Process Hierarchy

The process hierarchy is preferably displayed using process maps that depict how processes are grouped within a level.

A process hierarchy is created in four stages: you design a process map, build the levels, assign its process map to each level and link the map’s area elements to the sublevels and the processes. Which version of a process is visible in the process is described in Process Hierarchy and Visible Process Versions.

• Designing a map — Using the Process Map Editor, Creating a Process Map, Editing a Process Map, Handling My Process Map Drafts
• Building the hierarchy — Setting Up the Hierarchy, Changing the Hierarchy, Editing and Translating an Element, Defining an Element as the Entry Point
• Assigning a map — Assigning Process Maps
• Assigning processes and linking areas — Assigning a Process to a Hierarchy Element, Linking an Area Element to a Hierarchy Element, Linking an Area Element to a Process

Where you do what

Bpanda manages the process hierarchy in two places with the same name:

• Reading and linking on the Process Hierarchy page (main menu Processes > Process Hierarchy). Here you navigate through the levels, assign process maps and link their area elements.
• Creating, renaming and moving levels and assigning processes in the Process Hierarchy tab of the Manage Process Space page (main menu Settings > Manage Process Space). Edit Process Hierarchy on the reading page also takes you there.

What is the process hierarchy for?

The process hierarchy is used to structure the process landscape.

Process maps are often used for navigation. They are usually arranged in levels to illustrate how processes are grouped and structured hierarchically. If only one process map is actually used, there is no need to set up a hierarchy.

If a process hierarchy is to be used, it must be set up in Bpanda. To do so, as a BPM Manager you create the required hierarchy elements across several levels in a tree structure.

To visualize these elements, you model or import a process map for each of them in Bpanda. Without a process map, the subordinate levels and the assigned processes are simply listed.

Process maps are scalable vector graphics files (SVG). What matters for use as a process map are labelled area elements that are linked in Bpanda to either a sublevel or a process.

Normally, the top level shows the process groups for management, core and support processes. Core processes are also referred to as value-adding processes. They relate to the company’s products and services that are of interest to customers.

Further levels subdivide the process groups until, at the lowest level, the graphic elements of a process map are fully linked to processes. Processes provide a graphic representation of the specific workflows of a particular area in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN).

The process hierarchy is often already managed by process maps in the modelling tool and can be replicated or imported.

What do I need to bear in mind with process maps?

Scalable vector graphics files (SVG) are used as process maps. They must contain area elements that can be linked in Bpanda.

If you update a process map, the links between its area elements and subordinate elements or processes are retained.

This does not apply if you regroup area elements: if, for example, you replace a group consisting of an area and a label with an area with an integrated label, the link is lost. You recreate it after importing the map again.

How do I handle the area?

You can expand the area to the width of the window and restrict it to the page area.

You can expand and collapse sections using the arrow icons.

Setting up and changing the process hierarchy

To set up the process hierarchy, in each sublevel you create as many elements (structure elements or processes) as are to be linked by the process map on the level above.

Elements and how they are displayed in the process hierarchy

The process hierarchy in the Process Hierarchy tab comprises elements used to structure the processes as well as the processes themselves. In a level of the process hierarchy, the processes are displayed first, followed by the sublevels. Within these two groups, the entries are sorted alphabetically automatically.

The functions that the ⋮ menu offers for each element and each process are described in Setting Up the Hierarchy.

Assigning several processes to a hierarchy element at once is an action in Manage Processes. This is described in Assigning Multiple Processes.