
Activity	Represents work that is performed within a Business Process. An Activity can be modeled as a: Sub-Process - a compound Activity that is defined as a flow of other BPMN 2.0 elements or Task - an atomic Activity that cannot be broken down into a smaller unit As a sub-process, the Activity can be made a composite element that links to a child diagram containing the flow of other BPMN elements.
Start Event	Define the initiating event in a process. Elements of this type cannot be edge-mounted on other elements.
Intermediate Event	Define an intermediate event in a process. Elements of this type can only be edge-mounted on Activity elements.
End Event	Define the terminating event in a process. Elements of this type cannot be edge-mounted on other elements.
Gateway	Define a decision point in a business process. If a condition is true then processing continues one way; if false, then another.
Text Annotation	Create a comment.

BPMN 2.0 Conversation Connectors

Item	Use to
Conversation Link	Connect a Conversation Node to a Pool element, in either direction. Either the source or target element for a Conversation Link must be a Conversation Node element.
Message Flow	Extend a Control Flow relationship to define the flow of communications in the process.
Sequence Flow	Extend a Control Flow relationship to define the flow of activity.
Association	Link the information and artifacts with BPMN graphic elements.

Notes

The appearance and specification of some elements and connectors are defined by Tagged Values

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Composite Elements