Compound Activity

Intro

A compound activity is an activity defined by a flow of other activities. It matters because it lets architects model hierarchy, grouping steps as sub‑processes.

Key points:

• Breaks complex work into manageable components.
• Improves reuse by encapsulating a process segment.
• Common use cases: subprocess patterns (BPM), modular services (Apps), staged data transforms, orchestrations (Tech).
• Pitfall: excessive nesting that obscures the end‑to‑end flow.

Examples:

• An onboarding sub‑process covering verification, provisioning, and notifications.
• A “validate order” compound activity with checks, enrichments, and approvals.
• A data import sub‑process wrapping cleanse, match, and load steps.

In practice:

Use compound activities to encapsulate repeatable segments and keep hierarchy shallow for readability.

Related terms: sub-process; process; activity

FAQs:

Q: How do compound activities appear in BPMN?
A: As processes or sub‑processes.

Q: When should I use one?
A: When a logical group of steps recurs or needs encapsulation.

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