Modeler User Guide Bizagi
Modeler User Guide Bizagi
Modeler User Guide Bizagi
User Guide
Table of Contents
Overview ................................................................................................................................... 9
Multilanguage support
................................................................................................................................... 10
System Requirements
................................................................................................................................... 16
Toolbar .......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Ribbon .......................................................................................................................................................... 39
Maximizing the workspace ......................................................................................................................................................... 53
Palette .......................................................................................................................................................... 55
Activities ......................................................................................................................................................... 55
Events ......................................................................................................................................................... 57
Gateways ......................................................................................................................................................... 63
Data ......................................................................................................................................................... 64
Artifacts ......................................................................................................................................................... 64
Swimlanes ......................................................................................................................................................... 65
Connectors ......................................................................................................................................................... 65
Element properties .......................................................................................................................................................... 67
View options .......................................................................................................................................................... 67
Presentation mode and Presentation actions......................................................................................................................................................... 70
Sub-processes ................................................................................................................................... 97
Converting to reusable sub-process
.......................................................................................................................................................... 101
Sub-process types .......................................................................................................................................................... 104
Publish to SharePoint
................................................................................................................................... 249
Interaction between...................................................................................................................................
processes 568
Example: Interaction between processes
.......................................................................................................................................................... 572
Message Flow connection rules .......................................................................................................................................................... 575
Alignment features between processes
.......................................................................................................................................................... 576
On-premise Collaboration
................................................................................................................................... 580
Collaborative process modeling .......................................................................................................................................................... 580
Example of collaboration .......................................................................................................................................................... 585
Collaboration levels .......................................................................................................................................................... 590
Offline collaboration .......................................................................................................................................................... 592
Conflicts resolution .......................................................................................................................................................... 595
Troubleshooting FAQs
................................................................................................................................... 636
Overview
About Bizagi Modeler
Bizagi Modeler is a business process modeling and documentation tool. The Modeler enables you to
visually diagram, model and document business processes in industry-standard BPMN (Business
Process Model Notation). BPMN is a worldwide accepted format for process modeling.
You are able to publish high quality documentation in Word, PDF, SharePoint or Wiki. Processes can be
easily imported from and exported to Visio or XML, and other tools. The Modeler’s IntelliSense (smart
code completion) coupled with its unique look and feel allows you to quickly and easily map and
document, without the delay of validation routines.
Each file is referred to as a model and may contain one or more diagrams.
A model can refer to a whole organization, a department or a specific process depending on your
needs. Multiple diagrams are positioned as individual sheets (tabs) within your model. You are able to
navigate between diagrams in your model by selecting the associated sheet tab located at the bottom
of the model.
You can choose between storing your models On-premise or in the Cloud.
· Models stored On-premise are saved in your own desktop or a file server in your Company, as a
.bpm file extension.
· Models stored in the Cloud are hosted by Bizagi, giving the freedom to collaboratively design your
processes online and manage them at your convenience.
Standards support
Support for BPMN 2.0
Business Process Model and Notation, or BPMN, is a graphical notation created to provide a unified
language of worldwide acceptance. It is used to specify business processes, defined by the Object
Management Group (OMG).
Since joining the group in 2007, Bizagi continues to be an active member of the group within the OMG
that is in charge of defining the BPMN standard.
Multilanguage support
Overview
Bizagi Modeler is multilingual, and the user interface supports the following languages:
· English
· Spanish
· German
· French
· Portuguese
· Russian
· Chinese (simplified)
· Dutch
· Italian
· Japanese
Video Tutorials
Learn how to use Bizagi Modeler through short and explanatory videos
and discover new features.
Please refer to our Video Tutorials site
Help
Online help contains the knowledge you will need to diagram, document
and produce your processes. Feel free to browse through all the
documentation. We welcome any of your comments via the Feedback
option.
The user guide can also be downloaded, for offline use, by selecting the
Download Help option which saves the file as a PDF document.
Related Products
Bizagi BPM Suite is composed by three products: Bizagi Modeler, Bizagi Studio and Bizagi Engine
Once you are finished modeling your processes with Bizagi Modeler, Bizagi Studio and Bizagi Engine
will provide you the necessary to automate your processes and transform them into an executable
system.
Bizagi Studio allows you to enter all the necessary information for process execution: standard time,
costs, user interfaces, business rules, etc. This information is stored as a model in a database and used
at runtime by Bizagi Engine for process execution through a work portal for end users.
System Requirements
The following are the minimum requirements to install Bizagi Modeler
Operating systems
· Windows 10
· Windows 8.1 / Windows 8
· Windows 7
· Windows Vista
· Windows Server 2012
· Windows Server 2008 R2 / 2008
In Modeler versions 2.10 or above, the following Operating systems will not be supported
· Windows Server 2003
· Windows XP
Software
· Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 Download the .NET Framework
· Internet Explorer 9 or higher
In Modeler versions 2.10 or above, the following browsers will not be supported
· Internet Explorer 8
Hardware
· Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz). 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64)
· Memory: 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
· Hard drive: 50 MB available hard disk space
· Display: 800 x 600 or higher resolution
To install Bizagi Modeler run the installer with local admin rights, located on our web portal in
Downloads under the Products menu.
Once loaded, select the language for installation from the drop-down list.
Click the Next button to allow the installation wizard to guide you through the process.
Overview
Bizagi Modeler is a freeware application that you can download from the internet and use in a
desktop or portable computer.
When deploying Bizagi Modeler to several terminals or workstations (i.e, an unattended/silent
installation done by a system administrator), you may follow either of the 2 alternatives presented in
this section.
The first alternative considers creating an .msi file, compliant to be run with msiexec or system
management software such as Microsoft's SCCM.
The second alternative considers recording an installation to create an .iss file, so that a massive
deployment considers such pre-configuration.
Alternative #1
In most modern Windows operating systems, you may also rely on Windows Installer command line
tools such as msiexec or use system management software such as SCCM to deploy the installation.
[Bizagi_Installer] /v"/a
Consider:
· [Bizagi_Installer]: Should be replaced by the location of Bizagi Modeler's .exe installer, including the
full path to this file.
The name of the installer should be BizagiModelerSetup_x64.exe or BizagiModelerSetup_x86.exe according
to your scenario.
For further information on these options, refer to
http://helpnet.flexerasoftware.com/installshield22helplib/installshield22helplib.htm.
This command starts an assisted procedure to unpacks the installer's content into an .msi, and so you
should specify a network location while carrying out the assisted steps:
Consider:
· [Network_location]: Should be replaced by the network path as specified during the assisted steps
(where Bizagi Modeler.msi is at).
For further information on these options, refer to
http://helpnet.flexerasoftware.com/installshield22helplib/installshield22helplib.htm.
After a successful installation, Bizagi Modeler will be presented as an installed program and display its
shortcut:
In addition to the above, you may verify a successful procedure by locating the appropriate logs at
the event viewer, or rely on the verbose log to troubleshoot.
Note that you do not need to uninstall Bizagi Modeler when upgrading to a newer release. By
running the installer of the newer version (with appropriate configuration), Bizagi Modeler will
uninstall existing versions.
Alternative #2
Bizagi Modeler installer relies on InstallShield and so, through command line options you may create an
.iss file to make use of a pre-configured installation.
To do so, carry out the following:
Consider:
· A full path for all options above is recommended (not using relative paths).
· You may also use quotes for such paths, in order to avoid issues when these have blank spaces.
· No blank spaces should be left between the option and its path value.
Once the command is entered, follow regular steps of an assisted installation as presented by the
wizard and instructed at Install Bizagi Modeler:
After a successful procedure, Bizagi Modeler will be presented as an installed program and display its
shortcut:
Consider:
· [Bizagi_Installer]: Should be replaced by the location of Bizagi Modeler's .exe installer, including the
full path to this file (ideally a shared drive).
The name of the installer should be BizagiModelerSetup_x64.exe or BizagiModelerSetup_x86.exe according
to your scenario.
· [ISS_file]: Should be replaced by the location where you created the ISS configuration file as in a
previous step.
· [Output_Log]: Should be replaced by the location where you want to store a verbose log, including
how you want to name this file.
Consider:
· A full path for all options above is recommended (not using relative paths).
· You may also use quotes for such paths, in order to avoid issues when these have blank spaces.
· No blank spaces should be left between the option and its path value.
Note that this silent installation will create a setup.log file at the local path.
You may also verify a successful installation by locating the appropriate logs at the event viewer:
Note that you do not need to uninstall Bizagi Modeler when upgrading to a newer release. By
running the installer of the newer version (with appropriate configuration), Bizagi Modeler will
uninstall existing versions.
New members
If you are not a member you can click the Join today button, or register using an existing Microsoft or
Google account.
If you registered using your Microsoft or Google account, you will be prompted to allow Bizagi to have
access to your email address and your basic profile information.
Already a member
Being a member, click on Login in the first image above or use your Microsoft or Google account.
Your credentials will be verified, and the login window will no longer be displayed. Remember that
registering gives you access to all our free resources.
To close your account, log into Bizagi.com and go to Edit my account. Scroll down to the bottom of the
page and click Close account.
Saving Models
Overview
Models created in Bizagi Modeler can be saved locally or in our Cloud service (paid for). Bizagi
Modeler in the Cloud is a subscription-based cloud service that offers visibility and management of
business processes. Storing your models in the Cloud give you Global access: Your models – and all
associated documentation – is stored in a secure cloud based central repository, enabling access and
editing rights using Bizagi Modeler with all its power. For more information refer to Bizagi Modeler
Collaboration Services.
· .bpm, the file format used to save a Bizagi Modeler file On-premise or in the Cloud.
· .bpmc, the file format used to save diagrams for Team Collaboration Mode, when working On-
Premise.
Team Collaboration allows collaborative process improvement and execution. Teams can participate
simultaneously in the definition of a process, thereby enhancing business performance.
Click On-premise Team Collaboration for further information.
To save a model click Save or Save As on the File tab in the upper left corner or click the disk image
on the Toolbar.
It has five main elements; namely, Toolbar, Ribbon, Palette, Element Properties and View.
Overview
The Toolbar contains quick access commands to a subset of any menu within Bizagi Modeler.
The default commands can be customized at anytime.
To adjust the Toolbar click on the drop-down list on the right and select Customize Quick Access
Toolbar which will allow you to add or remove any item.
Select a menu option from the drop-down menu and click the Add or Remove buttons to alter to your
preference.
Overview
The Ribbon contains the main controls to manage each Process Model. These are organized into
different tabs, and are described below.
Home tab
The following is the Home tab displayed when a user first opens Modeler, and when working on local-
stored models.
MENU
SUB OPTION DESCRIPTION
OPTION
Clear Formatting Remove custom formatting, leaving only the plain text.
Home tab changes slightly when a user works on Model stored in Bizagi Cloud.
A new menu and a new set of options under Bizagi Cloud menu are displayed. Options will be enabled
or disabled depending on whether the user is the owner of the model or not.
MENU
SUB OPTION DESCRIPTION
OPTION
Format tab
Clear Formatting Remove custom formatting, leaving only the plain text.
View Tab
Scale the page so that the entire diagram fills the viewing
Fit to Diagram
area.
Show
Fill elements with a background color that gradually
Gradient fill changes from one color to another across the surface of
the element.
Publish Tab
Tools tab
Help tab
File - New
File - Open
File - Print
Other Versions Export the model to the 1.6 version of Bizagi Modeler
(Model v 1.6) (.bpm).
File - Options
Enable right to left Enables all text fields to input text from right to left.
writing Specially useful for RTL languages.
Custom Artifacts Custom Artifacts Opens the Custom artifacts management window
Overview
Bizagi allows the Ribbon to be shown or hidden from view.
If you need more room to work, collapse the Ribbon to maximize your workspace and allow the
diagram to fill a larger area of canvas.
For diagrams having a large vertical size (i.e., diagrams containing more than one Pool or many Lanes),
you may choose to rather dock the properties window to the right of the screen (as opposed to the
default location at the bottom of the screen).
To relocate and dock the Element properties window, drag and drop it to the desired position. The
location icon highlights to indicate that the window may be dropped in the target position:
· Activities
· Events
· Gateways
· Data
· Artifacts
· Swimlanes
· Connectors
Activities
Overview
Activities represent work or tasks carried out by members of the organization. They stand for manual
or automatic tasks performed by an external system or user. Activities can be atomic or non-atomic
(compound) and they are classified into tasks and sub-processes.
Tasks
Sub-process
A sub-process is a compound Activity that is included within a Process. Compound means that it can be
broken down into lower levels, that is, it includes shapes and elements within it.
Events
Overview
An Event is something that happens during the course of the Process, affecting the Process flow and
normally has a trigger or result.
To make an event a throw or a catch event, right click on it and select Is Throw. This option will enable
or disable its behavior (applies for certain events described below) .
Start Events
Intermediate events
End Events
Terminate End Ends the Process and all its activities immediately.
Gateways
Overview
Gateways are used to control the divergence and convergence of sequence flows. They determine
ramifications, bifurcations, combinations and merges in the Process. The term “Gateway” implies that
there is a gating mechanism that either allows or disallows passage through the Gateway.
Data
Artifacts
Overview
Please click for further information about Artifacts
Swimlanes
Connectors
The following is a table that reflects all the possible connections using Message flow. The arrow
pointing upwards shows what CAN be connected. Anything else outside the table should not be
connected using a Message flow.
Overview
Element Properties are used to document the process. Each element has its own properties and
depending on the type of element, tabs are displayed with additional information and functionality.
· Basic: contains the basic information including the name, description and important BPMN
information.
· Extended: creates as many elements as required to provide all necessary information to provide for
comprehensive documentation. For further information, refer to Extended Attributes
· Presentation Action: defines what will be displayed in Presentation Mode. For further information
refer to Presentation Actions
View options
On the bottom right corner of Bizagi Modeler are view options that help you to navigate through your
process as is shown in the image below.
This menu can be also found on the View tab of the Ribbon.
Fit diagram
Zoom to selection
Zooms the page so the selected elements fit the window
Overview
In Presentation Mode you can access the main characteristics of your processes, all the documentation
you have included and also add Presentation Actions.
Presentation actions are on-click behaviors that can be defined for each diagram element. Behaviors
are additional information that you can add to each element in order to make the process presentation
more complete, for example you can open a URL, a file, an image or display text.
The following steps illustrate how we created of Presentation actions and the Presentation Actions
Mode.
6. Finally, we add a Show text action for the last item. For this action we type the text needed to be
displayed.
Presentation Mode opens a new window, where all processes are read-only. We can browse through
all the documentation including the presentation actions.
Overview
Bizagi Modeler has a drag-and-drop feature that allows you to easily diagram your processes.
The Pie Menu will display as soon as you click on a diagram element that is already in the Process.
You can drag a shape from the Pie Menu and drop it to another figure already included in the diagram,
to create a connection between the two. You can choose any figure from the Pie Menu and drag it, not
necessarily the one you are going to connect to; they are just an aid.
If the figure with which you want to connect is highlighted, then it means that you can connect both of
them. If it doesn't highlight it is because the BPMN standard does not allow the connection between the
two selected shapes (i.e. between two signals).
· Creating a process.
· Video Example: Creating a process.
· Editing a process.
· Sub-processes.
· Improving look and feel.
· Colors, sizes and shading.
