The survey results summarize BPMN usage from April 1-19, 2011. Over 30 responses were collected from BPMN experts and proficient users. The results show that BPMN 1.1 and 2.0 are most commonly used. Respondents are very familiar with core BPMN elements. Processes typically contain 5-25 elements and are used mostly for process description and simulation. Pools and lanes are used to represent participants and roles. Validation is important and simulation helps find bottlenecks and deadlocks. Processes are commonly exported to BPEL and executed internally using engines like jBPM. Execution helps automate tasks and manage cases.

1. Results of the
BPMN Usage Survey
1st April – 19th April 2011
Dr. Michele Chinosi, PhD (chinosi.michele@gmail.com) and Dr. Alberto Trombetta, PhD
http://bpex.blogspot.com
1. Introduction
These results will be part of a paper entitled “BPMN: an Introduction to the Standard” that will be
published in 2011. In the article the collected results herewith presented are compared and sometimes
merged with other data coming from other surveys and from freely available sources on the Internet, like
LinkedIn groups dedicated to BPMN or Web-Communities.
During the period of this survey more than 30 answers were collected. The intended audience of the
questionnaire was a (even small) community of experts and proficient BPMN users. Thus, even if this
survey can not be taken into account as representative of a public sentiment about BPMN, this work
clearly represents a sight of the experts on how BPMN is used by practitioners in everyday business
process modeling chores.
2. BPMN standard and graphical notation
2.1.Which version of BPMN are you currently using?
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
BPM N 1.1 BPMN 1.1, BPM N BPMN 1.1, BPMN BPMN 1.2, BPM N BPM N 1.2 BPMN 2.0
1.2 1.2, BPMN 2.0 2.0
2.2.How much are you familiar with... (starting with BPMN 1.2 elements as
subset of BPMN 2.0 elements)
Results in a scale from 1 (less familiar) to 5 (very familiar). For a matter of space in the graph legend we
used abbreviations. This is the ordered list of all the elements as listed in the legend of the graph: Pools,
Lanes, Nested Lanes, Untyped Events, Message Events, Timer Events, Error Events, Cancel Events,
Compensation Events, Conditional Events, Signal Events, Multiple Events, Link Events, Terminate
Events, Data-Based Exclusive Gateways, Event-Based Exclusive Gateways, Parallel Gateways, Inclusive
Gateways, Complex Gateways, Tasks, Sub-Processes, Ad-hoc Sub-processes, Embedded Sub-Processes,
Loop Activities, MultiInstance Activities, Transactions, Events put on Activities boundaries, Groups,

2. Text Annotation, Data Objects, Sequence Flows, Conditional Flows, Default Flows, Message Flows,
Associations. The corresponding table is published in the Annex I: Tables.
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
1 2 3 4 5
How much are you familiar with these elements?
Pools Lanes Nested Lanes Un. Events Msg. Events Timer Ev
Error Ev Cancel Ev Comp. Ev. Cond. Ev. Sign. Ev. Mult. Ev.
Link. Ev. Term. Ev. DBX Gtw. EBX Gtw. Par. Gtw. Inc. Gtw.
Com. Gtw. Task SubPr. AdHoc SP Emb. SP Loop
MI Act. Transac. Ev. on Bound Groups Text Ann Data Obj
Seq Flow Cond Flow Def. Flow Msg. Flow Association
2.3.How much are you familiar with... (only for BPMN 2.0 users)
Results in a scale from 1 (less familiar) to 5 (very familiar). For a matter of space in the graph legend we
used abbreviations. This is the ordered list of all the elements as listed in the legend of the graph:
Escalation Events, Parallel Multiple Events, Events Sub-Process Interrupting, Events Sub-Process Non-
Interrupting, Boundary Interrupting Events, Boundary Non-Interrupting Events, Exclusive Event-based
Gateway (Instantiate), Parallel Event-based Gateway (Instantiate), Call Activities, Sequential
MultiInstance Activities, Data Input, Data Output, Collection Data Object, Data Store, Message (to depict
the content of a communication), Conversation Diagrams, Conversation Link, Forked Conversation Link,
Choreography Diagrams, Choreography Task, Choreography Sub-Process, Multiple Participants Marker.
The corresponding table is published in the Annex I: Tables.
50.00%
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
1 2 3 4 5
How much are you familiar with these elements?
Esc. Ev. P.M. Ev. Ev. Int. Ev. Non-In. Bound. Int. Bound.N.Int.
X EB GW I P EB GW I Call Act. SeqMI Act Data In Data Out
Coll. Data Data Store Msg Conv. Diag Conv. Link Conv. FLink
Chor. Diag Ch. Task Ch. SubP MP Marker

