Prerequisites

• Access to the Process (PM063) menu.
• Previously created process.

Introduction

In BPMN processes, the lanes graphically represent the party responsible for executing the activities, decisions, and sub-processes that are within their perimeter. Lanes can be positioned horizontally or vertically.

See how to configure a lane:

Adding lanes to the flowchart

To add a new lane, click on the lane element and drag it to the modeling area. At this moment, a new lane will be displayed in the flowchart:

Changing lane arrangement (vertical/horizontal)

By default, the arrangement of pools and lanes of BPMN processes is horizontal. However, they can also be arranged vertically. To do this, just click on Reverse orientation in the button panel. 

Upon clicking on this option, the process and its lanes will be displayed in the vertical orientation:

Upon clicking on the Reverse orientation button again, the process and its lanes will be redisplayed horizontally.

Moving lanes (left/right or up/down)

If it is necessary to move a laneup or down (in case of horizontal orientation) or from left to right (in case of vertical orientation), select the lane that will be moved and click the button that corresponds to the movement that will be made: Move to left/top or Move to right/down:

It is also possible to use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the lanes.

Changing the lane's responsible party and name

To change the parties responsible for executing the activities, decisions, and sub-processes contained in a lane, select it and, in the General section of the item panel, choose the new responsible party from the following options:

• Department: if this option is selected, the parties responsible for executing the items of the selected lane will be the users from a defined department of the organization. To do so, enter the desired department in the respective field.
• Third-party entity: if this option is selected, the party responsible for executing the items of the selected lane will be a third-party entity. To do so, enter the desired third-party entity in the respective field.
• Team: if this option is selected, the parties responsible for executing the items of the lane will be the users who are members of a given team. To this end, enter the team in the respective field. In the Name options section, options will be provided to define the name of the lane.
• Department/Position: if this option is selected, the parties responsible for executing the items of the selected lane will be the users holding a position in a given department of the organization. To do so, enter the desired position and department in the respective field.
• Specific user: if this option is selected, the party responsible for executing the items of the selected lane will be a specific user. To this end, enter the desired user in the respective field.
• Defined in the instance: if this option is selected, the default party responsible for executing the items of the selected lane will be the user who starts the process. However, it is possible to perform specific configurations for every activity/decision of the lane; in addition to the process starter, the system allows defining as executor the Process starter leader, the Specific activity executor, or even the Leader of specific activity executor. The details of this configuration are described in the Activity/Decision configuration sections.

Use the Name field to define a specific name for the lane, if you do not wish to use the information automatically filled out by the system.

Conclusion

Thus, you have successfully used the resources related to the lanes!