What is Business Process Modeling?

If you’re trying to boost team productivity, it helps to start with a clear picture of how your organization actually runs on a daily basis. Where are things getting stuck? What’s running smoothly? And how do you bridge the gap between where your performance is today and where you want it to be?

In my experience, visualizing your processes is one of the fastest ways to spot inefficiencies and start making meaningful changes. Research shows visual tools can increase human performance, making a real difference when you’re trying to align teams, eliminate bottlenecks, and support growth.

In this article, I’ll walk you through how business process modeling (BPM) can bring structure and clarity to your internal workflows, helping your team make smarter decisions faster.

Table of contents:

• What is business process modeling?

• Why use business process modeling?

• Are there different business modeling techniques?

• How do business process modeling and notation work together?

• What is the difference between business process mapping and process modeling?

• How to perform business process modeling

• Top tips for planning a business process modeling project

• Why Wrike is the process modeling software you need

What is business process modeling?

Business process modeling is a vital technique within business process management that helps teams visualize how work moves through their organization. By creating a visual representation of internal workflows, teams can get a better understanding of each step, find areas that need attention, and make meaningful process improvements.

Common methods include flow charts, data-flow diagrams, and Gantt charts, which simplify complex processes, making them easier to analyze. Most business process modeling tools focus on two key states:

• As-is: The current process, shown exactly as it operates today

• To-be: A future version of the process after improvements are made

While you can sketch these out on paper or use spreadsheets, modeling business processes using tools makes ensuring accuracy, tracking changes, and collaborating across teams much easier.

Why use business process modeling?

Of course, every company wants to achieve the best results and consistently operate at peak efficiency. By embracing process modeling, organizations have a chance to take a deeper look at their internal processes and workflows. By creating a graphical representation of how work flows across tools, roles, and decisions, teams gain a better understanding of what’s working, what’s slowing things down, and how to make things run more smoothly.

Business process modeling supports business process analysis, giving a clear understanding of the process steps involved in key business functions. This makes it easier to identify inefficiencies, compare your current process to the ideal process, and make changes that lead to more efficient operations. Here’s a look at the value process modeling can bring to your company.

Strengthen business process management

One of the most effective ways to improve business process management is by modeling processes visually. Teams can use process diagrams, behavioral diagrams, or collaboration diagrams to break down workflows and track how information and tasks move through each stage.

This level of clarity supports stronger decision making, especially when managing existing workflows or working across departments with different tools and timelines. When used consistently, process modeling improves process performance and supports cost savings by reducing errors and duplicated effort.

Align business strategies

Process modeling connects high-level goals to the day-to-day actions that support them. By analyzing the function of each task within a broader system, teams can see if projects align with company priorities and support overall business outcomes.

This is especially vital in teams with multiple organizational structures or siloed business operations, where keeping everyone focused on the same outcomes can be challenging. Process models help teams compare intention versus reality and make more strategic decisions in less time.

Boost process optimization

With an understanding of the entire process, teams can test changes, analyze handoffs, and reduce delays. By simulating how different roles interact with systems and tasks, it’s easier to restructure workflows into efficient processes.

Teams focused on process optimization can also use modeling to test new variations before implementation, improving confidence in the plan. Small improvements in resource allocation, control flow, or task timing typically lead to much better gains over time.

Streamline workflow management

Since human talent is one of the most important resources for success, you must help staff communicate better to boost productivity and overall team performance.

Internal team communications are crucial for activities such as:

• Eliminating a redundant process

• Sharing a new process with other teams

• Creating a standardized process for all teams to follow

Increase market competitiveness 

Staying competitive means operating with speed, precision, and adaptability. Process modeling helps teams identify inefficiencies, remove blockers, and focus resources where they have the greatest impact without adding complexity. This keeps your business dynamic and better equipped to handle change management.

Research shows that highly innovative organizations see higher shareholder returns and up to 20% higher revenue figures than those that lag behind. With the ability to visualize control flow, test improvements, and support more efficient processes, businesses gain the clarity and structure needed to respond faster and scale smarter.

Foster best practices

In large or distributed teams, I’ve often seen the same workflow carried out in multiple ways, even when departments have the same goal. That kind of inconsistency leads to duplicate work, slower outcomes, and unnecessary confusion.

When teams use process modeling, they organize tasks and build a shared system for how business functions are performed across departments. The visual structure helps standardize the approach, eliminate unnecessary variation, and bring clarity to every role involved.

Once you have that structure in place, it becomes much easier to document what works, replicate it at scale, and support long-term operational excellence.

Are there different business modeling techniques?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to modeling business processes. In my experience, the right modeling technique usually depends on how complex the workflow is, and the person in charge of mapping it. A project manager might want a high-level overview to coordinate timelines, while business users, like your sales team, may need more detail to guide day-to-day tasks.