3. IN
TA
LI
O
IT B P
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
P M Biz
A
Pr N
D g
AR O oce es i
IS Si RA ss ig
Bu gn CL M ner
av E od
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
si B e
ne io
ss TI Ac PM ll er
A B TO
rc C ad St T
hi O e u
te Tr Bu mic di o
excluding flows)
3. Preferred tools
ct is si /O
(A ote ne
R c s ry Po
IS h V s S x ol
Bu is tu
si io S dio
ne
ss t e n La
G B
D cils
e ne
l
SA oba ON sign
VV l 3 I er
6 TA ) Ev
SP ION 0 A St en
na ud ts
AR P i
X roc lyst o
E
<5
3.1.Which are your favourite tools?
nt ess Vie
C Vi e M w Ta
am su r p
ris od sk
al e e s
5-10
eo A P Ar ller
Bu RIS ara ch
si di
ne Bu gm itec
Su
11-15
ss sin B t bP
M ess P -V
IB od
M Fu el Arc A G
R j e h 16-25 at
at itsu r (N ite ew
io In oM ct ay
na te s
>25
ID l So rst agi
S f t w a g e c)
S a Ar
ch B ti fa
ee re A PM ct
rA rc s
R h C
IS itec on
ve
Ex t rs
pr at
es io
ns
s C
i ho
JB G r a re
os fx og
s ra
jB ph
M ie
EG PM s
Ya A
oq su
ia ite
ng
B
PM Vis
N io
Ed
ito
r
2.4.How many elements are your processes composed of? (On the average,

4. 0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
Easy to use
3.2.Why?
BPMN 2.0 Compliance (graphical notation + attributes and properties)
Repository (even remote via SVN,FTP,...)
Validation support
Execution environment
Price
Supported Platforms
BPMN 1.1/1.2 Compliance (graphical notation + attributes and properties)
Documentation of processes is automatically generated
Integration with other software
BPMN 2.0 Compliance (only graphical notation)
Collaborative environment
Open-source
Simulation environment
Support for XPDL
Exporting formats
It integrates other functionalities (business analysis,organization
charts,reports,...)
Support for WSDL
BPMN 1.1/1.2 Compliance (only graphical notation)
Support for BPEL4WS
can be used for many other models
Effectivnes of building of large diagrams
It´s our product :-)

5. 4. What do you use BPMN for?
4.1.What's the main purpose you use BPMN for?
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Processes Description and Simulation Processes Execution Processes Description
5. Process Description
The questions presented in this section of the survey were also available to sections dedicated to
simulation and execution. So here we present the aggregated results taken from the three sections.
5.1.Which type of processes do you usually model?
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Administrative procedures (booking
Account checking
Warehouse management
Quality management systems
Business processes
Selling procedures
Medical procedures
On-line stores procedures
Environmental processes
Supply chains
Data collection
Data flows
Generic workflows
resources,documental flow,...)

6. 5.2.How much do you care about attributes and properties?
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Elements Labels I add some values, I also define Just to put some Just to put some Not at all
are enough like timers, scripts and rules details details required
messages, ... for execution
TOTAL Pools Lanes Events Gateways Activities Flows Conversations Choreographies
5.3.Validation of models
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
It's fundamental to work I don't care if a BPMN It's better to work a valid A BPMN diagram, even if it A BPMN diagram, even if it
with valid BPMN diagrams model is valid but insted it BPN diagram is simple, should ever be is simple, should ever be
should be easily readable validated. Otherwise we validated
from everyone cannot execute it

7. 0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
I use Pools and Lanes to
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
50.00%
represent participants and
roles
any of these, depends on the
project
Sometimes
I use Pools but I don't use
Lanes
5.5.How do you use Pools/Lanes?
I use Pools for participants
and Lanes only to graphically
Yes
subdivide Pools
I use Pools to represent
participants (entities or roles)
and lanes to represent
subdivisions such as roles or
systems
Pools for process boundaries
No
Lanes for roles
I use Pools and Lanes to
represent the organization
chart of my
5.4.Do you expand the BPMN notation with new personalized elements?
company/institute/resource/...