· Printing large diagrams.
Creating a process
You can find the contents of this article in the video: Creating a Process
To explain how can you easily diagram your processes, we will use a Purchase Request Process.
As soon as you open the Modeler, a Pool will be ready for you to start diagramming. Otherwise, hover
the New Folder option and select the thrusting option called New Diagram. This option is located at the
bottom right of the Diagrams view.
7. To resize the pool, select and drag the appropriate corner of the border.
The following image displays the basic diagram of the Purchase Request process.
This first exercise is designed to show you how to diagram with the drag-and-drop functionality.
However, to better describe the process and meet the required standard, some diagram elements
need to be changed. Please refer to the section Editing a process to continue with this exercise.
Editing a process
Overview
Once you have diagrammed your process, you may need to change diagram elements, add additional
connections or add more elements to improve and complete it.
We will continue using the Purchase Request Process example, mentioned in the previous section, to
show you how to make these changes easily.
Moving elements
If you need to move a diagram element from one place to another click on it and drag it to the new
position.
Deleting elements
If you need to delete a diagram element click on it and press the Delete button.
Bizagi Modeler allows you to change elements within the same category. You do not need to introduce
another element to the Process, but merely change the existing element.
1. To change the Notification Task to a Script Task, right-click on the diagram element and select Task
Type from the display menu.
Choose the appropriate Task type from the drop-down list, note that once you change the task type
you will lose any information, entered into extended attributes, that has not been shared. You
will only receive a warning message if you select the Warn element type changes checkbox (located in
the Show/ Hide group under the View tab).
3. To transform the Quotations Task to a Sub-process, right-click on the Task and select Transform to
Sub-Process from the display menu. Do the same for the Purchase Order Task.
1. To include a new element between 2 existing ones, drag it from the Palette and into the connector
itself.
Note that the connector will highlight to indicate where the new element can be dropped for Bizagi to
attach it automatically.
We will include three Milestones to determine the state of each activity within the Process.
1. To include a Milestone drag it from the Palette and place it in the Process. Drag and drop two more
Milestones.
3. Finally rename each Milestone by clicking on it, pressing the F2 key, and entering a name.
1. To transform the Task, (in this case Quotations), to a sub-process element, right-click on it and select
Transform to sub-process from the display menu.
3. This will automatically open a new diagram page to include the sub-process information.
On this page you can diagram the associated sub-process, just the way we diagrammed the first
process. Just drag and drop the elements as needed and place them where appropriate.
For each loop type there are specific advanced options to configure the process's behavior.
Advanced properties are located in the Advanced tab from the shapes Properties.
By default sub-processes are created as embedded. In BPMN this type of sub-processes have no
pools or lanes. Embedded sub-processes do not allow you to add any pools or lanes to ensure
conformity with the BPMN standard.
If you need to include pools and lanes you can use Reusable sub-processes that according to the
BPMN standard can include pools and lanes. These type of sub-processes are predefined activities.
Overview
You can convert a default sub-process to a Reusable Sub-process, or Call Activity (in BPMN).
1. Right-click on the Sub-process to convert, choose the Sub-process type option and then click on
Reusable process.
The diagram element's border will change to indicate it is now a reusable Sub-process.
If you have already diagrammed the Sub-process you will receive a message alerting to this fact. Click
the Yes button to convert it and keep all the lower level diagram elements.
There are two different ways of creating a call to a reusable sub-process. The Edit Sub-process option
opens an empty diagram workspace and relates it to the shape. Alternatively, you can manually relate
the shape to a predefined diagram.
Let us assume that the Quotations Sub-process is reusable and has not yet been diagrammed .
To create a call for the Sub-process not yet model (i.e., create the detail in a new diagram), use the Edit
Sub-process option by right-clicking the shape:
2. To reference an existing diagram (assuming Quotations detail was created in the previous step),
relate the diagram in the Sub-process properties.
Sub-process types
Creating a Folder
Modifying a folder
Deleting a folder
Moving diagrams and folders within the model
Folder navigation
An example of hierarchy using folders is displayed in the following article: Model organization example.
Creating a Folder
To create a folder move to the Diagrams general view.
Once hovered, the icon will display the option to add a new folder.
Renaming a folder is not possible when a diagram is checked out by any user.
Deleting a folder
Any folder can be deleted, as long as it does not contain other folders or diagrams.
A folder can be deleted through a simple click, locating the three dots menu ( ) beside the folder and
selecting the Delete option.
Bear in mind that the path shown is actually a hierarchy so, in this example, it looks like this:
When a result is a diagram, it is possible to directly open its parent folder, by clicking the link after In:.
· It is possible to search for more than two words at the same time. The results will display what
matches both strings.
Overview
The following is an example of a model with a large number of diagrams. Initially the structure of this
model can be seen as unclear and non-hierarchical. Nevertheless, it can be easily organized through
Cloud achieving a hierarchical definition and a clear distribution of the enterprise model.
Once all your folders have been created they will be shown on the top of the Diagrams view.
The next step is to move all diagrams to their corresponding folder. You can drag and drop each
diagram, or check a group of diagrams and select the folder icon located above the folders to Move
them all together.
Folders can be moved as well by selecting the three-dotted menu beside the folder and selecting Move.
You can create a new folder to move your chosen diagrams or folders in batch, when clicking the Move
to option.
After all diagrams have been moved correctly, your model should be organized hierarchically, making it
clear and organized.
When a Diagram is not needed anymore, it can be easily deleted. Opening the diagram from the
desktop application and right clicking its name from the diagram tab shows the diagram's menu. Select
the Remove option to delete it.
Since this option can not be undone, be careful when deleting a diagram.
Overview
This article presents tips and tricks that will aid in improving the look and feel of your diagrams.
The following are best practice recommendations that will make processes more readable and
organized.
To move any of the mentioned text, select and drag-and-drop it where you desire.
To resize the text, select the text and drag the border of the frame.
In the following image the Changes required caption was moved too far away from the Sequence Flow it
references.
To revert to its original position, right-click the Sequence Flow and select Reset text position.
To automatically resize the object to fit the text, use the Fit to text option.
Aligning elements
Align all elements both vertically and horizontally, to present a structured layout of your Process.
Bizagi offers a functionality called Smart align whereby the sequence flows will be automatically aligned
to each other. To utilize this functionality select Smart align in the Alignment group on the View tab.
The following image shows the process without Smart Align selected.
You may choose to predefine default settings for the font style, font size and shape colors, or directly
customize these visual options in each diagram.
Text formatting
To change the font color, expand the Font Color drop-down list and select the color of your choice.
For alignment, expand the Align drop-down list and select from Left, Center or Right align.
Click on the arrow next to Shading and select the Restore option to revert to the original color.
In this group, you may disable or enable the Gradient option so that the color of the elements (i.e,
Gateways, Tasks, Events and Sub-processes) are not shown/published/printed with a gradient fill.
Under this group, you may disable or enable the Shadows option so that elements such as Gateways,
Tasks, Events and Sub-processes do not show/publish/print the drop shadows.
Overview
You can print large diagrams by customizing the print settings of the diagram. You can set the paper
size, scales, margins, number of pages, among other things.
To illustrate how to print large diagrams we will use the Personal Loans Request process that you can
find in our free Process Xchange. This is a complex process where the length makes it a perfect
example for using customized print settings.
It is necessary to change the Printing default settings by following the steps described below.
2. In the Page Setup group, click the arrow below Size and select the desired size option. Choose the
paper size, which you will use to print the diagram on, from the list of available sizes.
4. On the Page Setup tab, click the arrow below Margins and select the desired Margin from the drop-
down list. We select Narrow margins, in this case, to give the process as much space in each sheet as
possible. You may choose your own customized margins.
As you change the print settings, the diagram will be adjusted and the print preview displayed.
Once your process diagram and documentation is complete, you can publish the documentation in
your preferred format.
For further information please refer to Publish or Export process documentation.
Right-click outside of the boundaries of the pool and select Diagram Properties.
This will enable the Diagram properties add-on window at the bottom of the screen, where you can
include the relevant information.
1. Right-click on the element you wish to document and select Properties from the display menu.
2. This will enable the Element properties add-on window at the bottom of the screen, where you can
include the relevant information.
If you are automating your process we recommend to include the forms that will be displayed to
performers.
· To learn how to include additional information please refer to Extending your documentation.
· To learn more about process automation please refer to Process Execution.
Overview
While documenting your processes, you may use rich format for the entered text in both descriptions
and extended documentation.
This is, the possibility of having your texts use different font colors, color shading, and styles such as:
bold, italic, underlined, as well as other formatting possibilities such as: indentation and bullets, use of
tables, links and images, amongst others.
This applies for the information contained in descriptions and extended attributes such as Textareas
and Textboxes.
Home / Clipboard Handle content by using standard clipboard possibilities: Copy, Cut, Paste
and Paste special
Home / Font Modify: fonts, font size, emphasis (bold, italic,underlined, strikethrough, etc)
and other formatting options such as upper or lower case, and shading
color.
Home / Paragraph Define: alignment, indentation, bullets and numbering, spacing and color fill
options.
Home / Editing Use: Find and replace options to quickly locate your texts.
Insert / Links Include hyperlinks to Web pages, or to other places in the content.
Layout / Table Allows: creating a table with the desired number of rows and columns, giving
quick format, borders and shading to the table, and its rows and columns.
Layout / Merge Quickly use powerful options to merge or split cells, or split a table into two
of them.
Layout / Cell size Define the cell size and property for specific cells.
Some options may not be available if the writing input method has been configured Right-to-Left.
Information with rich text format is published in the generated PDF or Word document:
For more information about the generated Web, PDF or Word, and Web documentation, refer to
Generating Documentation.
Spelling review
Overview
Bizagi offers a proofing option to check for spelling mistakes while documenting the processes.
You may choose a predefined language to be used as the default spelling dictionary directly from its
drop-down options:
Ignore Ignores the current word and continues proofing the rest of the
information.
Add to Dictionary Adds the current word as a valid word to the given Dictionary.
In this way, the spelling review will not prompt again to correct
these entries.
Change All Changes all occurrences of the current word for the chosen
suggestion.
In Bizagi, you may define the condition for the path either in the Gateway itself, or in each of its decision
branches (or sequence flow).
For each of the outbound paths at the Gateway (i.e, .each decision branch), you will find a
corresponding row in the Gates table, identified by the branch name (caption).
You may either define a conditional expression for the selected path, or designate it as the Default
path.
Note the visual representation of a default path is a small oblique line crossing the decision branch.
Defining Resources
Overview
A Resource is a Business Entity (e.g. a company, company division, a customer) or a Business Role (e.g.
a buyer, a seller, a credit analyst), which controls or is responsible for a business process or a business
activity.
To define, edit or remove Process Performers click on the Performers icon located on the Home tab.
This will display the Performers pop-up window.
Once a Resource has been created, you will be able to select it on any activity.
Bizagi allows you to set roles following the RACI Model (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted,
Informed). These roles can be defined for the whole Process or for each Activity (Task or Sub-process)
and let the users to see the processes where they are involved in My Processes view.
1. Select and right-click on the Task where you want to create the extended attribute, then select
Properties from the display menu.
2. Click the Add New Extended Attribute link. Provide a name and description, then select Number as the
attribute's Type.
Notice this is the creation of the Extended Attribute only. We have defined a name, its description and a
range. Now, we are able to enter the Duration for each Task.
· Text Area: stores approximately 32,000 characters, and is used to display long texts with line breaks.
· Image: stores images with the following extensions: JPG, bmp, PNG and GIF
· Single Selection Options (Combo): allows you to define several options to choose from, but only
allows selection of one entry from the drop-down list.
You must define the desired options for selection.
· Single Selection Options (Radio): allows you to define several options to choose from, but you can
only check one radio button at any one time.
You must define the desired options for selection.
· Multiple Selection Options: allows you to define several options to choose from, and allows
selection of one or more of the check boxes displayed.
You must define the desired options for selection.
· Embedded File: allows the modeler to attach a file to be available within the Model. The file is
copied to the model's folder.
When published this file type and the Linked file will be displayed in the same way.
· Linked File: allows you to include a link or path to a file. The model stores a link to the file, not the
file itself.
When including this extended attribute the user must select check/uncheck for the option Relative
path.
Relative path option allows you to include your link either as a relative or absolute path.
Relative paths change depending upon what page the links are located on.
For example, if the file is stored in your computer you would share: C:
\MyDesktop\PurchaseRequest\FileUplodadedInThisExample
If you check on Relative path, then the URL will be stored as:
PurchaseRequest\FileUplodadedInThisExample.
This way you can share your folder and the file can be opened anywhere.
An absolute path refers to a fixed location including the domain name. You typically use absolute
paths to linked to elements that have a fixed reference location no matter by which means you access
them.
We recommend absolute paths (Relative Path not checked) when the files are on your network.
For example: \\Mynetwork\SharedModels\PurchaseRequest\FileUplodadedInThisExample
· Table: allows you to build a table, including any of the attributes mentioned above.
Click here for an example of a Table Extended Attribute
The performers of the Purchase Request Process are allocated according to purchase amount. This
means that given a certain amount, the purchase will have to be approved and managed differently.
For example the process is different when buying 50 computers to that of purchasing some office
supplies like paper, pens and pencils.
To document this we will use a Table extended attribute where we can define the description of the
performer (name) and a column that will define the amount.
1. Right-click on any Task, select Properties from the display menu and select the Extended Attributes
tab.
Click on the Add New Extended Attribute link.
On the right side of the window enter the name of the column, give a description and select the type.
Since the first column of the table is the name of the performer, we have to define the type of the
attribute as a text box.
Thus this attribute can be defined as a Single Selection Option (combo), this way the Modeler will allow
you to choose from one of the above options.
Create the new attribute by clicking on the Add button and select the Single Option (Combo)
type.
Once you have created this attribute it will be available for all the elements of the same type in
the Model.
Click the Add button located on the bottom of the Element properties window to add records to the
task.
The Share button allows you to share the attributes with elements that have different shapes.
2. Select the structures, among which, you wish to share the Extended Attribute with. In this case we will
share the Performers attribute with the Lane, Manual Task and User Task. After selection, click the OK
button.
Overview
It is possible to share the Extended Attributes that you created in one model and use then in other
models. This allows you to maintain a uniform standard in your documented processes by always
utilizing the information in the same manner.
To do this you will need to export a file from Bizagi Modeler to a chosen folder, where the extended
attributes will be saved. Then import the file to the model where you want those attributes to be used.
Specify the folder where the file will be saved. This folder must have read and write permissions.
Give your file a valid name and click the Save button.
Select the newly created Extended Attributes file. A message will display that you need to read carefully.
If you have some Extended Attributes in the Model into where you are importing, and YOU DON'T
WANT TO OVERWRITE THEM, then click the YES button. Doing so will append the imported Extended
Attributes to the existing Extended Attributes. If you click the NO button, ALL YOUR PREVIOUS
EXTENDED ATTRIBUTES WILL BE REPLACED.
This video shows how to document your processes with Bizagi Modeler
Using Artifacts
Artifacts provide modelers with the capability of showing additional information about the process that
is not directly related to the flow.
Artifacts are found in the Palette. There are five types provided by default, and a user-defined Custom
Artifact.
This artifact enables you to insert a rich text area into the diagram
Formatted Text
to provide additional information.
