This guide will help you create your first process using Process Studio. The modeling notation being used by this tool is BPMN 2.0, and is recognized as the world standard.


Web sites for more info about the BPMN standard

BPMN 2.0

Business Process Model and Notation


Create process

1. Select a space, and choose Model: Processes.




2. Click Create BPMN 2.0 process at the far right.






3. The Process Studio and a Quick Guide is shown. (Read more about the Quick Guide here)




On your left-hand side you will see:

  • the BPMN symbols: Circles for events, diamonds for gateways, and squares for activities and tasks.
  • roles and responsibilities are represented by swim lanes and pools in the BPMN notation. They are not mandatory but recommended.
  • other additional symbols for data objects, text annotations, groups, and block artifacts.


At the top of the tool, the following features are represented:


On your right-hand side you will see:



Use your mouse wheel to zoom and right click and move mouse to pan. 


Hold in the Shift key on your keyboard to select more than one symbol. When more than one symbol is selected functions for alignment and resizing appears. Align objects according to top, center, or bottom as well as spread the symbols with equal distances, and hover a suggestion to see the result before choosing the desired outcome. Use the resize function to the right to enlarge or shrink all selected symbols according to the largest or smallest object.




5. Simply drag and drop the associated symbols into the white drawing area.


First, a pool, a lane, and a start event are shown. The pool represents the process, and it will be named thereafter, and the lane represents the different user roles in the process. To add additional lanes use the "+"-symbol at the bottom of the first lane.


Add desired symbols either by selecting the start event and clicking on one of the arrows and choosing a symbol or add a symbol by drag-n-drop from the menu.







  • Start: The start event of the process. BPMN supports several starts.
  • End: End of process.
  • Intermediate: An event in the middle of a process, for example a message.
  • Gateway: Decision point, or flow manager. (For example invoices above 10.000€ should be distributed to manager directly.)
  • Task: The only place in the process where work is being done. Can be made by man or machine. Right-click the task and select types to choose the anticipated type. The most common ones are User (task performed by the user in the system) and Service (task performed by the system, for example picking a customer ID from an ERP system), default it is set to a User Task.
  • Sub-process: Sub-process are re-used processes such as an invoicing process.


6. If you drag and drop your symbols into the drawing area and connect the symbols by selecting one symbol, grab one of the appearing arrows and drag to the desired symbol. A flow arrow will now appear. 

The direction of the arrow follows the direction you drag in. 


You can also change the link style by right-clicking the arrow, and if you want to change the direction or placement of an arrow just mark an edge of the arrow and drag it to the wanted place.


7. Almost everything can be changed and edited. Simply click on it and discover the possibilities.



Above we have:

  • Changed the size of the pool and lanes.
  • Changed size of the task.
  • Added names to the lanes.
  • Toggled text label on the right flow arrow.


8. Now draw the flow you want.


9. Artifacts are objects that help people understand the process, but also help them perform their tasks. Add artifacts by drag-n-drop to the desired place. Connect objects to each other by linking them together.


Available artifacts:


10. Process Studio saves all your changes constantly so you will never have to worry about that. So if you would like to save the process in a specific state, make a bookmark or publish your process. 


11. To make the process official, publish it. Once the process is published you are able to share it and view it with others.


Note: We recommend that you use the validation tool before deploying your process as otherwise, it may not be possible to deploy the application. The validation tool is found in the right-hand corner of the model interface. "Errors in process" has to be dealt with in order to deploy successfully, it is also beneficial to solve any potential "Warnings in process" like the messages in the example picture indicate below as complying with these gives you a standardized BPMN 2.0 model.




12. Once the desired version of the process is published it is also possible to deploy if the purpose is to create a runnable application. After pressing publish simply press deploy and the option to configure roles and instance settings will appear. When you are done configuring the process press deploy once more and the application is ready to run.


Done! The "Start" button should now appear and you can start working with instances of your process model Read more about working with tasks and how to create a form template and add it to the process model.