8. 6. Process Simulation
6.1.How do you simulate your process?
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
By hands I'm using a tool I export the I export the I'm using a self- Simple Complex
providing model in other model and made tool for simulation of simulation
simulation formats (like then I import simulation the flows based also on
functionalities XPDL or BPEL) the model into real/testing
and then I another tool values put in as
simulate it variables
6.2.Simulation purposes
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Find bottlenecks Find deadlocks Test exception Estimate time / Find infinite cycles Understand the
handling costs behaviour

9. 7. Process Execution
7.1.In which format do you export BPMN diagrams for execution?
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
BPMN (for BPMN 2.0) XPDL BPEL4WS BPML native execution of SVG
BPMN 2.0
7.2.Which execution environment do you use?
18.00%
16.00%
14.00%
12.00%
10.00%
8.00%
6.00%
4.00%
2.00%
0.00%
Oracle BPM TIBCO AMX Cordys Fujitsu Intalio JBoss jBPM Linux lombardi talend BPM TIBCO
BPM Interstage 5.0 iProcess
BPM

10. 7.3.Do you execute processes inbound or you publish them somewhere?
30%
70%
Inbound / Internal execution External engine
7.4.Which is the main purpose for executing your processes?
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Perform some Develop / Increase Audit purposes BPM full cycle Testing We're a software Workflow
automatic Execute Web performance purposes vendor
procedures Services
Last revision: 26th of May, 2011

11. Annex I: Tables
How much are you familiar with... (starting with BPMN 1.2 elements as subset of BPMN 2.0 elements)
This is the ordered list of all the elements as listed in the table: Pools, Lanes, Nested Lanes, Untyped Events, Message Events, Timer Events, Error Events,
Cancel Events, Compensation Events, Conditional Events, Signal Events, Multiple Events, Link Events, Terminate Events, Data-Based Exclusive Gateways,
Event-Based Exclusive Gateways, Parallel Gateways, Inclusive Gateways, Complex Gateways, Tasks, Sub-Processes, Ad-hoc Sub-processes, Embedded
Sub-Processes, Loop Activities, MultiInstance Activities, Transactions, Events put on Activities boundaries, Groups, Text Annotation, Data Objects,
Sequence Flows, Conditional Flows, Default Flows, Message Flows, Associations
SWIMLANES EVENTS GATEWAYS
Nested Un. Msg. Timer Error Cancel Comp. Cond. Sign. Mult. Link Term. DBX EBX Par. Inc. Com.
Pools Lanes Lanes Events Events Events Events Events Events Events Events Events Events Events Gtw. Gtw. Gtw. Gtw. Gtw.
(less familiar) 1 0.00% 7.41% 25.93% 14.81% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 3.70% 7.41% 3.70% 7.41% 11.11% 11.11% 3.70% 0.00% 3.70% 0.00% 7.41% 11.11%
2 3.70% 0.00% 14.81% 11.11% 0.00% 0.00% 3.70% 7.41% 22.22% 11.11% 7.41% 18.52% 18.52% 11.11% 3.70% 0.00% 0.00% 3.70% 18.52%
3 0.00% 0.00% 14.81% 14.81% 11.11% 3.70% 14.81% 37.04% 29.63% 22.22% 14.81% 18.52% 7.41% 11.11% 14.81% 18.52% 7.41% 0.00% 7.41%
4 33.33% 29.63% 18.52% 25.93% 22.22% 29.63% 37.04% 14.81% 11.11% 18.52% 29.63% 18.52% 18.52% 25.93% 14.81% 18.52% 18.52% 33.33% 25.93%
(very familiar) 5 62.96% 62.96% 25.93% 33.33% 66.67% 66.67% 44.44% 37.04% 29.63% 44.44% 40.74% 33.33% 44.44% 48.15% 66.67% 59.26% 74.07% 55.56% 37.04%
ACTIVITIES ARTIFACTS FLOWS
AdHoc Emb. Ev. on Text Data Seq. Cond. Def.
Task SubPr. SP SP Loop MI Act. Transac. Bound. Groups Ann. Obj. Flow Flow Flow Msg. Flow Association
(less familiar) 1 0.00% 0.00% 7.41% 7.41% 3.70% 3.70% 7.41% 0.00% 0.00% 3.70% 3.70% 0.00% 0.00% 3.70% 0.00% 7.41%
2 0.00% 7.41% 11.11% 7.41% 7.41% 18.52% 18.52% 11.11% 14.81% 0.00% 11.11% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 3.70% 0.00%
3 0.00% 0.00% 18.52% 14.81% 18.52% 18.52% 33.33% 18.52% 22.22% 7.41% 3.70% 3.70% 11.11% 7.41% 14.81% 22.22%
4 18.52% 25.93% 25.93% 25.93% 29.63% 29.63% 11.11% 22.22% 14.81% 33.33% 33.33% 22.22% 25.93% 37.04% 14.81% 25.93%
(very familiar) 5 81.48% 66.67% 37.04% 44.44% 40.74% 29.63% 29.63% 48.15% 48.15% 55.56% 48.15% 74.07% 62.96% 51.85% 66.67% 44.44%