To include an Artifact select it from the Palette and drag and drop it onto the diagram.
To connect an artifact with an element use the Association Connector.
Some artifacts can be placed on the diagrams using the Pie Menu as shown in the image below.
Click on the element, select the Artifact and then drag and drop it appropriately.
You can attached any stored image onto a Custom Artifact. Browse and select the desired image and
name it. Click the OK button .
Your newly created Custom Artifact will now display in the Custom Artifact group on the Palette.
To include your new Artifact in the diagram, drag and drop the Custom Artifact from the Palette.
A new window containing all Custom Artifacts will display for the current Model.
Select the Artifact that you wish to share and click the Export button .
Choose the a folder where the file is to reside, name your file and click the Save button. Ensure the
export folder has read and write permissions.
Open the Model where you wish to import the Artifact and select Custom Artifacts, located in the Tools
group on the Tools tab.
Bizagi Modeler, with its full functionality, is and will stay freeware. If you must remove our Bizagi logo
and thus, remove our marketing mechanism, you will be asked for a small contribution that will be used
to further improve this freeware and benefit the whole community.
To remove the Bizagi logo from your documentation please follow these simple steps:
2. On the File Tab, select Options and then choose the Documentation option.
4. Click the Buy Now link to purchase the activation KEY. This will take you to the secure Bizagi Online
Shop.
5. You will receive a confirmation email with the activation KEY, once your purchase is finalized.
6. Enter the key in the same link window and click the Activate button.
· No logo
· Keep the Bizagi Modeler logo
· Use a customized logo
For the customized logo, select Custom Logo and open the folder image to browse and select your
user-defined logo.
Important information
· You need to buy an Activation Key for each installation (computer) of Bizagi Modeler.
o For example, if you have Bizagi Modeler installed in 5 PCs, and you need to activate the logo
configuration option in all PCs, then you need to buy 5 Activation Keys. Just modify the quantity
in the shopping cart. You will receive a single Activation Key, which is valid for the 5 PCs.
o The contribution is a one-off payment. The Activation Key will not expire and the logo
configuration option will remain enabled, even if you make updates or upgrades to a new
version of Bizagi Modeler.
· You will pay on a secure online platform and will receive your Activation Key via email.
You can export your process diagrams to other Modeling tools or export your customized attributes
and reuse them in other Bizagi Process Models.
· Microsoft Visio: export your diagrams to Visio 2003, 2007 and 2010
· Image files: export your diagrams to png, bpm, svg or jpg format
· XPDL: export your diagram to XPDL 2.1
· BPMN: export your diagram to BPMN 2.0 xml format
· Attributes: export your customized Extended Attributes and use them in other Bizagi Process Models,
to maintain a standard in your documented processes.
Publish or Export
Publish your complete documentation
You can publish your complete documentation in any of the following formats and share with your
organization.
· Microsoft Word
· PDF
· MediaWiki
· Web file (opened through a browser)
· Microsoft SharePoint
· Microsoft Visio: export your diagrams to Visio 2003, 2007 and 2010
· Image files: export your diagrams to png, bpm, svg or jpg format
· XPDL: export your diagram to XPDL 2.1
· Attributes: export your customized Extended Attributes and use them in other Bizagi Process Models,
to maintain a standard in your documented processes.
Click here for more information about Exporting Extended Attributes
Publish in Word
You can publish your completed documentation and share it with your organization in Word format.
Customize the output information for inclusion in your document by selecting the diagrams and the
elements to be included.
Bizagi provides an intuitive wizard to help you through the steps to generate your documentation.
To move an element from its default position, select the element and click the buttons until you find
the desired position.
6. Select the template you wish to use for your export documentation.
By default the Modeler offers two templates: Bizagi Template with Bizagi's format (fonts, water marks)
and the Modeler Template with a standard format.
You can create your own user-defined template as well. Please refer to Document Template to learn
how to customize and use your user-defined template. After selecting the template click the Next
button.
· BizagiTemplate: this template contains Bizagi's logo, water marks and styles.
· ModelerTemplate: this template has no water marks and uses standard fonts.
You can design and define your own template in Microsoft Office Word to be used when you generate
your Word documentation.
To customize your own template, take the following steps:
1. Use one of the default Templates and amend it as you wish to establish your own documentation
template.
To modify default styles of the table of contents, modify the TOC1, TOC2, and TOC3 styles.
3. Save the Microsoft Word Document as a Word Template (.dot) in the path where the Modeler was
installed. By default this path is:
4. When you generate your documentation in Microsoft Office Word, the wizard will allow you to
choose your template from the list.
Bizagi provides an intuitive wizard to help you through the steps to generate your documentation.
To move an element from its default position, select the element and click the button until you find
the desired position.
6. Specify the appropriate folder in which to publish your process. This folder should have Read and
Write permissions.
By default, the Diagram's model will be published in a Landscape orientation (only this page).
You may change this setting in this step as well.
You may customize your PDF output's styles (i.e, font color and sizes, include watermarks, etc).
To do so, edit the ModelerTemplate.dot file located at the ./Templates/ folder of your Modeler
installation.
For more information about editing styles in this template, refer to Document template.
Publish in Excel
You can publish your completed documentation and share it with your organization in Excel format.
Customize the output information to include in your document by selecting the diagrams and the
elements desired.
Bizagi provides an intuitive wizard to help you through the steps to generate your documentation.
To move an element from its default position, select the element and click the button until you find
the desired position.
6. Specify the appropriate folder in which to publish your process. This folder should have Read and
Write permissions.
· Process Sheets: First three columns correspond to the ID, Name and Description of the selected
elements in Step 4 of the Publishing wizard.
The other columns are the Basic and Extended properties of each element. When an element does not
have such property related, the cell will be blank. Values for each cell are:
o When the column is an extended attribute with types Image or File Embedded, a link will be
displayed with the name of the file. These files also published and stored in a folder created with
the output within the path selected in step 6: [ModelName]_files\files\attachments.
o When the column is an extended attribute with type File link, the corresponding link will be
displayed with the name of the file. Keep in mind that the file will NOT be part of the publication; it
is located in the path defined in the documentation.
o When the column is an extended attribute with type Multiple Selection Options, the value displayed
will be the selected options separated by a semicolon (;). i.e. USA; France; Germany
o When the column is an extended attribute with type Table, a link will be displayed referencing
another sheet within the Excel file.
o When the column is an extended attribute with type URL, a link will be displayed referencing the
address entered.
o For the other extended property types, the cell will be displayed in General format.
· Tables Sheets: This sheets will have the values entered in a determinate extended property with type
Table. When an attribute is duplicated in many elements, all the values will be displayed in the same
sheet.
o The first column will display the Element ID of the extended property.
o All the table's columns follow the same behavior specified above.
Publish to Web
You can publish your completed documentation and share it with your organization in Web format.
Customize the output information for inclusion in your document by selecting the diagrams and the
elements to be included.
You may view the Web documentation from a browser. To review the supported browsers, refer to
the system requirements.
Bizagi provides an intuitive wizard to help you through the steps to generate your documentation.
To move an element from its default position, select the element and click the button until you find
the desired position.
6. Specify the appropriate folder in which to publish your process. This folder should have Read and
Write permissions.
Web Output
Generated documentation will show your selected processes in an initial Home page.
The description is displayed when the mouse is hovered over each process.
Exit full screen mode by pressing the Escape key (ESC) or clicking on the Full screen icon again.
Further documentation included will be displayed when clicking over each element.
Presentation actions configured for an element are those same which are set for the presentation
mode:
Overview
You can customize your Web output styles to adjust to your corporate standard.
Bizagi provides two ways to customize the web output colors: a basic customization where the main
colors can be changed, and the advanced css customization.
Basic customization
Once the Model has been published access the folder where the output is located and find the
key.json.js file.
Ope the file with a text editor.
Further, change the color style color of the header, the navigation bar and the content panel. Save the
file to view the changes in your site
The first option of each section is the background color. The second option is the border of the
section. The third option (link) refers to the font color.
Once the Model has been published access the folder where the output is located and find the
key.json.js file.
Ope the file with a text editor.
Overview
When generating documentation in Web format, you may choose to use the command prompt (DOS
console) instead of using the graphic wizard to guide you.
Generating documentation from the command prompt is specially useful to:
· Reuse the recent settings when last publishing that .bpm file's diagrams.
This way you don't need to reconfigure which diagrams or shapes to include in the documentation,
since Bizagi will use the previous configuration.
· Generate documentation in bulk, in an unassisted manner (batch mode).
This way you can run or schedule the generation of Web documentation outputs for any number of files
with a continue-on-error approach (if one file throws an error, others will be handled separately).
Consider:
· [MODELER_INSTALLATION_PATH]: The full path where your Bizagi Modeler is installed. In such path
you will find the BizagiModeler.exe executable file.
Example: C:\Program Files\Bizagi\Bizagi Modeler\Modeler\.
· [BPM_FILE]: The name of the .bpm file containing the diagrams to publish. Make sure you include the
full path to that .bpm file and that Bizagi Modeler has access rights to this file.
Example: C:\My Downloads\PurchaseRequest.bpm
Notice it is recommended to set all paths above inside of quotes, mainly because it is likely to have
your Modeler installed unto a path containing blank spaces.
After publishing to Web from the command prompt, details are logged at [OUTPUT_PATH]
\PublishLog.txt:
Of course you may alternatively choose to execute the Web publish from the command prompt,
while already being inside of the Modeler's installation path:
cd [MODELER_INSTALLATION_PATH]
BizagiModeler.exe "[BPM_FILE]" /webPublish /publishPath:"[OUTPUT_PATH]"
Web documentation will be generated for these 4 .bpm files stored at C:\Downloads\ (as downloaded
from the Process Xchange):
The output path will contain the Web documentation generated in separate folders for each of the
.bpm files (and a log file of the .bat execution):
Important notes
To publish from the command prompt, make sure you consider:
1. All command-line arguments are mandatory.
2. You will need to ensure that any .bat file you create is consistent.
For instance, for Models having Unicode or special characters in its name, you will need to ensure you
save that .bat file supporting those characters.
3. When a model does not have a previous configuration of the publishing preferences, Bizagi will
include all diagrams and elements.
Publish to Wiki
Overview
Generate your complete process documentation to Wiki format and share it throughout your
organization.
Customize the output information that you want to include in your document by selecting the diagrams
and the elements that will be contained in it.
Bizagi provides an intuitive wizard to helps you through the steps to generate your documentation.
To move an element from its default position, select the element and click on the button until you
find the position you want.
You will be able to see the documentation of any shape by clicking on it.
Settings
To publish both content and images into your Wiki server, make sure:
1. That the physical upload directory has permissions set to allow creation and edition of pages and
files.
Similarly, the images directory set by default as "C:\Web\[your_mediaWiki_folder]\images\" should be
granted with full rights.
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['upload'] = true;
$wgFileExtensions = array('png','gif','jpg','jpeg','doc','xls','mpp','pdf','ppt','tiff','bmp','docx', 'xlsx',
'pptx','ps','odt','ods','odp','odg');
$wgEnableUploads = True;
Publish to SharePoint
Overview
You can publish your completed documentation and share it with your organization in the SharePoint
format.
Customize the output information for inclusion in your document by selecting the diagrams and the
elements to be included.
Make sure you have SharePoint installed when you generate this documentation. Bizagi supports
SharePoint Services 3.0.
Bizagi provides an intuitive wizard to help you through the steps to generate your documentation.
To move an element from its default position, select the element and click the button until you find
the desired position.
SharePoint Output
The legend displayed when the mouse is hovered over each process is defined in the Diagram
properties.
All other documentation included will be displayed when clicking over each element.
You will be able to see the documentation of any diagram element by clicking on it.
To perform quick searches on the Process Elements, use the search field.
Overview
The XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) is a format standardized by the Workflow management
Coalition (WfMC) to interchange business process definitions between different workflow products. The
XPDL format can store all aspects of a BPMN diagram, such as attributes, resources, etc. Also some
graphical information is held, for example the coordinates of the elements positions.
Bizagi offers the possibility to share your diagrams with others modeling tools that use BPMN notation.
You can export your diagrams to XPDL using the BPMN 2.0 notation shapes.
For more information about the currently supported XPDL version, refer to Supported standards.
2. Specify the appropriate folder to save your XPDL file, this folder need Read and Write permissions.
3. After export to XPDL format, you will be able use it in any program that supports this format.
4. You can also import a diagram in XPDL format into Bizagi Modeler.
Overview
Bizagi Modeler allows you to export your diagrams as images, to be opened with any graphic editor,
in the following formats: PNG, bpm, SVG or JPG.
Make sure you have Microsoft Visio installed when you export your diagrams.
4. After exporting to BPMN 2.0 xml, you will be able use the file in any program that supports this
format.
You can also import a diagram in BPMN format into Bizagi Modeler. Click to learn more about
importing a diagram from BPMN
Overview
A Documentation portal is a shared repository where people within an organization can access the
company's processes and related documentation.
The following articles will illustrate how to organize your company's processes using Bizagi Modeler.
With a simple click users can navigate between various levels of detail, from a global view to the most
detailed information of the organization's processes.
The Documentation Portal can be created in your intranet (a file server as a shared folder) or any Web
portal. Just click the Publish to Web feature.
It can also be published in SharePoint or Wiki.
Your portal must have an structure and hierarchy that aids its navigation. The images bellow show an
example of this structure:
The highest level displays the functional areas and useful links.
For example, in a completely flat organizational structure, if you classify your processes according to
areas it will result in 2 levels. The first will represent areas and the second the processes.
The first level will have as many categories as areas in the organization (each area represents a
category in level 1). The second level will have as many categories as processes in the organization
(each process represents a category in level 2).
The structure and number of levels depends on the layout of each organization and its particular
preferences. As shown, some organizations classify their processes according to areas and sub-areas
(Human resources, Sales, Marketing etc). Process-oriented organizations tend to follow mapping
structure of the ISO 9000 standards and so classify their processes according to operational function
within the business (strategic processes, operative processes and support processes).
Defining the most suitable structure is essential to provide users an intuitive and logical navigation
through the processes of your organization.
The correct implementation of this step will facilitate understanding of processes within your
organization and ensure proper communication between them.
Icons to access level 1 pages are included as reusable sub-processes. This way it is possible to link
each icon to the corresponding page.
Additional information can be added by using Artifacts. Aside from improving the look and feel of the
page these elements allow you including links to other sites, pictures and documents.
Each category page is created in the same way as the main page, apart from the user interface and
information it displays. Use the reusable sub-process to represent the categories and incorporate
artifacts to include additional information and improve the look and feel.
To customize the information, make use of Extended attributes. These attributes can include links to
another sites, images and documents, to name a few.
Overview
In the following example we will build a documentation portal step by step.
Let us suppose that the Agility Corp has diagrammed and documented the following processes:
In order for processes to communicate and share all their related documentation, the Agility Corp has
opted to build a documentation portal. All business processes are diagrammed in Bizagi Modeler and
stored in a single .bpm file.
Area Process
IT · Help Desk
· Access Management
Note this gives a two-level classification; the first denotes the functional areas and the second the
business processes.
The first level comprise of has four categories (each area represents a category of level 1). The second
level contains eight categories (each process represents a category of level 2).
