A process is the top-level asset in a process project. It contains steps and logic; and it is the asset that is ultimately built and executed in the Process Engine and uploaded to the Process Audit Database for analysis. Processes can be started in many different ways, including using rules and services.

A process can invoke a rule, of course, but a rule can also invoke a process. Designer 8.2 and later contains new functionality to support BPMN 2.0, including new ways to represent your processes in a more visual and logical language. Activities are things that are done. Events are things that happen. Those are the first concepts you need to understand. See About Activities and About BPMN Events.

BPMN processes can be designated as callable. A BPMN callable process has a defined input / output signature, known as a Global Process Specification, and can be called by a call activity step. Call activities can also call webMethods referenced processes. For more information, see Call Activity Concepts.

You can open older Designer processes created with Designer 8.1 and earlier with later versions of Designer. Some changes are applied to ensure compatibility with BPMN. For a reference of those changes, see Legacy Processes and BPMN.