12. How much are you familiar with... (only for BPMN 2.0 users)
This is the ordered list of all the elements as listed in the table: Escalation Events, Parallel Multiple Events, Events Sub-Process Interrupting, Events Sub-
Process Non-Interrupting, Boundary Interrupting Events, Boundary Non-Interrupting Events, Exclusive Event-based Gateway (Instantiate), Parallel Event-
based Gateway (Instantiate), Call Activities, Sequential MultiInstance Activities, Data Input, Data Output, Collection Data Object, Data Store, Message (to
depict the content of a communication), Conversation Diagrams, Conversation Link, Forked Conversation Link, Choreography Diagrams, Choreography
Task, Choreography Sub-Process, Multiple Participants Marker.
EVENTS GATEWAY ACTIVITY
Esc. P.M. Event Event Bound. Bound. X EB P EB Call SeqMI
Event Event Interr. Non-Int. Interr. N.Int. Inst. Inst. Act. Act.
(less familiar) 1 14.29% 25.00% 19.05% 19.05% 14.29% 15.00% 10.00% 10.00% 14.29% 20.00%
2 9.52% 10.00% 19.05% 19.05% 19.05% 20.00% 20.00% 25.00% 14.29% 20.00%
3 33.33% 30.00% 14.29% 14.29% 0.00% 0.00% 15.00% 15.00% 14.29% 25.00%
4 23.81% 15.00% 14.29% 14.29% 23.81% 30.00% 15.00% 25.00% 33.33% 20.00%
(very familiar) 5 19.05% 20.00% 33.33% 33.33% 42.86% 35.00% 40.00% 25.00% 23.81% 15.00%
ARTIFACTS CONVERSATION CHOREOGRAPHY
Data Collec. Data Conv. Conv. Conv. Chor. Chor. Chor. MP
Data In Out Data Store Msg Diag Link F. Link Diag Task SubP Marker
(less familiar) 1 20.00% 20.00% 20.00% 15.00% 15.00% 15.00% 20.00% 30.00% 15.00% 15.00% 15.00% 30.00%
2 10.00% 10.00% 15.00% 15.00% 10.00% 30.00% 25.00% 30.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 25.00%
3 5.00% 5.00% 15.00% 10.00% 10.00% 30.00% 30.00% 20.00% 45.00% 40.00% 35.00% 10.00%
4 35.00% 35.00% 20.00% 30.00% 30.00% 10.00% 10.00% 5.00% 5.00% 5.00% 5.00% 10.00%
(very familiar) 5 30.00% 30.00% 30.00% 30.00% 35.00% 15.00% 15.00% 15.00% 15.00% 15.00% 15.00% 25.00%