Level 0 is used to represent the highest level of hierarchy, in this case, the global view of the company.
· Company logo
· FAQ
· Manuals
· Contact information
· Help
2. Remove the Pool shape and include the categories of Level 1, in this case, four sub-processes. Give
each the name of the area it represents.
As level 1 is comprises four categories, we create four pages, one for each category: Human
Resources, Financial, Purchases and IT. On each page the Agility Corp wants to display the processes
associated with the category (area) and the following general information about the area:
· Area description
· Company logo
· FAQ
· Manuals
· Contact information
· Help
2. Right-click the diagram and open its properties. Enter a description of the area.
4. Use image artifacts to insert the company logo and include icons to represent the FAQs, Manuals,
Contact us and Help.
Information of elements
Once the structure of the pages has been configured we can continue to define each page element will
displayed upon selection.
Since we used artifacts (FAQs, Manuals, Contact and Help) we can customize the properties of these
objects to show the information required.
For instance, when viewers select the Manuals element in the main page, three different manuals must
display. To do that we create a table type extended attribute.
3. Assign the attribute name and description and select Table as the type.
5. Next add the information to be displayed, in this case, the instruction manuals.
Bellow we will connect the Main page with the functional areas pages.
1. Right-click a category (in this example an area) and convert the shape into a reusable sub-process as
shown below.
The shape borders will widen.
Repeat this procedure to link all the diagrams to pages in the Portal.
Overview
Optimizing processes is a team effort. And the most successful teams are those who can contribute
effortlessly to their goals in a modern way – unrestricted by time or geography.
Bizagi's Modeler Collaboration Services (MCS for Modeler Collaboration Services) gives your team the
power to work together, smarter.
This section is designed to provide everything you need to know to get started in Bizagi Cloud.
Eliminate the need to create and Work together with your With centrally documented
manage a centralized process colleagues who can review the process models, employees can
repository by saving your models from anywhere on any easily access and learn those
models directly in the cloud. device and provide real time processes, improving
feedback. compliance with your policies
and procedures.
· Work offline
Business Analysts are regularly on the go. Moving fast from costumer to customer, they need to model,
take notes, add attachments and perform updates in a hurry. But companies don’t necessarily provide
Internet connection to outsiders. That’s why, in this latest release, Bizagi lets you work offline and then
synchronize the changes made to the collaborative design.
· Include attachments
Attachments add context to processes and can give explicit examples. In Bizagi Cloud, you simply
upload once and reuse attachments between processes.
Using offline
capabilities, you can
Sign in to Bizagi Cloud check out your process
and start managing model, make changes,
your models. and sync it once you’re
Cloud Basics. back online.
Offline Modeler
Collaboration.
Add attachments to
Navigate your Bizagi your diagrams and
Cloud to view all models share them between
stored in the repository. processes.
Bizagi Cloud website Attachments in the
Cloud
Cloud basics
Overview
When you store your models in Bizagi Cloud you can access them anytime, anywhere.
Remember that once a model is uploaded, it will be saved in Bizagi Cloud and thus it will no longer be
related to a local model.
You can access Bizagi Cloud from Bizagi Modeler desktop application or from Bizagi Cloud website.
Each one offers different possibilities to handle model uploaded to the Cloud.
· Bizagi Modeler desktop application is the exclusive space where you design your cloud processes:
edit process flow, add documentation, roles and simulate. It is from Modeler that you can upload
models to Bizagi Cloud.
· Bizagi Cloud website allows you to browse (process flow and documentation) and comment on
models, diagrams and shapes.
Release diagrams ü -
Edit documentation ü -
Basic Search ü ü
Advanced Search - ü
Manage attachments from Cloud storage ü -
*Diagram organization through folder management can be performed as long as the model is
uploaded in the cloud.
Learn how to
· Upload and save a model in Bizagi Cloud
· Edit a model saved in the Cloud.
· Delete a model saved in the Cloud
MCS Plans
Overview
Bizagi Modeler Collaboration Services offer a host of features to help you work more productively,
whenever and wherever you happen to be. Take a look at our pricing packages to decide what’s right
for you.
Editors use Bizagi Modeler to Editors can share models in the Editors can share models in the
store process models in the cloud. Contributors can view, cloud and publish when ready
cloud and access them through read documentation, comment so Contributors acknowledge
the Modeler website. and collaborate through a their role in process they are
browser. involved in, as well as view and
comment in a browser.
· Workgroup plan: Workgroup plan provides the ability to bring experts within an organization or
team together to effectively collaborate while documenting the business processes. You can activate
a 30 day Trial plan. In the Bizagi Cloud website you can purchase the Workgroup subscription and
manage it.
· Personal plan: Personal Plan allows Modeler users to save all their processes directly in the Bizagi
Cloud eliminating the need to create and manage a centralized repository themselves. Users have
global access to their processes, anywhere, on any device. Every Bizagi account automatically entitles
the user to a Personal plan. Here, users can securely save their models secure in Bizagi Cloud, for
free, up to 10MB.
To collaborate (share models with teammates or clients) it is necessary to purchase a Modeler
Collaboration services Enterprise or Workgroup Plan.
Attachments - cloud ü ü ü
stored
Simulation ü ü ü
Import/Export ü ü ü
Mobile access in ü ü ü
website
Documentation in ü ü ü
website
Modeling ü ü ü
Collaboration - ü ü
Comments on models - ü ü
Comments on - ü ü
diagrams
Comments on shapes - ü ü
Real time notifications - ü ü
Models activity feed - ü ü
Advanced Search - - ü
Single Sign-On - - ü
Email personalization - - ü
Process Portal - - ü
Process Compliance - - ü
Dedicated Cloud - - ü
Services
Company sub-domain - - ü
* Bizagi offers a free 30-day trial enabling you to try and test the features before deciding whether our
Modeler Collaboration Services will be a good fit for you. By default, the free trial gives you access to
all features available in the Workgroup plan. By the end of the trial, you can choose to purchase a
subscription or let the trial expire (no billing information is collected) - and return to the Personal Plan.
During the 30-day free trial, you can invite up to 99 users.
Overview
Enterprise Plan allows an organization to build a global process collaboration platform. Employees can
collaborate efficiently to document processes and also certify themselves on the processes they are
involved in ensuring better governance and compliance. To purchase Enterprise plan please contact us.
· Efficiency
o Process Portal: See a listing of not just the processes you are involved in but all the processes
published by the organization right from the home screen of Bizagi Modeler Website.
o Dedicated Cloud Services: Dedicated instances of the collaboration services with isolated storage
and a personalized URL.
o Portal and Email Personalization: Personalize both the portal and emails with your own logo,
fonts and colors.
o Single Sign-On: Avoid re-authentication needs by configuring Bizagi to authenticate against your
identity management systems.
· Collaboration
o Advanced Search: You can search across all the processes shared with or created by you. Also,
perform property based search within individual processes.
o Activity Stream: Keep track of all the changes being performed on the processes while you are
away.
o Real time notifications and synchronization: See who checked out a process diagram, get
notified each time a change is made and get alerts when the process is available to work on again.
· Governance
o Process Compliance: Users can acknowledge that they have reviewed the process and all the
steps, allowing the organization to create better governance and compliance.
Features
Enterprise Plan gives you the following features:
Workgroup Plan
Overview
The Workgroup plan allows small and medium companies to collaborate in the definition of their
corporate processes.
· Collaborate
View, review, share and collaborate on process models any time, any place, any device. Enjoy
interacting with your team members from the devices they love: whether tablet, mobile, their PC or
Mac desktop.
· Greater Productivity
A great tool set enables you and your team to truly work together, whenever and wherever you
happen to be. Make comments on any part of the process diagram, navigate through the process
flow and make contributions. All you need is a browser.
Bear in mind that if your subscription time is ended before paying a renewal, all models shall be
automatically unshared. Once a new subscription is payed, each model must be shared again
manually.
2. Click on your Name (or email) and then, click Plan Management.
4. The Billing information window is opened, review or update the data displayed and then click Next.
Bizagi Cloud will redirect you to a PayPal transactional page.
7. Once you accept the terms, PayPal will apply the payment. You will be redirected to Bizagi Cloud
website where the Welcome to Workgroup Plan window will display the number of subscriptions
purchased (Editors and Contributors) and the date where PayPal will charge the next payment. Click Ok
to close this window.
Overview
When you want to purchase a subscription for Bizagi Modeler Collaboration Services, the payment is
done through a valid PayPal account.
Paypal will charge you a monthly subscription to the registered payment type, according to the selected
subscriptions.
When you upgrade your plan to Workgroup from a Personal plan you must purchase an Editor
subscription for yourself, as Workgroup owner. For example, if you want to share your models with
four coworkers, two (2) Editors subscriptions ($50 USD per subscription) and two (2) Contributor
subscriptions ($10 USD per subscription), the price for this transaction will be $170 USD, the additional
$50 USD corresponds to your owner's subscription.
If you are purchasing from a country who is part of the European Economic Community, you have to
provide your VAT ID along with their billing information to avoid being charged VAT.
To view the status of your current plan, just Log in to Bizagi Cloud and click on the link of your display
Name. Then click Plan and Billing.
When the list of purchases is requested, you can select the invoice to download through the link in each
record.
Overview
Bizagi offers a free 30-day trial which enables you to test out the features of our Modeler Collaboration
Services before purchasing. By default, the free trial gives you access to all features available in the
Workgroup plan. By the end of the trial, you can choose to purchase a subscription or let the trial
expire (no billing information is collected) - and go back to Personal Plan.
During the 30-day free trial, you can invite up to 99 users.
1. To activate your trial, click on the Upgrade your plan located under the link of your display Name.
2. The Change Your plan window will display. Click on Start free trial!.
When your trial is activated, Bizagi will give two (2) Editor subscriptions and two (2) Contributor
subscriptions by default, which means that you start your trial with 300MB of available storage.
The bar will indicate that the logged account is in Trial, and a button to Upgrade easily. The days
remaining before expiration are displayed when there are 25 remaining days or less.
The information above is also displayed in the upper right corner of Bizagi Modeler when you click on
your name after logging in.
For example, if you have used 80 MB of storage and the trial period expires, you and your colleagues
need to upgrade to a Workgroup plan with at least one Editor in order to continue collaborating in the
cloud.
2. Click on the link of your Name and then click Plan management.
Overview
Every free Bizagi account automatically entitles the user to a Personal plan where you can securely save
models in Bizagi Cloud, for free, for up to 10MB.
This account type is perfect for individuals working on a project, with no need to share models.
As a user in Personal plan, log into Bizagi Cloud. A bar will indicate that you are in the Personal plan
and display a button to easily Upgrade to Workgroup plan..
Plan information is also displayed in the top right corner of Bizagi Modeler when you click on your
name.
· Collaborate
View, review, share and collaborate on process models any time, any place, any device. Enjoy
interacting with your team members from the devices they love: whether tablet, mobile, their PC or
Mac desktop.
· Greater Productivity
A great tool set enables you and your team to truly work together, whenever and wherever you
happen to be. Make comments on any part of the process diagram, navigate through the process
flow and make contributions. All you need is a browser.
Purchase the Workgroup plan and enjoy great team collaboration features. You can also sign up to the
Workgroup 30-day trial and enjoy team collaboration features free for 30 days.
Signing in to Cloud
Overview
With Modeler Collaboration Services, you may subscribe to a Personal, Workgroup or Enterprise plan.
Regardless of your plan, you will need to sign in to Cloud by using your registered e-mail in order to
get started.
This is applicable both for the Bizagi Cloud website and for the Bizagi Modeler (desktop application)
given that from both of them you can access Bizagi Cloud by using your credentials.
The signing in procedure may however, slightly vary if you are using a personal e-mail or a corporate
e-mail.
Personal e-mails are those typically used in Personal or Workgroup plans; while corporate e-mails entail
the use of a Enterprise plan.
The Modeler Collaboration Services support a Single Sign-On experience for the Enterprise plan.
Cloud authentication
The Modeler Collaboration Services rely on a robust Authentication module which enables users to sign
in securely to the service while relying on interoperable possibilities which integrate diverse identity
providers such as Google, MS Live, Azure AD, or even an on-premises Microsoft ADFS system.
Google and MS Live are available when signing in with a personal e-mail for Personal or Workgroup
plans.
Azure AD or ADFS integration, are available when signing in with a corporate e-mail for Enterprise plans.
The following diagram represents the authentication possibilities and its high-level architecture:
Overview
In order to get started using Modeler Collaboration Services, either while using the Bizagi Cloud
website or the Bizagi Modeler (desktop application), you will need to sign in to Cloud as described at
Signing in to Cloud.
The following section describes how to sign in when using a personal e-mail as in those typically used
in Personal or Workgroup plans, such as the e-mail you registered for your www.Bizagi.com account,
Google, or MS Live.
3. Only when signing in for the very first time, you will be displayed with your account's profile.
Ensure your account details are accurate and click Save.
Once signed in, your name will be shown where the Sign in link was located.
1. Go to https://model.bizagi.com.
2. Enter your credentials at https://account.bizagi.com.
3. Only when signing in for the very first time, you will be displayed with your account's profile.
Ensure your account details are accurate and click Save.
Once signed in, your name will be shown in the upper right corner.
Overview
In order to get started using Modeler Collaboration Services, either while using the Bizagi Cloud
website or the Bizagi Modeler (desktop application), you will need to sign in to Cloud as described at
Signing in to Cloud.
The following section describes how to sign in when using a corporate e-mail such as one involved in
an Enterprise plan, directly integrated to an on-premises ADFS or a third-party cloud service such as
Azure AD.
In order for such authentication against an Azure AD or ADFS to take place, ensure that your
Enterprise plan has been previously configured to support integrated authentication by an admin user
of your Enterprise subscription.
For instance, for an Azure AD or ADFS, you will be redirected to Microsoft's login screen:
Input your credentials and authenticate as you normally do within your corporate authentication system.
Notice that:
1. Bizagi establishes a secure connection with your corporate authentication system by relying on the
WS-Federation protocol which in turn relies on SAML-compliant assertions and Secure Token Service
(STS).
2. You authenticate directly at your corporate authentication system, which means that your password
is not transferred, not handled, and not stored by Bizagi at any moment.
3. Once signed in and when further using the Bizagi Modeler, you will be able to rely on Single Sign-
On capabilities.
3. Only when signing in for the very first time, you will be displayed with your account's profile.
Ensure your account details are accurate and click Save.
1. Go to https://model-companyname.bizagi.com/.
2. Enter your credentials.
Notice that you will be automatically redirected to that page allowing you to authenticate against your
corporation's identity service provider.
Available options are:
· An Azure AD service.
· An on-premises ADFS.
· The default www.Bizagi.com accounts identity and access manager.
For instance, for an Azure AD or ADFS, you will be redirected to Microsoft's login screen:
Notice that:
1. Bizagi establishes a secure connection with your corporate authentication system by relying on the
WS-Federation protocol which in turn relies on SAML-compliant assertions and Secure Token Service
(STS).
2. You authenticate directly at your corporate authentication system, which means that your password
is not transferred, not handled, and not stored by Bizagi at any moment.
3. Once signed in and when further using the Bizagi Modeler, you will be able to rely on Single Sign-
On capabilities.
3. Only when signing in for the very first time, you will be displayed with your account's profile.
Ensure your account details are accurate and click Save.
