Role Associations (BPM)

A role association is a relationship that describes an interaction between a process and an organization unit displayed as an actor.

A role association can be created in a top-level diagram (see Top-Level Diagrams) with any of the following target languages:

Orchestration languages (BPEL4WS and WS-BPEL only)
Collaborative languages

A role association can have the following roles:

Initiating role – drawn from an organization unit to a process
Responding role – drawn from the process to the organization unit

If the orientation of the role association is not displayed, you can modify the role association display preferences, by selecting Tools > Display Preferences > Role Association.

In the following example, the Buyer interacts with the top-level process via an initiating role, and the top-level process interacts with the Carrier and the Provider via responding roles:

Note: Role associations are not allowed in decomposed processes of top-level diagrams (see Top-Level Diagrams) associated with BPEL languages or ebXML.

Creating a Role Association
You can create a role association from the Toolbox, Browser, or Model menu.
Role Association Properties
To view or edit a role association's properties, double-click its diagram symbol or Browser or list entry. The property sheet tabs and fields listed here are those available by default, before any customization of the interface by you or an administrator.

Parent topic: Business Process Diagrams