Best method for modelling information system using BPMN 2.0 Collaboration Diagrams?

BPMN & Modeling Discussion & Questions
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Curious as to what the best practice is for modelling Information Systems within a collaboration diagram? I’ve seen the following:

  1. System as a blackbox pool - the activities seen in other white boxed pools have message flows that link to the pool boundary
  2. System as a whitebox pool with Lanes for each Actor (usually the different user types within that system).
  3. Actors as a whitebox pool with Lanes for the Systems they use
  4. Systems as data stores, where each activity in the process might pass information to it.

What i’m having difficulty modelling is a situation where I have 3 separate Information Systems (a Digital Front End Portal, an internal Claims Management system, and an internal Billing System). Each system has the same 3 Actors. These actors also have manual processes outside of the systems.

Any help or guidance will be much appreciated, as I can’t seem to find anything on the topic of modelling processes with information systems. The closest I have found is the ‘Incident Management’ process flow on the Non-Normative by Example specification, however this is for a single system

Cheers,

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Hi @Philaaay,

there is no “best way” to model this. BPMN allows a lot of freedom here. All the options you mentioned in your question are valid.

My personal preference to decide for the way to continue is to model all alternatives in seperated diagrams and driectly comepare them with my audience. Then the group should decide, which option suites best for your purpose.

Hope this helps, Ingo

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