BPMN Symbols Cheat Sheet: The Shapes You Actually Need

By Kirill Stolbushkin

The core BPMN 2.0 symbol set is five families of shapes: events (circles), activities (rounded rectangles), gateways (diamonds), connecting flows (solid or dashed arrows), and pools and lanes. BPMN 2.0 — the OMG standard, also ISO/IEC 19510 — does not require the 100+ variants in the spec. This cheat sheet covers the shapes you actually use.

If you can name those five families, you can read the map.

Events

An event is something that happens. Not work. A moment. BPMN draws events as circles. Border weight tells you where you are in the process.

Start event — a thin-line circle. The process begins. A token is born here. Use a none start (empty circle) when a person or system kicks the process off. Use a message start (envelope) when an incoming message starts it: an order, a ticket, a form. Use a timer start (clock) when a schedule starts it.

Intermediate event — a double-line circle. Something happens in the middle: a wait, a message, a timeout. Catching events wait for a trigger. Throwing events fire one.

End event — a thick-line circle. This path is done. A process can have more than one end event: approved, rejected, cancelled. That is not sloppy. That is honest.

Message and timer cover most real diagrams. Add an error event (lightning bolt) when a step can fail and the process has to notice.

Activities and tasks

An activity is work. BPMN draws it as a rounded rectangle.

Task — one unit of work you do not break down further on this diagram. “Review invoice.” “Notify employee.” “Post to the ledger.”

Sub-process — a rounded rectangle with a plus at the bottom. Work that has its own start, its own end, and its own diagram. Collapse it so the parent stays readable. Sequence flow does not cross a sub-process boundary. The parent token waits until the child finishes.

Two task types earn their keep:

If you cannot say who or what performs the step, it is not a task yet. It is a wish.

Gateways: XOR, AND, OR

A gateway is a diamond. It splits paths or joins them. It is not a decision task. The facts are already known when the token arrives. The diamond only routes.

Exclusive gateway (XOR) — diamond with an X. An empty diamond means the same thing; the X is clearer. Exactly one outgoing path. Use it for mutually exclusive outcomes: approved or rejected, over threshold or under. Label every outgoing sequence flow with the real condition, not “yes” / “no.”

Parallel gateway (AND) — diamond with a plus. All outgoing paths run. No condition. Use it when work can happen at the same time: HR sets up payroll while IT provisions a laptop. The matching AND join waits for every incoming path. Skip the join and the next step can fire twice.

Inclusive gateway (OR) — diamond with a circle. One or more paths, whichever conditions are true. Use it when combinations are allowed. The matching OR join waits for the paths that actually started. Inclusive joins are easy to misread on a large canvas. If the combinations are few, two XOR splits are often clearer.

Rule of thumb: XOR = pick one. AND = do all. OR = do any that apply. Close with the same type you opened with.

Sequence flow vs message flow

Sequence flow is a solid arrow with a filled arrowhead. It is the order of work inside one pool. Tokens travel on sequence flow. That is the process.

Message flow is a dashed line: open circle at the start, open arrowhead at the end. It is a message between participants. A customer submits an order. A vendor sends an invoice. No token travels on a message flow. The other pool starts or continues because a message arrived — usually at a message event or a receiving task.

If you remember one rule: sequence flow stays inside the pool. Messages jump the wall. Sequence flow that crosses a pool boundary is not BPMN. It is a flowchart wearing a costume.

A slash on a sequence flow leaving a gateway marks the default path — the one taken when no other condition is true. Use it. Unlabeled leftovers are how diagrams lie.

Pools and lanes

Pool — the large rectangle around a process. A pool is a participant: your company, the customer, the bank, a black-box vendor. Sequence flow lives inside one pool. Two organizations do not share a token. They share messages.

Lane — a strip inside a pool. A lane is a role, team, or system: Finance, Hiring manager, HRIS. Sequence flow can cross lanes inside the same pool. That is the point. You can see the handoff.

Do not treat a lane as a company. If Legal is a department you control, it is a lane. If Legal is an outside firm, it is a pool — or a collapsed pool if you only care that a contract comes back. Put every task in a lane. An unowned step is how work falls on the floor.

BPMN symbols at a glance

Symbol

Meaning

When to use

Start event (thin circle)

Process begins; a token is born

Every process. None, message, or timer trigger.

Intermediate event (double circle)

Something happens mid-process

Waits, incoming or outgoing messages, timeouts

End event (thick circle)

This path finishes; the token is consumed

One end per outcome (approved, rejected, cancelled)

Task (rounded rectangle)

Atomic unit of work

A person or system does one step

User task

Human work

Approvals, reviews, data entry

Service task

System work

API calls, emails, ledger posts

Sub-process (rounded rectangle +)

Nested process, collapsed

Hide detail so the parent stays readable

Exclusive gateway / XOR (diamond + X)

Exactly one path

Mutually exclusive decisions

Parallel gateway / AND (diamond +)

All paths, at once

Work that can run in parallel

Inclusive gateway / OR (diamond + O)

One or more paths

Combinations of conditions

Sequence flow (solid arrow)

Order of work inside a pool

Connect events, tasks, and gateways

Default flow (solid arrow + slash)

Fallback path from a gateway

When no other condition matches

Message flow (dashed arrow)

Message between pools

Customer, vendor, or other participant

Pool (large rectangle)

A participant

One organization or independent process

Lane (strip inside a pool)

Who owns the step

Role, team, or system you control

You don't have to memorize this

Notation is a tax. Pay it only if you must. Most teams do not fail because they mixed up XOR and AND. They fail because the process lived in someone’s head, a slide, or a flowchart that cannot be handed to an engine.

Describe the process in plain English instead. Vevos generates a BPMN 2.0 diagram — events, tasks, gateways, lanes, sequence and message flows — from the description. No notation exam. Free to model; sign up to export BPMN XML, SVG, PNG, or PDF.

Manual walkthrough: how to create a BPMN diagram.

Create a BPMN diagram for free →

Plain English in. Real BPMN 2.0 out.

FAQ

What are the BPMN symbols I actually need?

Events (start, intermediate, end), tasks and sub-processes, exclusive / parallel / inclusive gateways, sequence flow, message flow, pools, and lanes. That set models almost every operational process. The OMG spec is larger. You do not need the rest to be correct.

Do I need all 100+ BPMN 2.0 symbols?

No. The standard defines a large event-and-marker matrix so engines can execute edge cases. Business diagrams that people can read use a handful of shapes. If you cannot explain a symbol in one sentence, leave it off the canvas.

Exclusive vs parallel vs inclusive gateway — when do I use which?

XOR (X): exactly one path. AND (+): all paths, in parallel. OR (O): one or more paths whose conditions are true. Decide before the diamond, not on it. Close with the same type you opened with.

What is the difference between a pool and a lane?

A pool is a participant — usually an organization or an independent process. A lane is a role or team inside that participant. Sequence flow can cross lanes. It cannot cross pools. Use message flow between pools.

Sequence flow vs message flow — which arrow do I draw?

Solid arrow inside one pool: sequence flow, the order of work. Dashed arrow between pools: message flow, a message. Tokens travel on sequence flow only. If two companies talk, they do not share a token. They send a message.

Is a BPMN diagram executable?

A standards-compliant BPMN 2.0 model can be. The XML carries semantics, not just pictures. A flowchart, or a BPMN-looking shape library that does not export valid XML, cannot. Executable is a property of the model and the engine, not of a PNG.

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