I am so excited to write this blog on BPMN Diagram features in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 that are almost unknown and unexplored by many of us.

I got a chance to explore and unwind the features & capabilities of the in-built BPMN editor in SAP SolMan 7.2 system.

Come, let us see about each diagram type one by one,

Universal Diagrams:

Universal diagrams are used to model different sorts of diagrams including value chain diagram, capability maps, application landscapes, process landscapes, or any other kind of diagram. Unlike other diagrams, the universal diagrams don’t follow given strict semantics.

Now let us see in detail about the options that are available for a user who creates Universal diagrams.

Shapes in Universal Diagram:

Below are the various shapes available when you are creating a universal diagram

Shapes available in Universal Diagram

Context Menu in Universal Diagram:

In general, there are four parts of context menu objects that are available based on where you click on the screen,

#1 – When clicking the object

#2 – When right-click an object

#3 – When clicking the text symbol

#4 – When right-clicking a text symbol

Context Menu options vary depending on where you click in the screen

Section Palette in Universal Diagram:

Section Palette shows the folders, Scenario, Process, Master Data, Organizational unit and Process steps that is present in the Solution Documentation Hierarchy, and you can include the required existing diagrams as a reference as shown below

Section Palette in Universal Diagram

Click on the value chain diagram from above screenshot, it leads to all the associated Processes as below,

Value chain diagram

Universal Diagram with Color variation

Collaboration Diagram:

Collaboration diagrams are representations of the actual model but enrich the model with additional semantics and information. A collaboration diagram analyzes the sequence flow of processes and the exchange of messages between participants (represented as swim lanes and pools).

Now let us see in detail about the options that are available for a user who creates Collaboration diagram in SAP Solution Manager.

Message Flow Rules:

1. Message Flows cannot connect to objects that are within the same Pool.
2. Only those objects that can have incoming and/or outgoing Message Flows are Pool, Task, Subprocess, Start Event, Intermediate Event and End Event.
3. Start Event / End event Rules: for start event we have just incoming message flow and outgoing message for end event.
4. We can assign interface to message flow just in case of,
   • Message Flow between two pools.
   • Message Flow between pool and draft pool.
   • Message Flow between pool and Black pool.

Right click each of the event type to see the options available as shown below

Right click Start Event and select Message Start Event

Right click intermediate event and select Catch Message Event

Right click Intermediate Event and select Throw Message Event

Palette section:

There are 2 types of palette buttons,

• Some buttons have some “instances” of objects behind them, like lane, process steps.
• Other buttons represent objects which are graphical only (like gateways, events, sub processes).

Collaboration Diagram – Palette Section – Type 1 buttons

Collaboration Diagram – Palette button – Type 2

First, we need to choose the Lane that represents the respective Business Process inside which Pools shall be assigned.

As said above, there are 3 sub types namely

• Current Process – Represents the current Business Process
• Pool / Draft – To represent a process which is not known in detail
• Pool / Blackbox – To depict a message flow from current process,

Lane and Pool in a Collaboration Diagram

Once the Lane and Pool is added, we can start building the Collaboration Diagram with Process Steps (Note: These Process steps comes from existing Solution Documentation Hierarchy, in case if it is missing then we can create new ones from the diagram itself)

So, in the below screenshot we can see that from the Lane chosen i.e., the Business Process, all the underlying Process steps are automatically shown while trying to add the Process step to the Collaboration Diagram

Automatic Population of Process steps from the SOLDOC Hierarchy

We can drag and drop the required Process steps into the Lane and if it turns green, it means that the process step fits in the Lane, else the process step cannot be added. This is applicable for Data store and Data object too.

Below screenshot shows How the Lane turns green and accommodates the palette object.

Lane turns Green to accept the relevant palette object

In the same fashion, type 2 palette objects such as Start event, Intermediate Event etc., can be used in the Collaboration Diagram.

With this information about Universal Diagram and Collaboration Diagram, I will write the next part of the unexplored BPMN diagrams soon for other diagram types available in Solution Documentation.