Lane

Intro

A Lane is a partition used to organize activities in a swim-lane process diagram. In BPMN, lanes sit within a Pool in Collaboration diagrams.

Key points:

• Clarifies roles, systems, or departments in a process.
• Improves accountability and handoff visibility.
• Common use cases across EA/BPM/Data/App/Tech include modeling internal roles, enterprise applications, or functional units.
• Pitfall: overusing lanes, creating clutter and hard-to-read diagrams.

Examples:

• Manager and Associate lanes show approval responsibilities.
• System lane representing an ERP for automated steps.
• Finance and Shipping lanes for cross-functional workflows.

In practice:

Use lanes sparingly to highlight accountability; map handoffs clearly between lanes.

Related terms: Pool; Collaboration; BPMN

FAQs:

Q: Do lanes span the full diagram?
A: Yes; they extend the entire pool horizontally or vertically.

Q: Can lanes represent systems?
A: Yes; they can represent roles, systems, or departments.

‍