Universal Process Notation v1

An easy to read, structured business process

notation for business people
INTRODUCTION
UPN is an easy to use business process notation intended for general use, to provide
usable process information to the executors of business process, while providing for
the technical needs of an IT audience. This document provides rules and guidelines
for the practical application of the Universal Process Notation (UPN) in a business
context. It also describes the various components of the notation.
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PROBLEM STATEMENT
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “BUSINESS PROCESS”?
Every day, billions of people interact with millions of companies or public services
to procure or provide goods or services, through trillions of transactions. These
interactions are the practical expression of business process, the efficiency of
which can generate savings or waste of global proportions. While some of these
processes are automated, the vast majority (typically ~80%) are manual processes,
carried out by people at every level of an organization.

LESS IS MORE
While it is widely agreed that diagrams help users to visualize process flows, the
excessive use of symbols in some methodologies requires the consumers to be fluent
in the notation language. And the content creator must also be an expert in order to
apply the notation to real life processes. Or we have to insert a translation step where
the complexity of the process notation is converted to a format that is accessible
by users. This adds cost and imposes a training and education burden, as well as
creating a barrier to adoption. The sheer size of the potential audience demands a
simple language that needs no training or translation.

SOLUTION
The Universal Process Notation (UPN) has been designed to meet the needs of
the general business community. UPN provides:
1 A universal and accessible notation for end-to-end process that is accessible
and comprehensible to all areas of the business.
2 A bridge to the technical approach used by IT for documenting
automated processes.

FEATURES & BENEFITS

• Simplified palette of symbols and associated rules creates an accessible notation.
• A typical business end-user can follow the flows and notation easily with
no training.
• Training a new content creator is fast.
• Simplicity enables consistency across the content creators.
• Business users can document and describe processes quickly and clearly in
collaboration with each other.
• Business users can clearly visualize the process flows and immediately identify
inefficiencies, bottle necks and other process issues.
• Users can focus on results (outputs) instead of activities.
• The business can be customer focused (outside-in).
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UPN ARCHITECTURE
UPN COMPONENTS
This section describes the components of UPN.

End-To-End Process
Creating a UPN based, end-to-end cross functional process which clearly
communicates business objectives to all users ideally requires a top down
approach. The object is not just to create a horizontal model from end-to-end but
also vertical visibility for the purposes of process accountability and management.
Level one is used to define the key operational and management processes of the
business displaying the senior level management accountable for each process
area, and clear, measurable outputs at each stage. The key objectives should be
derived from the corporate strategy / objectives.
Each high level process step is exploded to the next level where again the key
steps and accountabilities are documented with inputs and outputs. This process
is repeated until the appropriate task level is reached, with no limit on the number
of levels. The number of levels required is that which ensures end users are
provided clear, easy to use and consistent process driven content and will differ
from process area to process area because some processes are inherently more
complex than others.
Inputs and outputs at the top level need to be carefully considered because
they will set the scope for their child diagrams. Note: It is possible that users will
want to see a top level diagram that is more graphical and omits input output
lines, to create a more appealing and less technical top level view. This can be
achieved by creating a top level graphical view with a link to a top level process
view, beneath which the detail is provided.
Process maps should have vertical as well as horizontal integrity.
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Process Map
A process map is a hierarchical collection of process diagrams. Each diagram
must conform to the rules laid out in this specification. Below level one, each
diagram represents an exploded view of a higher level process step. If we make
sure that the initial input and final output on each diagram matches those of the
higher level, or parent, process step and extend that principle all the way down
the hierarchy we can guarantee that the most lowly process contributes to the
organization’s objectives.

Activity Box
Used to describe a process step, processes are made up of activities therefore the
activity box is always described using a present tense imperative verb and a noun.
Text must be concise. Detail is provided in drill-downs or attachments and must
not include attributes which are handled elsewhere e.g. Resources.

Flow Lines
Are used to denote activity inputs and outputs, the direction of the arrow head
indicates whether the line is an input or output relative to a specific activity.
Arrows must be one way to prevent user confusion.
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Attachments
A suitable icon (or icons) can be displayed inside the Activity Box to provide
access to any associated documents, tools, templates or other information.

Additional Notes
Displayed as an expandable speech bubble inside the Activity Box, this provides
short notes about the activity.

External Connectors
These as used to indicate when a process falls outside the scope of the process or
map or to denote the start and finish points of a diagram.
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Flow Line Connectors

Are used to link process flows on adjacent diagrams. This facilitates horizontal
navigation through peer diagrams in a process.

Statement Links
Are used to visibly display a relationship between the process step and a
statement in a set of text statements. Often used in compliance mapping, for
example, to show compliance with ISO9001 or to define a set of risks and controls.

Diagram Links
This allows for the linking of Activity Boxes to similar or related process diagrams.
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Resources
Are used to display people or systems that are either responsible or accountable
for the execution of an activity.

Drill Downs
Displayed inside an Activity Box are used to navigate down to the next level in the
process, i.e. they transport the user to a more detailed view of the process step.