There are over a dozen recognized ways to approach modeling process analysis, each with its own strengths. Below, we’ll look at a few of the most common ones.

Flowchart technique

One of the most widely used modeling techniques, flowcharts make complex workflows easier to follow. Using a mix of symbols and connectors, flowcharts create a clear visual representation of each step in a process flow, helping teams break down how work moves across people, tools, or systems.

I’ve found that flowcharts are especially useful when business users and process analysts need a shared reference. A single diagram can highlight gaps in logic, unnecessary loops, or unclear decision points, which are easy to miss without a visual.

For larger systems, multiple flowcharts may be needed to map the full picture of your business process modeling. That’s where workflow management software becomes essential, making it easier to build, refine, and share models across teams. 

Data flow diagrams

Data flow diagrams (DFDs) focus on how information moves between steps in a process. They visually map interdependencies between systems, tasks, and teams. This mapping makes it easier to track inputs, outputs, and handoffs across the workflow.

Originally developed by Edward Yourdon, DFDs are best used in processes where understanding the flow of data is more important than tracking responsibilities or timing. While they’re not ideal for mapping complex business process modeling, they can be a useful tool for teams using data to achieve better business outcomes.

When used alongside other business process modeling methods, DFDs support continuous improvement efforts by clarifying how information moves behind the scenes, a vital step toward achieving long-term operational excellence.

IPO model 

The input-process-output (IPO) model offers a simple way to break down how a workflow operates. It divides any process into three clear parts:

• Inputs: Data, materials, or information entering the process

• Process: The steps taken to complete the task

• Outputs: The results or deliverables 

This approach works well for project management teams that need a quick way to map responsibilities, especially when dealing with time-sensitive processes. It’s also helpful to lay the foundation of business process design, helping teams understand what’s involved before moving into more detailed modeling.

SIPOC diagrams

SIPOC diagrams are a high-level tool for understanding how a process connects to everyone involved, from start to finish. The acronym stands for:

• Suppliers

• Inputs

• Process

• Outputs

• Customers

This method is a core part of the Six Sigma framework and is typically used early in business process analysis to outline the full scope of a workflow before diving into the details. This method visualizes the entire process in a way that highlights dependencies, handoffs, and key players.

In the context of business process modeling, SIPOC diagrams serve as a bridge between broad strategy and more detailed diagrams, giving teams a shared starting point to build smarter workflows, improve coordination, and reduce unnecessary complexity.

Gantt charts

Gantt charts break down a larger initiative into smaller activities, showing how each piece connects within the overall process flow. It’s one of the most practical tools for tracking progress, especially when you’re managing tight timelines or coordinating across multiple teams.

Each bar on the chart represents a task or subtask, giving a clear picture of what’s being done, who’s performing tasks, and how long each step is expected to take. This visibility helps prevent delays, clarify priorities, and make sure no process step is overlooked.

When applied to business process modeling, Gantt charts bring precision to your timeline and help map process steps against real-world delivery. They’re especially valuable for teams focused on improving business processes for better coordination, clearer planning, and long-term operational excellence.

PERT diagrams

PERT (program evaluation and review technique) diagrams help teams visualize how long a process should take and where timing issues might cause delays. Each node represents a task or milestone, giving a clear view of dependencies and estimated durations.

This technique is especially useful during early business process analysis when teams need a clear understanding of how long activities will take and how they connect to build accurate timelines. By mapping time estimates during business process modeling, PERT diagrams help teams streamline operations by focusing on the tasks that directly impact delivery.

Unified Modeling Language diagrams (UML)

Unified Modeling Language (UML) was originally built for software development, but it’s since become a go-to modeling technique for teams working across systems, workflows, and departments. Today, UML is widely used in business process modeling (BPM) to represent complex relationships between tasks, roles, and technologies.

A UML diagram gives you a multi-dimensional view of a business process, capturing both the technical architecture and the human interactions that drive it. This level of detail gives teams a deeper understanding of process flow, especially in environments where system design and process design are closely linked.

With more than 14 types of UML diagrams, it takes some experience to know which ones to use and how to interpret them effectively. Some of the most commonly used include:

• Sequence Diagram

• Activity Diagram

• Deployment Diagram

• Use Case Diagram

• Package Diagram

• Communication Diagram

• Component Diagram

• Interaction Overview Diagram

• State Diagram

• Timing Diagram

• Class Diagram

• Object Diagram

• Composite Structure Diagram

How do business process modeling and notation work together?

Business process modeling notation gives teams a structured way to communicate how a process works, using a common set of symbols that mean the same thing to everyone involved. Instead of relying on loose diagrams or inconsistent formats, BPMN applies visual rules that keep things clear and easy to follow.