Overview
In order to integrate your Enterprise subscription with your corporate Azure AD you will need to carry
out the configuration steps as described in this section.
Note that these are done only once, typically by an admin user of your Enterprise subscription having
access to your Azure AD.
Once these steps are carried out, signing in to Modeler Collaboration Services directly via Azure AD, is
done as described at Signing in with a corporate e-mail.
Configuration
Follow the steps presented to integrate Bizagi Modeler Services with your Azure AD:
The full list of users should be sent in an excel file, including these columns:
· Given name
· Surname
· E-mail address
· Job title
· Manager's e-mail address
· Enabled (specified as 1 for true, 0 for false).
· Country code
· State/Province
· City
Overview
In order to integrate your Enterprise subscription with your corporate ADFS you will need to carry out
the configuration steps as described in this section.
Note that these are done only once, typically by an admin user of your Enterprise subscription having
access to your ADFS system.
Once these steps are carried out, signing in to Modeler Collaboration Services directly via your ADFS, is
done as described at Signing in with a corporate e-mail.
Prerequisites
Before you get started, ensure that your ADFS system is compliant to these Modeler Collaboration
Services' requirements:
1. ADFS version 3.0 supported.
2. The ADFS must be accessible via a public URL and while using a valid server certificate (supporting
HTTPS through a certificate which is issued by a CA).
Configuration
Follow the steps presented to integrate Bizagi Modeler Services with your ADFS:
1.1 Launch the creation of a relying party trust by clicking Add a trusted relying party.
1.2. Select Enter data about the relying party manually option to specify the data source.
1.5. Configure the certificate for token encryption purposes as an additional security measure
(optional).
You may choose to skip this step and click Next.
1.7. Configure the identifiers by using the same URL specified above.
This URL should appear under the identified/valid URLs.
Should you need to input another URL with a different identifier, enter this URL and use the Add button.
1.8. Configure the Issuance authorization rules by choosing the Permit all users to access this relying party
option.
For instance, you may create a new claim rule by choosing the Send LDAP Attributes as Claims template:
The full list of users should be sent in an excel file, including these columns:
· Given name
· Surname
· E-mail address
· Job title
· Manager's e-mail address
· Enabled (specified as 1 for true, 0 for false).
· Country code
· State/Province
· City
Overview
Every model stored in Bizagi Cloud needs to be created using Bizagi Modeler and then uploaded to
your account. You have two options to upload models:
· Upload a model that has been previously stored locally in your desktop
· Save a new model directly in Bizagi Cloud
2. Open your local model clicking File > Open > Computer.
Use the Browse button if your desired model is not in the Recent models list.
5. In the File menu select Save option within Bizagi Cloud section.
File File
extensio File type extensi File type
n on
.ade Microsoft Access project extension .msc Microsoft Common Console document
.adp Microsoft Access project .msp Windows Installer update package file
If there is a file with any of the extensions above, Bizagi will display a warning. Click on Yes to upload
the model avoiding these files or No to cancel the whole uploading.
8. As soon as your model is uploaded it will be shown in Read-only mode. This is because all models
stored in the Cloud are ready to be shared. And all shared models have a check-in/check-out
functionality that allow editors to prevent users overwriting changes made by another user.
The local file you just uploaded won't be changed and you can keep it without any modification.
Overview
The ability to edit process flow and documentation (description, Extended attributes, Resources) is
exclusively available through Bizagi Modeler desktop. It can only be performed by those with Editor
permissions over the Model.
You can open a model stored in the Cloud using Bizagi Modeler and edit it as you always do.
You can view a model stored in the Cloud through a browser with your Bizagi Cloud account, and
launch Bizagi Modeler desktop to edit it.
If you have Editor's permissions over a model and you want to edit a diagram do one of the following:
· Open the Model using Bizagi Modeler desktop.
· Open the Model using Bizagi Cloud Website and launch Modeler desktop
4. Once you log in, the Open Model window will be displayed.
8. Once you finish your changes, simply release the diagram by clicking the Check In button. By doing
this, the diagram will released to other Editors to perform changes.
Your colleagues watching the diagram in Bizagi Cloud will receive a notification to say that the diagram
has been checked in.
1. To edit a Model, click Edit in Bizagi Modeler option located within three dots menu beside the Model.
This button is also available in the workspace of your model at the right side of the toolbar.
This option is also available in any diagram. In this case, Bizagi Modeler will open the directly the
diagram and you can skip step 3.
8. Once you finish your changes, release the diagram by clicking the Check In button. By doing this, the
Diagram will released to other Editors to perform changes.
Your colleagues watching the Diagram in Bizagi Cloud will automatically receive a notification warn them
that the diagram has been checked in.
2. The properties window will display. You can change the name and the description here.
2. Locate the Model Properties button in the Ribbon, within the Bizagi Cloud section, and click on it.
3. The properties window is displayed. Change the name or the description here.
Overview
You can delete models and diagrams stored in the Cloud anytime to organize your model's list or free
up your plan's quota.
This procedure cannot be undone. Therefore we strongly recommend that you save a local backup of
the model or diagram to be deleted.
Bear the following guidelines in mind when using the Delete facility:
· Models can be deleted from the Cloud website exclusively.
· A process model can only be deleted by its owner.
· A model cannot be deleted when it has one or more locked diagrams (by any user).
· Diagrams can be deleted from Bizagi Modeler exclusively
· Editors and Owners can delete Diagrams of a Model from Bizagi Modeler.
Deleting a Model
In Bizagi Cloud, model owners can delete their models using trash can icon.
1. Click the Delete option located within three dots menu beside the Model.
3. After clicking Delete Model, your model will no longer be available to edit or comment. If the model
was shared, neither Editors or Contributors will be able to access it.
1. Open the Model where the diagram to delete is located (using File > Open > Bizagi Cloud).
4. Once you click Remove, Bizagi Modeler will prompt a warning message. Click Yes.
Users sharing the model will receive a notification warning that you delete the diagram. They will no
longer be able to access it.
Bizagi offers two sites: one for Enterprise subscriptions and another for Personal and Workgroup
subsriptions.
Refer to each specific subscription to understand how the website works.
Enterprise subscriptions have a dedicated private and isolated cloud to save and access their
corporate process models.
This dedicated cloud comes with a custom URL such as https://model-YourCompanyName.bizagi.com/.
To access the Bizagi Cloud website open a browser and type your corporate Enterprise URL.
We recommend using the latest Google Chrome for best user experience.
· My Processes view
My Processes is the default view, where the compliance features are displayed. This view is created for
each user individually displaying exclusively the processes they have a role in. In My process view users
can acknowledge the understanding of each process scope and the exact way they are supposed to
execute their every day work.
· Process Models.
This is the collaboration view, where all process models that are under construction or have been
approved and published are displayed.
This view displays all the Models that are owned by the logged user, as well as the ones that have been
shared with him/her.
Each model displays some options according to the permission levels assigned to the user:
· Owner all options are available
· As Editor most options are available except the deletion of a model.
· Contributors can navigate through the model and comment but they do not have edition
permissions.
When the List view is selected When the Grid view is selected
If Grid view is selected a diagram's thumbnail will be visible, whereas if the List view is selected only
basic information will be displayed, no thumbnail.
Model options
Models are displayed by name and their description right below it. When the full name or description is
not displayed, hover over the name to display it.
· Properties: Enables the edition of the Model's name and description. This option is available when the
user is an Owner or Editor. Refer to Editing Model Properties for more information.
When navigating a Model you will be able to see all the diagrams created in it as well as its Folders.
Just navigate through diagrams and folders to view and review each diagram's definition by reading
through the documentation.
Processes status
All Diagrams have a Status: Draft or Published, which is shown below its name. If the full name is not
displayed, hover over the name to display it.
Every process that is under construction is by default in a Draft state. When the status is Published, it
also displayed the date when an Editor published it.
To publish a diagram, make sure it has been reviewed and approved by all stakeholders. Editors can
click on the three dot menu and select the option Publish.
While a process is as Draft it can be edited by all Editors with access permissions (process flow and
documentation using Bizagi Modeler desktop application). Thus, it can be Locked, using the check-in /
check out functionality. To know who has a diagram locked for edition, hover over the icon to
display their name. Remember that the actual edition of a diagram is always done using the Modeler
desktop application, by any Editor of the subscription who has access to it.
Bizagi Toolbar
The following is the toolbar displayed on the top of the Folder view.
It always presents the path of the Model selected on the left (as a breadcrumb to navigate back and
forth).
On the right, the available options:
Folders
Bizagi allows you to create Folders to organize all diagrams hierarchically in any way desired. When
using Folders you will be able to see diagrams as well as sub-folders within a shared Model.
The options on the bar apply to the entire Model, and are displayed according to the permission level
assigned to the user.
Child folders are shown above the diagrams, and are always listed (not shown in grid). Refer to
Organizing your model for more information.
Editor and Contributors can see all processes while other users in the subscription can see only
published processes.
Folders are displayed by name. If the full name is not displayed, hover over the name to display it. You
can select a folder by clicking on it's folder icon:
To access Folder Options, click on the three dot menu located to the right of the folder.
· Rename: Changes the current folder name. For more information please refer to Modifying a folder.
· Move to: Opens the model folder structure, allowing the user to select a new parent folder for the
selected folder. For more information please refer to Moving a folder.
Once the diagram is selected, a Move To icon will appear on the Bizagi Toolbar. This option is
available when one or many processes and/or folders are selected. Opens the model folder structure,
allowing the user to select a new parent folder for the selected elements.
Overview
The Current Diagram View displays the chosen diagram to view the complete process flow and
navigate its documentation, that has been designed in Bizagi Modeler.
The options on the bar are displayed according to the permission level assigned to the user.
Documentation
All users, Editors and Contributors can access the diagram's documentation by clicking the icon. A
panel on the right displays the documentation.
Each shape has its own documentation. Click on any shape to display its individual definition.
Refer to Documenting a process for more information.
It always presents the path of the Diagram selected on the left (as breadcrumb, to navigate back and
forth). On the right, the available options: Edit in Bizagi Modeler, Show Comments, Show
Documentation and Show Search.
Show Search
For Editors, when working from Bizagi Modeler desktop application, access Bizagi's Cloud website by
clicking the bizagi.com button located in the Home tab in the Ribbon.
We recommend using the latest Google Chrome for best user experience.
· Models view
Models View
Overview
This view displays all the Models that are owned by the logged user, as well as the ones that have been
shared.
Each model displays some options according to the permission levels assigned to the user:
· Owner all options are available
· As Editor most options are available except the deletion of a model.
· Contributors can navigate through the model and comment but they do not have edition
permissions.
When the List view is selected When the Grid view is selected
If grid view is selected a diagram's thumbnail will be visible, whereas if the list view is selected only
basic information will be displayed, no thumbnail.
· Edit in Bizagi Modeler: This option launches Bizagi Modeler to edit the model. It is available when
the user is an Owner or Editor. Refer to Editing Cloud Models for more information.
· Properties: Enables the edition of the Model's name and description. This option is available when
the user is an Owner or Editor. Refer to Editing Model Properties for more information.
When navigating a Model you will be able to see all the diagrams created in it as well as its Folders.
Just navigate through diagrams and folders to view and review each diagram's definition by reading
through the documentation.
Bizagi Toolbar
The following is the toolbar displayed on the top of the Folder view.
It always presents the path of the Model selected on the left (as a breadcrumb to navigate back and
forth).
On the right, the available options:
Folders
Bizagi allows you to create Folders to organize all diagrams hierarchically in any way desired. When
using Folders you will be able to see diagrams as well as sub-folders within a shared Model.
The options on the bar apply to the entire Model, and are displayed according to the permission level
assigned to the user.
Child folders are shown above the diagrams, and are always listed (not shown in grid). Refer to
Organizing your model for more information.
Folders are displayed by name. If the full name is not displayed, hover over the name to display it. You
can select a folder by clicking on it's folder icon:
To access Folder Options click on the three dot menu located to the right of the folder.
· Rename: Changes the current folder name. For more information please refer to Modifying a folder.
· Move to: Opens the model folder structure, allowing the user to select a new parent folder for the
selected folder. For more information please refer to Moving a folder.
Once the diagram is selected, a Move To icon will appear on the Bizagi Toolbar. This option is
available when one or many processes and/or folders are selected. Opens the model folder structure,
allowing the user to select a new parent folder for the selected elements.
Current Diagram
Overview
The Current Diagram View displays the chosen diagram to view the complete process flow and
navigate its documentation, that has been designed in Bizagi Modeler.
The options on the bar are displayed according to the permission level assigned to the user.
Documentation
All users, Editors and Contributors can access the diagram's documentation by clicking the icon. A
panel on the right displays the documentation.
Each shape has its own documentations. Click on any shape to display its individual definition.
Refer to Documenting a process for more information.
It always presents the path of the Diagram selected on the left (as breadcrumb, to navigate back and
forth). On the right, the available options: Edit in Bizagi Modeler, Show Comments, Show
Documentation and Show Search.
Overview
Today’s dispersed and mobile teams want access to their processes 24/7.
Bizagi Modeler gives you the freedom to collaboratively manage your processes online, whenever and
wherever you happen to be. Start the collaboration process by sharing your Models with your team
members or clients. Sharing a model allows users to log in to Bizagi and access it based on their
permission level at any time.
To share a model you need to purchase a subscription to our Modeler Collaboration Services.
Review who can access any model, and their permission levels, by clicking the Sharing icon. You can
remove a person from sharing, or change their permission level, at any time.
1. Click the Invite People to Model option located within three dots menu beside the Model.
2. If the model is currently shared, you'll see a list of users with their respective permissions, and can
add new users if desired.
2. Click in Share option located within Cloud Collaboration group in the Home tab of the Ribbon.
Only users in the Subscription can be invited for sharing. For more information about how to add
users to the subscription refer to User Management.
If you are having trouble sharing a model contact your subscription owner.
In Workgroup plan, when the invitation is sent, the user with his/her permission level will be added to
the list displayed within Pending Invitations tab, and the user needs to accept the invitation.
1. Click the Sharing icon. The Invite People to Model form appears, and will display the shared users list.
Locate the user that you would like to change and expand Access drop-down list.
1. Click the Sharing icon on the model. The Share Model window appears, and will display the shared
users list.
Locate the user that you'd like to remove.
2. Click the Delete icon. The user will be removed from the model and will no longer be able to open it.
The following table illustrates what actions exactly are available for each of the permission levels.
View ü ü ü
Comment ü ü ü
Acknowledge ü ü ü
Edit - ü ü
Share - ü ü
Publish - ü ü
Delete - - ü
Manage users - - ü
· In Enterprise subscription, the owner is the user who manages the users inside the subscription.
· To share a model, you need to purchase an Enterprise or Workgroup plan for yourself and for
those you want to share with. Add the appropriate subscriptions for the people you want to
collaborate with, according to the access you want for each one. Remember you need an Editor
subscription for yourself.
· Acknowledging a model for process compliance, is a feature which is available in Enterprise plans
only.
· Unless you purchase an Enterprise or Workgroup plan, you will be in a Personal plan for yourself.
Even if you have Editor subscriptions assigned to you in other Enterprise or Workgroups, you
won’t be able to share the models created by you, and your quota will be 10MB.
