Process Hierarchy Diagrams

A process hierarchy diagram (or functional decomposition diagram) provides a graphical view of the functions of a system and helps you decompose them into a tree of sub-processes.

Note: To create a process hierarchy diagram in an existing BPM, right-click the model in the Browser and select New > Process Hierarchy Diagram. To create a new model, select File > New Model, choose Business Process Model as the model type and Process Hierarchy Diagram as the first diagram, and then click OK.

The PHD is mostly used during the analysis phase of a project. Business analysts and managers use it to:

Define all the processes performed in the scope of a business function
Focus on process recognition and enumeration; only process names are defined at this step
Decompose already identified processes into sub-processes until an appropriate atomic level is reached
Reorganize sub-processes, if necessary, by changing their parent
Display in a single view the whole hierarchy of an already described process or of any decomposed sub-process

During the creation of your diagram, you can move or reuse processes as necessary.

In the following example, the root process, Marketing, is decomposed into three sub-processes, Paper Advertising, Email Campaign, and Corporate Web Site. The latter is in turn decomposed into two sub-processes, and so on:

Each of these processes can be analyzed in its own business process diagram (see Business Process Diagrams).