The Business Process Management Initiative was the group that wrote an early shared diagram language for business processes. Companies were already drawing their processes. The group wanted those drawings to mean the same thing from one tool to the next.
The language that came out of that work is Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). The initiative was the authoring group. The notation is the diagram standard a tool implements.
What the Group Was Trying to Fix
- One shape, one meaning. A task, a decision, and a start were drawn the same way in every tool that adopted the language.
- A file a second tool can read. The diagram was not trapped in the vendor’s private format.
- A picture and a process. The drawing could describe the work, and a process engine could run from the same description.
Authoring Group and Diagram Standard
| Compared | The Initiative | The Notation |
| What it is | The group that started the shared language | The shapes and the file format tools implement |
| A new drawing | The group does not draw the company’s process | The drawing uses the standard shapes |
| A later revision | The original group has handed the work on | The specification is revised and tools update to it |