· If you want to share models of your own, you need to purchase an Editor subscription for yourself
and the appropriate subscriptions for the people you want to collaborate with, according to the
access you want for them.
· For every Editor subscription you purchase for your plan, you will gain 100MB of storage for the
Workgroup.
· In Enterprise, you will gain 200 GB of storage regardless of the editors you have.
· If you are in Personal plan and only need additional storage than the 10MB offered for free, you
can purchase an Editor subscription for yourself and gain 100MB, even if you don't share your
models.
TRIAL
· During our 30 days free Workgroup Trial plan period, you can have up to 99 users with role Editor
or Contributor.
Comments on Models can be made either from Bizagi Modeler (for Editors) or from Bizagi Cloud
Website (for Editors and Contributors).
In order to make comments over a Model, its diagrams and its elements, open the Model from Bizagi
Modeler (Click in File tab > Open > Bizagi Cloud, > Browse) or Sign In to the website using your Bizagi
credentials.
Comments are made from the Comments panel and are not available for Personal plan.
In Bizagi Cloud, open the panel by clicking the Show Comments icon ( ).
In Bizagi Modeler click the Comments icon found in the Diagram section of the Ribbon.
Type your comments and press Enter to save them. Each comment will generate a notification for all
the team members.
Icon
Collaboration example
Let's use the following example to illustrate how collaboration works in a real-life process scenario.
Assume that Andrea works in the administrative department of her company. She has been working on
the Travel Request process, which involves employee activities to manage a request for a flight ticket, a
currency advance and a hotel reservation.
2. Andrea and Mark can now both open the model in Bizagi Modeler and work concurrently on it.
They can communicate with each other by entering messages in the Comments window found on the
right of the screen.
Messages are displayed in real-time; hence, as soon as either party types a comment and clicks the
Enter button, the comment will be instantaneously displayed.
Messages are displayed both on Bizagi Cloud Website and in Bizagi Modeler.
Comments in Bizagi Cloud website are loaded in real time when the Comments panel is opened.
4. The diagrams can only be edited through Bizagi Modeler, thus, Mark clicks on the Edit in Bizagi
Modeler button. This button will launch Bizagi Modeler application.
5. Once Mark has completed his changes he clicks on the Check In button, located in the Bizagi Cloud
group on the Home tab.
7. Andrea reviews the model and notes the last activity should have some additional changes.
Consequently, she adds a comment in the Policies ok? gateway and clicks on the gateway in order to
open the comments panel for this shape.
Collaboration levels
Collaboration comments can be made at three different levels: model, diagram and element, so that
team members can comment on the context in each level.
· Model comments: comments posted in the Model level apply to all the diagrams and folders, i.e.
are visible from any diagram in the model. These comments are found in the Diagrams tab and are
shown regardless of the folder in which they where created.
· Element comments: comments posted within a selected diagram element only apply to that element
present in a diagram.
Overview
With Enterprise Collaboration Services, all employees can easily access and learn about all corporate
processes. They can navigate them and learn in detail each task by reviewing its documentation.
But Enterprise goes beyond that by aiming at improving compliance with policies and procedures for
organizations that need enterprise-wide process governance.
A special view called My Processes, is automatically created for each person individually identifying all
processes each user has a role in. Users can acknowledge the understanding of each process scope
and the exact way they are supposed to execute their every day work.
This way, global corporations ensure that all their employees world wide fully understand the processes
they are involved in and execute them in the same way.
1. In Bizagi Modeler desktop application, open the Properties tab for manual activities.
Notice there are four options where role are set, following the RACI Model (Responsible, Accountable,
Consulted, Informed).
Include, for each manual task, the roles for each property.
2. Subscription owners must ensure that all users in the subscription have their Job title included and
set.
4. All involved users will receive an email informing there is a new process to review and acknowledge.
5. In My Process view the new process will display with the Pending state.
Involved users should navigate the process and understand its scope as well as their individual role in
it.
Edit on Bizagi This option launches Bizagi Modeler to open the diagram.
Modeler
Overview
User Management allows subscription Owners to manage users and groups to control user access and
achieve process governance. This option is only available for the subscription owners.
Users Management view allows including users to the subscription, updating users and managing
Groups. Groups can be understood as Departments or general roles within in the company, that will
enable Bizagi to know which processes to show in My process view.
User Management is only available for the owner of the subscription within the menu located in the
upper right corner.
Owners do not have to upload all users every time: If a .csv file contains just three users, those will be
added or updated, and all other users of the subscription will be left untouched.
· Users can be deactivated but not removed from a subscription, by using the Is Active property (1
= active, 0 = inactive) in the .csv file.
· Users with an Email Address already included in the subscription will be updated with the
information in the file.
3. When the template is ready save it as type CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv).
Click Next.
If there were errors in the upload process, click Download Log to review the unsuccessful users.
Groups
Groups allow grouping several Job Titles into a single definition, to ease the involved definition when
defining users involved in a process in the Modeler application.
All the groups created for the given subscription are listed.
Job titles in the subscription are interpreted as groups.
Groups options
Every group in the list has available the following options by clicking the three dot right menu:
· Manage Subgroups: allows you to add a set of Job Titles by typing the name in the Add group field.
The field will suggest the name while you type it.
You can also delete a Job title by clicking the X button next to its name.
Advanced Search
Overview
In Enterprise Plan, users can perform advanced searches in order find processes shared with them
directly from the Home page (My Processes or Process Models) or the Current Diagram view. The
search will look not only in the process names, but also inside process elements and further properties.
Considerations
· Separate the words with spaces for multiple search.
· Only alphanumeric characters are supported.
· The result displayed starts with or matches with the value entered.
· Results does not distinguish between upper and lower case letters.
Once the value to search was entered, the results of the search will be displayed. The search will
retrieve the process with elements which starts or matches with the value entered regardless of the
case.
Going Offline
To start working offline just open your Cloud model in Bizagi Modeler and click Work Offline in the
ribbon.
A new window will display for you to select the diagrams you need available offline. These will be
stored locally in your machine. All chosen diagrams will be automatically checked-out to you.
Remember that when a diagram is offline, and thus checked out, all the users sharing the model will be
restricted from editing their flow and documentation.
The diagrams chosen to be available offline will be displayed as locked for your team members until
you check them in again. However all diagrams are available from the Cloud website for reviewing and
comments.
In case you have finished your modifications, remember to click Check in in order to release the control
of the model to the cloud.
In case you have more than one diagram, to check them all in, just close Bizagi Modeler. You will be
prompted asking to check in all diagrams automatically at the same time.
All your attachments are stored in Bizagi Cloud's secure servers and can be reused as many times as
you want within your models.
2. Click the Cloud Attachments option located within Tool group in the Tools tab of the Ribbon.
3. Once you click in this option, the Cloud Attachment window will be displayed.
2. Search field: allows you to search any file uploaded to the cloud by its name or part of it.
3. Upload button: allows you to add attachments to your models, for more information refer to Add
attachments.
4. Amount of files: displays the total number of files you uploaded in Bizagi Cloud or the total of files
that meets the search criteria (when searching).
5. Files: displays a table with the uploaded files. This table contains the following columns:
o File actions: refer to file actions for more information.
o Name: displays the file name including its extension.
o Size: displays the size of the file in KB or MB when this size exceeds 1024 KB.
Add attachments
You can add attachments to your models and also link them to any of your diagrams using the
extended attributes.
There are some file types that you cannot upload to Bizagi Cloud Server. If you try to use one of them,
Bizagi will dis[play a warning message showing that the file cannot be uploaded.
The following list displays file types that are not allowed:
File File
extensio File type extensi File type
n on
.ade Microsoft Access project extension .msc Microsoft Common Console document
.adp Microsoft Access project .msp Windows Installer update package file
4. Once you click Open, the file will appear in the list and will affect the consumed storage in the Storage
bar. In the example presented, the file appears on the top of the list, because the list is ordered
alphabetically.
Download Allows you to save the uploaded file in your local machine.
file
Allows you change the name of the selected file keeping the original
extension. Any change you make in the name will record your user name as
the last editor in the Modified by column. Furthermore, this option only
appears when you hover over the current file name.
Rename file
1. Open the model from Bizagi Cloud. You need to be the owner of the model or an Editor.
2. Open the diagram where you want to link the files hosted in Bizagi Cloud and lock it for editing.
3. Select any element of the process diagram and open the extended attributes.
5. The Select Attachment window will be opened. In the files table, select Link file action in the first
column.
Overview
Bizagi Modeler allows you to import diagrams from:
Importing existing models will enhance agility and continuous process improvement efforts.
You can also import the Extended Attributes that you created in a previous model and use then in your
current model.
We highly recommend using the same Extended Attributes within all your models. This allows you to
maintain a uniform standard for all your documented processes.
Supported Stencils
The stencils that are currently supported are those shown below:
For each stencil, you may review which elements are supported and how are they mapped in Bizagi:
Using XPDL in Bizagi offers the possibility to share your diagrams with other modeling tools that use
BPMN notation. You can import your diagrams to XPDL using the BPMN 2.0 notation shapes.
For more information about the currently supported XPDL version, refer to Supported standards.
For more information about the currently supported BPMN version, refer to Supported standards.
Simulation requires a clear objective to get maximum value for effort. This objective strongly influences
the level of detail in the required data.
Bizagi Simulation follows BPSim (Business Process Simulation) standard that allows enhancement of
business process models captured in BPMN to support rigorous methods of analysis.
What is simulation
Experiment definition
Randomness is simulated by the use of probabilities for sequence flows and token routing and also by
using statistical distributions to reflect variability in process times of activities etc. To make sure results
are valid, the simulation needs be run for long enough to yield random behavior without chance
(consider the scenario of tossing a coin or rolling a dice multiple times). Provision should be made to
compare results from the same scenario, but different run lengths or replications. The required run
length to yield usable outcomes depends on the process model structure, amount of variability and the
objective; consequently, a single recommended run length cannot be provided. A replication shares the
same scenario configuration and runs for the same length of time, but uses an alternative random
stream.
Comparison
Simulation is well known for providing what-if analysis capabilities; a single simulation run can provide
valuable insight on the performance of a particular scenario. The simulation of multiple scenarios and
the possibility to compare key outcomes, adds further value and support to decision makers.
Simulation in Bizagi
Overview
Bizagi Modeler allows simulation your business processes under the BPSim (Business Process
Simulation) to support decision making and boost their continuous improvement.
To start using simulation in Bizagi all you need is a complete Process model. otherwise, it will not be
able to be simulated.
For a complete simulation analysis we recommend using four levels:
By default the Simulation mode will start at Level one, the first time a Simulation is run for the process
model. It is best practice to start simulation at level one, and progress one level at a time. However. it is
possible to move between levels at any time.
Certain options will be available in the context menu of the ribbon according to the level selected. For
more information about these options, please refer to examples for each level.
If your process model is stored in Bizagi Cloud, and you want to run a simulation, your Model must
be locked for edition (checked-out). Refer to Editing Cloud Models for more information.
5. Click Start to run the simulation. When you run a simulation, it will show an animated view of the
process in execution and the flow of tokens between the activities.
You may click the Stop button at any time to end the simulation.
7. Click the Export to Excel button, located at the bottom left, to transfer the Results chart to Excel.
Considerations
Before creating a simulation model take into account the following considerations:
· The following BPMN elements are not supported by the simulation engine:
o Multiple events: Start, Intermediate and End.
o Complex gateways.
o Event based gateways followed by none intermediate events or tasks.
o Multiple instance tasks.
o Multiple instance Sub-processes.
· Elements contained in Reusable Sub-processes are not simulated. If you include a Reusable Sub-
process in your model you will have to set a overall processing time for the shape. If you want to
simulate the logic included within a Sub-process, use Embedded Sub-processes.
· Tokens have not data associated, this affects the mapping of message, signal and link events:
o Links and Signal events are mapped based on their names. Make sure that throw and catch events
share the same name.
Simulation levels
Bizagi Simulation comprises of four levels. Each subsequent level incorporates additional information
exhibiting more complexity than the preceding one, thereby providing a detailed analysis of your
processes. Levels are not interdependent, , you may start at any level if you hold the required process
data .
Results: The outcomes show all paths activated during the execution and whether all tokens actually
finished. Additionally, it evaluates how many tokens passed through each Sequence Flow, Activity and
End Event.
Level 2 – Time Analysis: Second level of simulation to measure the end-to-end process
time.
Data: Apart from the data entered in Process Validation, estimated timings (service times) of each activity
and the interval time between token generation is required. This data can either be constant or samples
from statistical distributions 1.
Results: The results show process throughput times for tokens, presented as minimum, maximum, mean
and sum (total of all processing times). Similar results can be presented for individual key activities.
Level 3 – Resource Analysis: Predicts how the process will perform with different
levels of resources. This level of detail provides a reliable estimate of how the process will perform in
operation.
Data: In addition to the data entered in Time Analysis, this level includes the definition of resources
(and/or roles): how many are available and where they are used. Due to the inclusion of resources, the
activity times should be adjusted to represent the actual work time; delay due to unavailability of staff
will be explicitly indicated.
Results: The structure of the results is similar to Time Analysis. Also, the time spent, the time spent busy
or idle for each type of resource is presented.
This level assume an unlimited number of resources.
Level 4 – Calendar Analysis: Includes calendar information that reflects the process
performance over dynamic periods of time, such as shifts, days schedules or weeks.
By default Bizagi includes a chosen calendar that works 24/7. If no calendars are defined, Bizagi will
assume that the defined Resources will always be available.
Data: Apart from the data entered in Resource Analysis, it includes the definition of resource calendars.
EXAMPLE
To better illustrate each of the simulation levels let us consider an Emergency attendance process. In this
process a call center receives a report of an emergency. Upon receiving the call, a call center agent
enters details on the person affected, the symptoms and the physical address where the emergency
occurred.
On receipt of the report, a qualified nurse classifies the emergency according to its severity.
· Green: Low severity. The patient can be easily stabilized.
· Yellow: Medium severity. The patient requires special attention but can be stabilized at the place of
emergency.
· Red: High severity. The patient must be collected and taken to the nearest hospital.
According to the priority assigned, the Emergency attendance department presents a different level of
response.
· Green: This triage is assisted by a quick response vehicle (i.e. a motorcycle) carrying two people: a
paramedic and a doctor.
· Yellow: This triage is assisted by a basic ambulance having a doctor, nurse and a paramedic on
board.
· Red: This triage is assisted by a fully equipped ambulance holding two doctors, a nurse and a
paramedic.
If the emergency is green or yellow, the process finishes once the response team arrives at the at the
place of emergency.
If the emergency is red, the fully equipped ambulance transfers the patient to the nearest hospital.
During the transfer a nurse carries out the necessary paperwork to ensure quick admittance.
When the patient arrives at the hospital with the necessary paperwork, the receptionist will be able to
admit the patient quickly and provide medical assistance immediately.
1. Refer to BPSim specification to review statistical distributions supported and their explanation.
Overview
The first level of the simulation validates the Process Model, making sure the process passes through
all the sequence flows, and behaves as expected.
Resources, processing times and costs are not included in this level. Such parameters will be included
later in subsequent levels.
When validating a Process Model the simulation results will show if:
· Gateways are synchronized.
· Messages are synchronized.
· Decisions probabilities are correctly assigned.
· Routing behaves as expected.
