Software AG Products 10.7 | Designing and Implementing Business Process Models | ARIS Method manual | Modeling BPMN 2.0 | Process | Activities | Loop characteristics | Loop characteristics representations
 
Loop characteristics representations
An activity can be specified to repeat based on a condition. That is called standard loop activity in BPMN. A standard loop is equivalent to the do while and do until structure in programming. The number of iterations is unknown.
A multi-instance activity is another type of repeating activity useful for performing actions on a list of items. A multi-instance activity is equivalent with a for each structure in programming. The number of iterations is known when the activity starts. It is the number of items in the list. Iterations of a multi-instance activity can be performed concurrently or sequentially.
The marker for a standard loop is a circular arrow at the bottom center of the activity symbol.
BPMN: Standard loop
The markers for multi-instance activities are three bars at the bottom center of the task or subprocess symbol.
Vertical bars are used to represent concurrent/parallel performances:
Symbols of BPMN multi-instance (parallel) activities
Horizontal bars are used to represent sequential performances:
Symbols for activities of the BPMN multi-instance (parallel)
Loop characteristics has no specific attributes, it inherits the attributes and associations of base element. The attribute type Loop type is used in ARIS to specify whether the loop is a standard loop, a multi-instance parallel loop, or a multi-instance sequential loop. The attribute values are visualized by mini-symbols.