In my experience, cross-functional business process modeling notation (BPMN) has helped simplify conversations across technical and non-technical teams. It’s a practical way to translate a complex workflow into something that team members of all technical levels can interpret without having to explain every step from scratch.

This approach brings structure to business process modeling. By using BPMN consistently, teams can reduce confusion, align expectations, and focus on what needs to happen at each stage. That kind of clarity goes a long way when you’re trying to streamline operations or redesign how teams get work done.

Business process modeling notation

Business process modeling notation (BPMN) is a standardized way to represent business processes through diagrams. It uses consistent symbols to describe tasks, decisions, and handoffs in a format that’s easy to read and act on.

For teams dealing with complex processes, models, and notation, BPMN offers a shared visual language. It helps business analysts, project leads, and stakeholders interpret workflows the same way, reducing confusion and making collaboration easier. Since BPMN follows a structured system, it also supports more accurate process analysis and helps teams build models that scale across departments and tools.

Using process modeling notation, BPMN makes it easier to document the actual process, identify gaps, and align modeling efforts with broader process management goals.

Let’s take a look at the four primary elements of BPMN:

Flow objects

In BPMN, flow objects are the core components used to visualize how a process functions. They represent the tasks, triggers, and decision points that shape the structure of business processes. The three main types are activities, events, and gateways.

Activities: An activity represents work being performed within the process. It can initiate, modify, or complete a task and is usually connected to a specific trigger, such as a message, timer, or escalation. Common activity types include:

• Message

• Timer

• Compensation

• Cancel

• Escalation

• Signal

• Error

• Link

Events: An event marks something that happens during the process, such as a start, change, or end condition. Represented as rounded rectangles, events may include loops, sub-processes, or timing rules that influence how the workflow moves forward.

Gateways: A gateway introduces a split or merge in the process flow. It helps evaluate conditions or inputs and determines which path the workflow should follow. This is a useful tool during business process analysis, especially when comparing potential outcomes.

Each of these components plays a role in creating process diagrams that show how work actually happens, supporting more consistent business process modeling across teams.

Artifact objects

Artifact objects add context and detail to BPMN diagrams, helping teams document the logic and supporting information behind each part of a business process. While they don’t impact the actual flow, they play a key role in how teams interpret and refine their models.

There are three common types used in business process modeling:

Data objects: Represent the critical information needed to perform a task. They help illustrate what inputs or outputs are tied to a specific activity, giving the diagram more operational depth.

Group: Highlights a collection of related tasks, often across different parts of the process. While it doesn’t affect how the workflow functions, grouping helps organize sections visually and improve overall readability.

Annotation: Adds written context to the diagram. Annotations are often used to clarify intent, describe exceptions, or guide stakeholders through complex areas of the model.

Connections

Connecting objects define how different elements relate to one another within BPMN diagrams. They bring structure to business processes by linking tasks, messages, and supporting information in a way that reflects how work actually moves. As a core part of many modeling techniques, these connectors help shape both the logic and flow of a process.

Association: Represents a link between supporting information and the main process. Shown as a dotted line, associations connect elements like text or artifacts to an activity, gateway, or event.

Sequence flow: Directs the order in which activities occur. These flows are shown as solid lines with arrows and can include conditions that affect how tasks proceed through the workflow.

Message flow: Illustrates communication between separate participants in a process. Often used across different pools, message flows are shown as dashed lines starting with a circle and ending in an arrow — useful for showing how information moves across teams, systems, or organizational boundaries.

Swimlanes

Swimlanes help organize business process modeling diagrams by showing who is responsible for each part of the workflow. They divide the diagram into pools and lanes, making it easier to understand how different teams or roles contribute to a shared process.

Lane: Represents a specific role or contributor within a pool. Each lane shows the tasks that fall under that individual’s or team’s responsibility. This structure makes accountability within business processes more transparent and helps teams avoid confusion during execution.

Pool: Represents a broader participant in the process, such as a department, external partner, or separate organization. Using separate pools in a diagram helps illustrate how work flows across teams or between companies.

What is the difference between business process mapping and process modeling?

I’ve worked with plenty of teams that use business process mapping and business process modeling interchangeably. While they’re closely related, they serve different purposes. Understanding this difference can save time and prevent confusion down the line.

Both are valuable within the broader practice of business process management, especially when teams are working to define, improve, or hand off workflows. Process mapping is typically used to document the current state of a business process. It gives a clear, static picture of how tasks are completed, who’s responsible, and where handoffs occur.

That can be helpful early on, but process mapping often lacks flexibility. It’s a snapshot — useful for audits, one-off evaluations, or onboarding — but it doesn’t support long-term change.

Business process modeling, on the other hand, helps teams explore what a process could or should look like. With the right business process modeling tools and modeling techniques, teams can test out improvements, map alternative flows, and align operations with larger strategic goals.