· All tokens have ended.
Bizagi offers real-time animation of simulations to easily identify problems. The Results report will show
the behavior during execution
The simulation will finish when one of these options happens first: scenario's duration is reached,
max arrival count is reached.
When you define a scenario duration, (in the scenario's configuration) the simulation will finish once
this duration is reached, disregarding the Max arrival count.
The same applies the other way around: once the max arrival count is reached the simulation will
finish disregarding the scenario's duration.
Gateways routing: Inclusive and exclusive Gateways have activation probabilities. Probabilities are
values between 0 and 100%.
Select the Gateway and click the scroll arrow icons ( ) to set the probabilities.
For this first level, the results of the simulated outcome will contain the following information:
· Name: Identifies the specific BPM shape for which the results are displayed.
· Type: Identifies the element type of the BPM shape.
· Instances completed: Indicates how many instances were processed during the execution of the
simulation.
1. In this example we will generate 1000 token instances. Click the Start Event and then the Gear icon.
Set the control's value to a 1000.
2. Define the probabilities for all outgoing paths of the Gateway. Suppose the emergency department
has estimated, based on historical data, that the probabilities for the different sequence flows are:
· Green: 20%
· Yellow: 30%
· Red: 50%
Define each probability for the Gateway named Triage type.
Now, click Start to run the simulation. Note how the number of completed events are displayed in
execution.
If you watch the diagram carefully, you will see there is no point of convergence, that is, no shape has
been defined to synchronize the paths that exit the Parallel Gateway.
Once the change is done, Run the simulation again. Looking at the new results we can see that all is
working as expected: The number of instances created (1000) is equal to the sum of instances
completed (483+315+202). In addition, each token is passed correctly to the triage based on the
probabilities defined.
Overview
The second level of the simulation is useful in measuring end-to-end process time.
Here, resources are not included; Bizagi assumes an infinite capacity to avoid delays in the process
flow. This is the best case scenario under the given flow and processing times.
Arrival interval time: Defines the time interval between token instances generation. Instances will
be created until the max. arrival count is reached. This applies to Start Events, Activities that start
processes or Timer Events.
Select the Start Event of the process and click the Gear icon on the pie menu. Set the value for the
control.
· Alternatively, define a statistical distribution. Click the advanced icon alongside the field to view and
select a distribution.
Processing times: Defines the amount of time an Activity or Event needs to process a token. That
is, it defines a service time period from the moment a token arrives at an Activity or Event until it is
executed.
When the process contains embedded sub-processes, regard the following:
· If the sub-process has activities, assign time to each activity and not to the sub-process in order to
calculate the process time from the execution of each activity.
· If the sub-process does not have activities, assign a estimated process time to it.
Click the Activity or Event. Select the Clock on the pie menu, and enter a processing period in the Time
Control.
· You have the option of defining the processing time as a constant by entering values in the
corresponding units.
Once selected, you will be able to set the parameters of the distribution.
In the following image the processing time of a token in a specific activity is normally distributed with
mean 5 minutes and standard deviation of 3 minutes.
For the Time Analysis level, the results of the simulated outcome will contain the following information:
· Name: Identifies the specific BPM shape for which the results are displayed.
· Type: Identifies the element type of the BPM shape.
· Instances completed: Indicates how many instances were processed.
· Instances started: Indicates how many instances arrived at the shape.
· Minimum time: Indicates the minimum processing time of the shape.
· Maximum time: Indicates the maximum processing time of the shape.
· Average time: Indicates the average processing time of the shape.
· Total time: Indicates the total time employed to process the shape.
Classify Triage 5
Pick up patient 20
Authorize entry 4
Overview
This analysis shows the potential effect of resource constrains on process performance. Remember that
a Resource is defined as a person, equipment, or space necessary for the execution of a specific task.
In the previous level, Time Analysis, we assumed infinite resource capacity, that is, activities are able to
process infinite quantity of tokens at the same time. However this assumption is not practical at all. In
real terms there are always resources constraints.
The most common issue arising from introducing resources constraints is that tokens need to wait to
be processed at a given moment. This results in bottlenecks and increase in cycle time, thereby
reducing the capacity of the process.
Money is another resource directly or indirectly involved in a process. Consequently, this level also
allows you to analyze your business operation in terms of costs.
The purpose of this analysis is to identify and minimize the impact of these constraints in terms of cycle
time and costs.
The resource analysis results will allow you to evaluate the following performance measures:
Resources: Remember that a resource is a person, equipment or space necessary for the execution
of a specific task.
· Fixed cost: This cost is generated each time a resource processes a token.
· Per hour cost: This cost is generated for each hour a resource employs processing a token.
To define the Resources requirements for a task, click the task and select the Resource icon in the pie
menu.
Select the desired resources from the list available in the Resource window.
For each resource selected you must define how many of them are used in the task.
Activity costs: The cost of performing an activity, that is, how much an activity costs once executed.
To define the cost of performing an activity, select the Activity and click Cost on the pie menu.
For the Resource Analysis level, the results of the simulated outcome will contain the following
information for Process and Resources:
For Resources
Nurse 2 5 0
Ambulance 4 30 0,4
Classify Triage 1
Pick up patient 0
Authorize entry 1
Classify Triage 5
Pick up patient 20
Authorize entry 4
Define the required input data for this level: Resources, requirements and costs.
1. Define the resources involved in the process. Create the necessary resources from the Resources
option.
2. For each resource define the available quantity, fixed cost and unit cost.
3. Define the resources requirements for each activity. Click the activities and then the Resources icon.
Set the resource and number of instances to perform the activity.
For example, here we are defining that the second activity requires a nurse in order to be performed.
We'll see if the situation gets better including a new nurse in the available resources. Now we would
have three nurses.
Click Run to simulate the new scenario.
Overview
In addition to the resources constrains discussed in the previous level, we should also consider the
effect of resources availability over time to obtain a better understanding of true process performance.
In real scenarios, processes are subjected to ever changing conditions in the availability of resources.
Holidays, weekends, shifts and breaks restrict and define the true performance of a process.
This level predicts how a process will perform during dynamic periods of time, such as shifts, days
schedules or weeks.
At the end of this level you will obtain more accurate information on:
Defining a Calendar is done in the same way as Outlook. Thus, you can configure time shifts or longer
periods of time.
In the Calendar configuration you find the following options:
Calendars assignment:
Additionally in this level, you have to define the availability of resources for each defined calendar.
For each Resource (row) you must define the availability for each calendar (column).
Keep in mind that if you leave a Calendar blank, Bizagi will assume the availability value of a resource is
the one defined in the Default Calendar.
This calendar includes the same resources availability defined in Level 3 (Resources Analysis).
Results
When the simulation is complete, select Results to view the outcome. For a calendar analysis , the
results of the simulated outcome will contain the following information:
Resource Morning shift (6:00 am - 2:00 pm) Day shift (2:00 Night shift
pm - 10:00 pm) (10:00 pm - 6:00
am)
Nurse 3 3 3
Ambulance 4 4 4
Basic ambulance 2 1 2
Receptionist 2 1 1
Repeat the procedure for the morning and day shift calendars.
2. Through the Resources option, set the availability of resource for each calendar created previously.
The resources usage results will highlight any critical capacity problems.
Configure Simulation
In order to configure scenarios to be more realistic, some parameters can be configured.
With the Simulation view opened, click the Properties button in the ribbon to configure the scenario.
· Name: The name of the scenario. It should be clear and descriptive to easily identify the simulation
conditions.
· Description: A detailed description of the new assumptions and changes made to the process.
· Author: The person or group that created the scenario.
· Version: The version number of the scenario.
· Start: Date on which the simulation starts.
· Duration: Period of time during which the process will be simulated.
· Base Time unit: The units in which time metrics and results will be displayed.
· Base currency unit: The units in which cost metrics and results will be displayed.
· Replication: Number of simulations for the given scenario.
· Seed: Value of the seed used to generate random numbers.
We recommend using 30 replications to make sure the simulation reaches a stable state.
For the replications to take place, keep in mind that you should run the What-If analysis which
provides direct results (instead of using the graphical simulation with Real-time display at the Run
option). Notice that you may select only 1 scenario, to run the 30 replications.
Scenarios
Bizagi Simulation allows you to create multiple scenarios for your process model, to analyze different
combinations of data input and observe many possible outcomes. Scenarios are completely
independent from one another, from the definition of the scenario itself to the data included in each
shape of the model.
When you are in Simulation View, the model will display a default scenario created by Bizagi. All
information entered belongs to that specific scenario. The name of the process scenario being
simulated is displayed above the model:
· Name: The name of the scenario. It should be clear and descriptive to easily identify the simulation
conditions.
· Description: A detailed description of the new assumptions and changes made to the process.
· Author: The person or group that created the scenario.
· Version: The version number of the scenario.
· Start: Date on which the simulation starts.
· Duration: Period of time during which the process will be simulated.
· Base Time unit: The units in which time metrics and results will be displayed.
· Base currency unit: The units in which cost metrics and results will be displayed.
· Replication: Number of simulations for the given scenario.
· Seed: Value of the seed used to generate random numbers.
We recommend using 30 replications to make sure the simulation reaches a stable state.
For the replications to take place, keep in mind that you should run the What-If analysis which
provides direct results (instead of using the graphical simulation with Real-time display at the Run
option). Notice that you may select only 1 scenario, to run the 30 replications.
Create scenarios
To create a new what-if scenario, select the What if option (found in the Simulation group on the
ribbon) and select Manage scenarios.
· Duplicate selected scenario: Creates a copy of the current scenario with the same parameters
configurations (number of resources, processing time, calendars etc).
· Blank scenario: Creates a scenario with blank simulation parameters.
What If analysis
What if analysis is a powerful tool for improvement that evaluates how strategic, tactical or operational
changes may impact the business . Through different scenarios you will be able to perform a true-to-life
analysis of your processes without putting your business operation at risk.
· How would the processing time of a case decrease if the number of available resources is doubled?
· What would be the cost/benefit rate of reducing the process time in a specified activity?
· What would be the effect of altering the working shift configuration in the operational cost and
service level?
The reports generated in What if analysis will display the results of all scenarios to be easily compared.
We recommend using 30 replications to make sure the simulation reaches a stable state.
For the replications to take place, keep in mind that you should run the What-If analysis which
provides direct results (instead of using the graphical simulation with Real-time display at the Run
option). Notice that you may select only 1 scenario, and in this example we used 100 replications.
Compare scenarios
When each scenario with its relevant data has been created, click What if and mark the scenarios you
wish to compare. Thereafter, run the simulation to generate the reports.
Resource Morning shift (6:00 am - 2:00 pm) Day shift (2:00 Night shift
pm - 10:00 pm) (10:00 pm - 6:00
am)
Nurse 3 3 3
Ambulance 4 4 4
Basic ambulance 2 1 2
Receptionist 2 1 1
Resource Morning shift (6:00 am - 2:00 pm) Day shift (2:00 Night shift
pm - 10:00 pm) (10:00 pm - 6:00
am)
Nurse 2 2 2
Ambulance 2 2 2
Basic ambulance 2 2 2
Receptionist 1 1 1
The resources results show that the utilization of resources increased, especially for the Nurse, now at
full capacity. This gives us an idea that there will be delays and patients will be held waiting. The
positive result is that costs are reduced.
To model and automate your processes you need Bizagi Modeler and Bizagi Studio on your Computer
or laptop.
Use the free Modeler to diagram and document your process. Once your process is complete you can
then press the Run button to export the process to Bizagi Studio, where a wizard will guide you through
all the necessary steps to automate the process, and turn it into an executable application (workflow).
With Bizagi Modeler you start mapping and documenting the process flowchart.
Use our Bizagi Studio to enter all the necessary information for process execution: standard time, costs,
user interfaces, business rules, etc. This model is stored in a database and used for process execution
by the Bizagi Engine.
Bizagi BPM Suite allows you to enter all the necessary information for process execution: standard time,
costs, user interfaces, business rules, etc. This information is stored as a model in a database and used
at runtime for process execution through a work portal for end users.
Overview
Bizagi Studio is the construction environment that transforms processes designed with Bizagi Modeler
into applications without the need for programming.
Bizagi offers a set of tools that enables you to graphically define the model associated with a business
process (flowchart, business rules, user interface, etc.). This model is stored into a database, then is
interpreted and executed in production by Bizagi BPM Server without having to use intermediate code.
Bizagi Studio is available for free download from our site www.bizagi.com.
To model processes that are executable in Bizagi Studio, you need to consider the following.
Activities
Activities represent work or tasks carried out by members of the organization. Bizagi Studio only
supports some of the types of activities. You can define your tasks as User Task, Service Task, Receive
Task, Send Task, Script Task, Manual Task or Business Rule Task.
Events
Start Events
The start event indicates the start of the process. Bizagi Studio supports several start events:
Intermediate Events
Intermediate events indicate where something happens somewhere between the start and the end of a
Process. Bizagi Studio allows you to include five types of intermediate event in your processes.
Click here for more information about how to communicate between processes.
End Events
End events indicate when a process ends. Bizagi Studio supports the following end events.
Gateways
Gateways indicates a variation in process flow whether depending on an expression or intending to
create parallel flows.
· Parallel Gateway
· Inclusive Gateway
· Event-based Gateway
· Exclusive Event-based Gateway
· Parallel Event-based Gateway
· Complex Gateway
To execute your model, you can use Sequence Flow Connectors to connect the different
elements in the process.
You can also include the association connector to link artifacts to an element.
Sub-process
Bizagi Studio supports four types of sub-processes, each sub-process has a special behavior:
· Embedded: When you define a Sub-process as Embedded, which is the default Sub-process, it will be
dependent on the parent Process and consequently have visibility of the parent’s global data.
· Reusable: A Reusable Sub-process is defined when an activity within a Process calls another
predefined Process. The Process that is called is not dependent on the parent.
· Multiple: A multiple Sub-process is instantiated several times. It could be executed in Parallel or in
Sequence.
· Transactional: The transactional Process is a Sub-process which behavior is controlled through a
transaction protocol.
Execution
Once you have completed the process modeling you can run it on the Bizagi BPM Suite.
Watch a 5 minutes quicktour and learn about Bizagi BPM Suite - Process execution
Message end Indicates that a message is sent when the process is ended.
If the Event is used to catch the signal, the signal Event marker
will be filled. Alternatively, the unfilled Event marker is
allocated to the throw message.
Signal end It indicates that a signal is sent when the process is complete.
When you drag and drop an Intermediate Event into a process, you can convert it to another type of
event.
For example to convert an Intermediate Event to a Message Event, follow these two steps:
1. Convert the event type from Intermediate Event into Message. Right-click on it, select Event Type and
choose Message.
Those interactions between processes can be represented with messages. To inset a message, click on
the Message line option in the Connectors palette.
"The arrow symbol indicates that the object listed in the row can connect to the object listed in the
column. (...) Only those objects that can have incoming and/or outgoing Message Flows are shown in
the table. Thus, Lane, Gateway, Data Object, Group, and Text Annotation are not listed in the table."
Business Process Model and Notation, v2.0 page 44
Overview
When modeling interaction between Processes, Bizagi provides smart-align options for both the new
Pools and Message Flows between them.
When including a new Pool into a diagram, using smart alignment will line up the Pools to each other
(left vertically alignment).
