Organization Units ( BPM)

An organization unit can represent a company, a system, a service, an organization, a user or a role, which is responsible for a process. It can also be a business partner who uses high level processes.

Note: To enable the display of organization unit swimlanes, select Tools > Display Preferences, and select the Organization unit swimlane checkbox on the General page, or right-click in the diagram background and select Enable Swimlane Mode.

Organization units can be created in models targeting any language, and are commonly used as the basis for other objects in languages other than Analysis.

In a business process diagram, the organization unit is displayed as a swimlane and allows you to assign responsibilities within your system. In this example, the Warehouse organization unit is responsible for checking the stock and managing the shipping of goods, and the Call Center organization unit is responsible for calling back customers:

In a BPEL4WS or WS-BPEL top-level diagram, the organization unit is displayed as an actor and allows you to identify the external partners who interact with your system. In this example, the Buyer organization unit interacts with the Order process:

In a data flow diagram, the organization unit is displayed as a box and allows you to identify external entities that send or receive data from the system.

Creating an Organization Unit
Create an organization unit to show the participant responsible for the execution of processes.
Organization Unit Properties
To view or edit an organization unit'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.
Attaching Processes to Organization Units
Attach processes to organization units to graphically assign responsibility for them. When processes are attached to an organization unit displayed in a swimlane, the organization unit name is displayed in the Organization Unit list of their property sheets.
Displaying a Committee Process
A committee process is a decomposed process whose sub-processes are managed by several organization units.
Moving, Resizing, Copying, and Pasting Swimlanes
Each group of one or more swimlanes forms a pool. You can create multiple pools in a diagram, and each pool is generally used to represent a separate organization. To select an individual swimlane in a pool, click its header. To select a pool, click any of its swimlanes or position the cursor above the pool, until you see a vertical arrow pointing to the frame, then click to display the selection frame.
Creating Links Between Pools of Swimlanes
Create links between pools or between processes in separated pools to represent interactions between them.
Grouping Swimlanes
Group organization unit swimlanes within a pool to organize them under a common parent or user-defined name.
Changing the Orientation and Format of Swimlanes
You can change the orientation of swimlanes so that they run vertically (from top to bottom) or horizontally (from left to right). All swimlanes in a diagram must have the same orientation. You can change the presentation of organization units to swimlane or actor.

Parent topic: Analysis BPM