Another major benefit is the ability to centralize updates in a single source of truth. Instead of managing disconnected diagrams or duplicated files, modeling gives teams one place to collaborate, refine, and scale their processes over time.

If your team is working toward a more adaptable, growth-ready approach to business process management, business process modeling will take you further than process mapping alone.

How to perform business process modeling

When you’re aiming to streamline work and improve team alignment, having a clear view of your business processes is a great place to start. I’ve found that business process modeling helps break through the noise, making it easier to understand where things are getting stuck and what’s actually working.

There’s no universal approach that fits every team. The method you choose depends on what you’re trying to improve and how complex your workflows are. That said, most teams can get started with a simple three-step process:

1. Document the current process

Start by capturing the as-is version of your process. This is the foundation for everything that follows. Your team can use whatever tool works best — whether that’s a digital whiteboard, a spreadsheet, or a dedicated business process modeling tool. The goal here is to visualize what’s really happening in the workflow, not what’s supposed to happen.

2. Identify areas for improvement

Once the current state is mapped out, take time to evaluate how the process is actually performing. Look for friction points or inconsistencies, and ask yourself, is this step actually helping move things forward? That kind of clarity can uncover where things are slowing down, getting repeated, or falling through the cracks. From there, your team can start refining the structure of your business processes with more focus and confidence.

3. Design the future-state process

Now that the issues are clear, it’s time to model a better way of working. Use the findings from your analysis to build out the to-be version — a new structure that supports more efficient, adaptable, and scalable workflows. With the right business process modeling tools, you can prototype that new flow and share it across teams for input.

Top tips for planning a business process modeling project

Once you’ve decided to take a closer look at your business processes, the next step is turning that intention into action. Launching a business process modeling project can feel overwhelming at first — especially if you’re working with cross-functional teams or tackling legacy workflows. But with the right prep, it becomes a lot more manageable.

Over the years, I’ve learned that the most successful modeling efforts start with clarity. You need a solid grasp of which modeling techniques you’re using, how detailed your diagrams should be, and who needs to be involved in shaping them. Here are some top tips for optimizing your business process modeling:

Keep it simple but detailed

Even experienced teams run into the same trap of oversimplifying the process to keep things clean. In theory, that makes the diagram easier to follow. However, in practice, it can leave out the details that matter most. When you’re doing business process modeling, those missing steps can create blind spots later on.

This part of the work is almost always collaborative. Different stakeholders bring unique perspectives, and not everyone sees the process the same way. Something that seems minor to one person might turn out to be a key factor for someone else trying to improve performance or resolve a bottleneck.

If the goal is to build a model your team can actually use and trust, every part of the process needs to be accounted for, even the parts that don’t seem important at first glance.

Utilize a suitable BPM software

Business process modeling is so much more than just diagrams. Every element, shape, and symbol in a business process model has a specific meaning. Each one of them outlines a particular process or action.

Users seeking robust BPM software find that Wrike’s all-in-one platform provides everything your teams need for a successful process modeling project, including standardizing intake, accelerating internal processes with automation, and optimizing processes with custom dashboards.

Business process modeling shows how a process functions, including who’s responsible, what triggers action, and where things can break down. When done well, modeling helps teams understand their business processes clearly and improve them.

Wrike lets you build models that align with how your team actually operates. You can map each process step, use automation, and track everything from a single, customizable dashboard.

Create precise titles that show intent

When you’re working on a business process modeling project, clarity is critical. The way you title each step should reflect what’s actually happening — not just for your team but for anyone reviewing the diagram later. I’ve found that precise, action-based titles help cut through confusion and lead to better decisions.

Take something like tracking how funds are used across a process. Instead of vague labels, a title like “Budget utilization” gives stakeholders a direct understanding of what’s happening without extra explanation.

Give alternative paths clearly

If you’re mapping options, labeling alone isn’t enough. To make the model useful, walk your team through what each alternative looks like. That includes how it affects the business process, who’s involved, and where the handoffs change.

The goal here isn’t perfection. It’s building a model that reflects real-world possibilities, even when processes veer off course.

Standardize processes using premade templates

Wrike’s business process modeling templates are a smart way to skip the blank page. You can tweak a process for your team’s needs and roll it out across projects without reworking the structure every time. That consistency makes it easier to track progress and keep future changes aligned.

Why Wrike is the process modeling software you need

In my experience, business processes rarely stay static for long, and that’s exactly why a tool like Wrike can make a difference. It’s built for teams that need flexibility without losing structure.

Wrike gives you the tools to map out the full process, assign roles, automate handoffs, and keep everything visible across teams. If you’re looking to streamline processes or reduce repetitive collaboration steps, it’s worth a closer look.

It also provides a wide range of business process management software tools, so you’re mapping workflows and running them in real time. This is extremely helpful for managing approvals, adjusting timelines, or updating a process without disrupting everything else.