To use this feature, make sure you drag the new Pool to the existing Pool's left start point (vertically
near).
Bizagi will highlight both Pools to indicate that you may drop the new one at this location and allow
auto-alignment.
To use this feature, ensure your Task or Event being connected to the Message Flow is placed close
enough to allow for a straight line.
Overview
· Bizagi offers Modeler Collaboration services which are free for a Personal Plan. Bizagi Cloud is
available wherever, whenever.
· On premise collaboration is completely free, whilst collaboration services in Bizagi Cloud have a
price.
To enable collaboration, select File > Save As > Local Models > Save as Collaboration File.
Allocate appropriate permissions to your team, so that they can access the new folder and the files
within. Anyone with access to the location, where the collaboration model is saved (the .bpmc file), can
access the Model.
Right-click the folder and the .bpmc file and click the arrow next to Share with. Select Specific people to
add the necessary people. The invitees will have access to the model.
1. Download and install the Online Storage Service software on your computer, in this example we will
use Dropbox.
Since a shared model relies on both a .bpmc file and an annex folder, it is strictly important to
ensure that you open a model when having both the file and the folder in the same path (by using
the desktop software that synchronizes files from your online storage service).
2. A Dropbox folder will be created on your computer. Any files placed in this folder can be shared with
other users of Dropbox.
Example of collaboration
Overview
· Bizagi offers Modeler Collaboration services which are free for a Personal Plan. Bizagi Cloud is
available wherever, whenever.
· On premise collaboration is completely free, whilst collaboration services in Bizagi Cloud have a
price.
To illustrate how to perform collaboration within a process we will use the following example:
Assume that Andrea works in the administrative department of her company. She has been working on
the Travel Request process, which involves employee activities to manage a request for a flight ticket, a
currency advance and a hotel reservation.
She needs to share her model to collaborate with Mark on her team, allowing him to review the model
and suggest any improvements.
1. To share her model, she clicks on File > Save As > Local Models > Save as Collaboration Model File.
She saves the model in a shared location (using the wizard), where Mark can access it.
2. She grants Mark privileges to access the location where the model is shared.
Once Mark is given permission, he opens the .bpmc file.
3. Andrea and Mark can now both open the model and work concurrently on it. They can communicate
with each other by entering messages in the Comments window found on the right of the screen.
Messages are displayed in real-time; hence, as soon as either party types a comment and clicks the
Enter button, the comment will be instantaneously displayed.
4. Andrea asks Mark to help her with the Expenses report diagram. They can both view the Expense
report diagram simultaneously and thereafter discuss it.
Mark reviews the diagram. He comments, at the Diagram level, that all the activities of the
Administrative Manager are missing and stipulates that he will make the changes.
5. By default all diagrams are read-only. To change or update a diagram it is necessary to click Check
Out, located in the Diagram group on the Home tab.
In the given example, this feature enables Mark to perform any changes on the diagram; however, for
Andrea and other users the diagram will be locked.
7. Andrea receives a notification informing her there has been a change in the Expense report diagram.
9. Mark reviews Andrea's latest comment. Either Mark or Andrea can make the change. Whoever makes
the change will lock the diagram, using the Check Out feature.
Collaboration levels
Collaboration comments can be made at three different levels: model, diagram and element, so that
team members can comment on the context in each level.
· Bizagi offers Modeler Collaboration services which are free for a Personal Plan. Bizagi Cloud is
available wherever, whenever.
· On premise collaboration is completely free, whilst collaboration services in Bizagi Cloud have a
price.
· Model comments: comments posted within the Model apply to all the diagrams, i.e. are visible from
any diagram. These comments are found in the Diagrams tab.
· Element comments: comments posted within a selected diagram element only apply to that element
within a diagram.
· Bizagi offers Modeler Collaboration services which are free for a Personal Plan. Bizagi Cloud is
available wherever, whenever.
· On premise collaboration is completely free, whilst collaboration services in Bizagi Cloud have a
price.
You can lock the process for editing before or after you log off the network. However we recommend
that you lock the diagram for edit BEFORE you disconnect or log off from the network to avoid
conflicts.
An example of an offline collaboration being needed is where you may be on a business trip and plan
to work whilst on the airplane.
1. Before you leave your office click the Check Out button, in the Diagram group on the Home tab, to
lock the diagram for editing.
(Since the diagram is in edit mode you alone are able to make the changes, which can be done whilst
on the plane.)
Overview
Collaboration allows multiple users to work together on a model which is saved in a shared folder.
Team members can perform changes to a model at the same time, some being online and others
being offline. When offline users come back online, and diagrams are synchronized, conflicts in the
changes can occur. Conflicts will occur if changes are made by more than one person to the process
flow or to the documentation of any element in the same diagram.
As you come back online and synchronize the model, a new window will be displayed to warn that there
is a conflict.
There will be two diagrams, one in blue and one in red. The blue one will be your diagram i.e.; being
the person who synchronized.
The person synchronizing (you in this case) must decide how to handle the conflict.
You can revert to your colleague’s online version or retain your own offline version. Note, you can
always create a copy of the diagram that was not kept, by selecting the option Save a copy. Doing so
will allow you to implement the changes in the discarded version.
Using Categories
Overview
Categories classify comments, that have been made in the Comments Window, according to their
priority, relevance or topic. For example you can classify your comments to distinguish between urgent
changes, issues to evaluate, etc.
Defining and assigning categories enables you to filter comments and so focus on the most important
information.
3. Select the category you wish to define and then click the Rename button. Name it and click OK
button.
To clear an associate category tag select the category icon, located on the right-hand side of the
comment; thereafter, select the Clear option from the drop-down list.
Overview
When a model is in collaboration mode, the user profile identifies the team member. Your profile can
be configured to include a personalized user name (nickname) and a picture.
User profiles are defined locally to each computer. A local user profile is created and stored on the
first computer the user logs into. If you use Bizagi Modeler on multiple computers you will need to
define a user profile on each one.
You can customize your user profile by following the steps below:
Overview
Collaborative process models are saved with a .bpmc extension (the ‘c’ denotes collaboration), in
comparison to non-collaborating models that use a .bpm extension. Click here for more information
about Bizagi Modeler extensions.
When you have finished collaborating, that is, your process design is finished, you can save your model
as a .bpm file again in the location where all your processes are stored.
Force unlock
Overview
By default all diagrams are read-only. To change or update a diagram it is necessary to click Check Out
on the Home tab. This will enable you to perform any changes on the diagram, and for everyone else,
the diagram will be locked.
Doing so avoid inconsistencies, as single-user editing prohibits conflicting updates on shared data,
which is important to maintain integrity. However, you may override this feature by forcing an unlock at
which point Bizagi Modeler will warn you that conflicts may occur.
A locked diagram is evident by a display message stating that the model is read only.
Click the username link.
If you click the Unlock diagram button the following warning message will be shown.
Transactional processes are used to coordinate multiple activities that need to be completed
successfully. If any of them are not successful it is necessary to return to the initial state (a state before
the activities where ever performed). BPMN uses the following diagram element to represent a
Transactional Sub-process:
The long lasting transactional BPMN models have three possible outcomes:
· The first outcome is when all activities in the process are successfully performed, the process
continues with the normal flow.
· The second outcome is when a failure occurs, and it is necessary to reverse all activities that have
already been completed within the process. This is achieved through the execution of compensation
activities. Each activity that needs compensation has one task associated to it. Compensation is
executed when it is necessary to return to the initial state of something and is only performed when
an activity has successfully ended.
· The last outcome occurs when an unexpected error is presented, the transactional sub-process
activities are interrupted without any compensation and the process continues with the intermediate
error event.
To model a transactional process it is necessary to attach the Error and Cancel events to the sub-
process. In any of these two events occur the process will have a flow to continue:
When a travel request is made, it is necessary to make reservations for travel, hotel and car hire. If any
one of them cannot be successfully completed, then the whole trip is not possible. The reservations that
were made successfully, must be compensated.
Include a compensation event for each activity. This way, if any activity fails, the completed activities can
be compensated.
General FAQs
· What is the price of Bizagi Modeler?
· Is Bizagi Modeler open source?
· How do I install Bizagi Modeler on my Mac?
· Can I install Bizagi Modeler on a multi-user setup?
· What kind of files does the Modeler handle?
· What is the BPMN version supported by Bizagi Modeler?
· How do I know if my diagram has modeling errors?
Troubleshooting FAQs
· Why can’t I use pools, lanes and milestones in a sub-process?
· Why can't I see all the figures in the palette?
· Why is the Modeler included in the BPM Suite different from Bizagi Modeler?
· Why do I get an activation message of ActiveX every time I export my models to web?
· I get the error Exception from HRESULT: 0x80010001 (RPC_E_CALL_REJECTED) when exporting to
Word
· Why can’t I open my .bpm models shared in SharePoint directly with Bizagi Modeler?
· After publishing the web output to SharePoint 2010, the default page will not open. What can I do?
· Why can't I publish to my MediaWiki?
· I get the message Error loading the model because it is being used when trying to open a Bizagi
Collaboration Model file
· .bpmc, the file format used to save diagrams for Team Collaboration Mode.
Team Collaboration is used to provide collaboration within your work team for the definition of your
process diagrams and documentation.
Click this link Team Collaboration for further information.
· The .bpm in the 1.6 version is used to save a model that will be imported to our Bizagi BPM Suite to
be automated and turned into a running application (workflow).
If you want to have interoperability (import, export) with other BPM tools, then you should use the
standard XPDL language or Microsoft Visio.
For more information please refer to Exporting and Importing.
Bizagi Modeler does not validate the notation and the logic used in your diagram. However we offer
several types of support to help you through your process modeling and documentation. For more
information please refer to Training and Support.
This article provides process modelers some guidelines to build clear and effective models compliant
with the BPMN standard.
Below you will find useful tips to follow these principles and aid the correct processes definition and
communication.
Once the process logic has been defined, validate your diagrams making sure you properly use the
different BPMN elements. The following aspect should be checked for each BPMN element:
· Do not create lanes to represent the area or entity that carries out automatic tasks or gateways.
· Always use the same type of Gateway used as for splitting to join the flow.
· Use terminate events only when this is strictly necessary. They are used to model situations where
several alternative paths are enabled and the entire process have to be finished when one of them is
completed.
· Never use sequence flows to connect elements of different pools. Use message flows to represent
information exchanging between processes.
Labeling Processes
Processes labels should clearly describe their main purpose. Ensure that you do not use short names
or abbreviations.
Labeling Activities
Labeling Events
Do not label start and end events when only one instance of them is used. It is very common to label
them as "Process start" and "Process end" but this is redundant and not necessary.
· Use labeling when multiple start and end events are used. Label them according to what they
represent using a noun. Do not repeat names.
Labeling Milestones
Milestones should be labeled with a noun making reference to a period of time (summer, maturity) or
what happens in a period of time (creation,approval, delivery).
· If names do not apply for any gateway use abbreviations or numbers to differentiate them.
· When diagramming it is useful to imagine that you are a final user. If a set of consecutive activities
can be performed by the same person, at the same time then these activities could be integrated into
a single activity.
· A set of consecutive activities in the same lane may indicate missing participant details, too much
detail, or a misalignment in scope. Review these patterns to identify opportunities for activity
integration.
Group activities
Use sub-processes to group activities with the same purpose. You can expand the sub-processes later
to expose details of lower levels of hierarchy. A process will contain multiple pages, but internally the
integrity of a single model is maintained.
For further information about modeling patterns please check the BPMN Workflow patterns document
My model includes several Sub-processes. How can I import all the diagrams in
a new model?
It is possible to import as many diagrams as you want. However, if you are importing the diagrams
from XPDL format you must import them one by one (XDPL files only save information about one
process).
If any Process includes a reusable Sub-process, you must include both diagrams and create the
relationship between them. However, if the Sub-process is embedded, the parent process will
automatically import it.
A Pool has many connection points, you can locate the points by dragging the start or end connection
along the border. Whenever a connection is available it will highlight to a green point.
If your diagram is bigger than this allocated size, we recommend dividing the diagram into sub-
processes. This allows for a large and complex model to be more readable and easily understood.
1. Bizagi Modeler in its application, uses Segoe UI with size 8 as the default font.
Even though you may change font, font size and font style for information where rich-text formatting is
available (text in description, Text box and Text area extended attributes), you may not change this for
other information such as the one in Name, Start quantity, etc.
2. There is no option to customize the font used for the actual labels and captions such as "Name",
"Description", "Performers".
3. You may change the default font and font size for the visual labels in BPMN elements (when
modeling the Process). This is a whole different setting which is configured in the general options of the
application.
When changing this setting, it will apply for brand new elements from that moment on. It does not
currently provide an option to apply the change for existing elements, due to the fact that this would
most likely not adjust to the position of elements already modeled.
Keep in mind that the default font setting is stored per User (it will apply for the given user's work in a
particular installation), and therefore you may want to review that existing models continue to work with
the previous font and font size.
4. When launching the Presentation mode, the same default setting applies in labels and captions
(Segoe UI size 8). This will be off course overridden by any other explicit format entered for the text
inside descriptions and Text box or Text area extended attributes. A similar concept applies when
publishing to Web, MediaWiki or PDF.
5. When publishing to Word, you may use a custom template of your choice. If you do, this template
will contain implicitly the font and styles to be used for the Word output. Yet again, this applies for
information other than that contained inside descriptions, and text or text area extended attributes
(given that the text with defined rich-text format will override it).
You can turn on or off this warning by marking either the Don't show this message again checkbox or
Warn element type changes checkbox (located at the application general Options).
1. Share you models among team members and work together simultaneously during the process
design phase with the Team Collaboration feature.
For more information please refer to Team Collaboration
3. You can share processes and export to either Visio or XPDL. Your business process can also be
exported as images to PNG, bpm, SVG or JPG format files.
For more information please refer to Publish or Export
4. Display the process in presentation mode with a full read-only screen view. For more information
please refer to Presentation Mode.
In Presentation Mode you can access the main features of your processes and the documentation you
have included. Additionally, you can define Presentation Actions to allow for a more interactive and
understandable presentation.
For more information please refer to Presentation Mode
1. Check if your current Word installation has any issues by going to your control panel and repairing
the installation.
2. Review if Word has add-ins, which may be affecting word instances being opened by a remote call.
This means that you can check in your Word options, in the Add-ins tab, if unmarking your COM add-
ins solves this problem.
For further information on how to configure SharePoint 2010 settings please review Microsoft's articles,
such as:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262107.aspx
3. Check the upload directory has permission set for creating and editing pages.
4. The LocalSettings.php contains the configuration settings of your wiki. Assign permission to
LocalSettings.php as follows:
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['upload'] = true;
$wgFileExtensions = array('png','gif','jpg','jpeg','doc','xls','mpp','pdf','ppt','tiff','bmp','docx', 'xlsx',
'pptx','ps','odt','ods','odp','odg');
In order to fix this error, move the folder from the original location to the new desired path.
Vehicle
Insurance
Policy
Underwriting
This process app
provides
underwriters with
control and visibility
of the vehicles
required to insure,
reducing paperwork
and unnecessary
duplication.
Click here to
download this
process template
Download the process used in the Webinar "Creating a process documentation portal with Bizagi"
This is the example file for you to use as a reference to model your processes and create your own
documentation portal.