A business process is a series of activities that each have a clearly defined

beginning and end. A business process flow tells us:
• What to do
• When
• Why
• How
• Who is responsible or accountable for each step
• Who owns the process
• The current version number
• The authorization status

UPN OVERARCHING PRINCIPLE

The primary objective of the UPN is to create accessible content that is easy to
use for the primary audience, the business end user.
This overarching principle drives all rules and guidelines set out in this
document and is the guiding principle when developing content.
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UPN RULES
FOUR SIMPLE RULES
There are four unconditional rules that must be adhered to. They are basic but
ensure the integrity of any process:
1 The activity box is the only drawing object used to display process steps
2 Process steps are always described as activities and NEVER functions
3 Inputs and outputs are always defined for every activity
4 Resources are always defined for every activity

UPN-R1. Only activity boxes are used to display process steps

The Activity Box is used exclusively to describe the activities required during the
execution of a process. Other shapes may be used on a diagram in order to help
reinforce the message but these should never be used within the process flow
itself. This ensures the audience does not need to know, or refer to, a predefined
set of shapes and symbols in order to understand the process flow.
This principle extends to ‘decision boxes’ which are usually not ‘decisions’ but
conditional process routings, which in UPN are handled by multiple outputs (see
Appendix 1 for more information).

UPN-R2. Process steps are always described as activities and NEVER functions
Processes describe activities, or tasks, that must be carried out in order to produce
an output. They are the things we do during the normal execution of business.
Therefore we always describe the steps in a process as activities by using a present
tense imperative verb followed by a noun. We DO something to SOMETHING.
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UPN-R3. Inputs and outputs are always defined for every activity
UPN focuses on the result, or outcome, of a process step instead of the activity.
This applies to every step along the way so that each one clearly communicates
an expected outcome. This ensures that customers and suppliers of the process
flow can define, agree and clearly communicate handoffs; and where a drill down
is created on a step, the scope of the child process diagram is clearly defined.
Therefore every activity must have a minimum of one each clearly defined input
and output. There may be more than one of each.

UPN-R4. Resources are always defined for every activity

Effective process demands accountability and responsibility. We must, therefore,
define the resource responsible for the execution of a process step. This tells us
who must do the task, i.e. who is responsible for the output. At high levels in a
process map the resource will typically be the role accountable for ensuring the
process is completed. At the lowest levels the resource will be the role actually
responsible for completing the task.

UPN GUIDELINES
Application of the UPN rules is mandatory. The guidelines that follow provide further
tools to communicate the content and then identify improvement opportunities.
These are practical guidelines arising from years of practical application of the
UPN with hundreds of customers on millions of process diagrams. Departure from
these guidelines should only be allowed where there is an identified business
need that cannot be met by the standard rules and guidelines.
The ability to apply the guidelines is a good indicator of the health of a process.
For instance, when applying the UPN to existing processes, authors and subject
matter experts may find instances where it is impossible to achieve alignment
with these guidelines due to the instability of previously undocumented
processes. The rigor of UPMN will reveal activities that have no definable outputs;
users are unclear why an action is carried out at all, or what the correct sequence
is. Successful application of the guidelines may only be realized after several
iterations of process improvement.
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UPN-GL1 LOOK AND FEEL

The UPN is designed to be visual and informative but above all usable by the
widest possible audience. To facilitate this UPN sets out a simple set of rules for
creating content that does not need extensive training to read.

Deliver processes in digestible chunks (smaller diagrams).

Process diagrams should be optimized for display on a typical
computer screen without scrolling, horizontally or vertically, and
must be readable without zooming.

Limit the number of process steps on each diagram.

The application in which you draw UPN diagrams should enable
quick and easy creation of drill downs to greater levels of detail,
and manage the diagram relationships for you, thus avoiding the
need for large diagrams.

Use pre-defined templates to restrict the drawing area.

The presence of a template to define the drawing area, and which
is automatically applied to every new diagram, will prevent diagram
size creep.

Ensure a standard and consistent style across all content.

Devise a set of common standards for the presentation of content
so that end users see processes delivered in a consistent way
regardless of who created them. Users may be confused by a
change in drawing style that implies that something is different,
when in fact there is no difference at all.
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UPN-GL2 DESCRIBING ACTIVITIES

Relates to rule 1. Only activity boxes are used to display process steps. And 2.
Process steps are always described as activities and NEVER functions.

Be specific when describing activities.

‘Process Order.’ Do we mean sales order, purchase order, customer
order, works order?

Keep activity descriptions short and exclude attributes shown elsewhere.

“The sales manager will, in accordance with the Schedule of
Authorizations, seek approval for the discount.” Make that, “Obtain
discount approval,” add a resource of “Sales Manager,” and attach a
link to the Schedule of Authorizations.

Describe all activity types with a single shape.

There is no distinction made between different activity types
other than through the use of textual descriptions. Such activities
as making decisions, starting or ending a process, or generating
a report are all activities and are simply described using an
imperative verb and noun construction in an activity box. This
prevents us from confusing users with multiple shapes.

Activities on the same level must have equivalent ‘weight.’

For example ‘Assign Project Number’ may take a clerk two minutes
and cost a few dollars. ‘Design & Build a New Aircraft Carrier’ takes
thousands of people several years and costs billions.

UPN-GL3 DESCRIBING OUTPUTS

Relates to rule 3. Inputs and outputs are always defined for every activity.

Identify tangible outputs that clearly demonstrate an activity

is complete.
Well defined outputs on each activity are one of the strengths
of the notation in terms of process improvement. They help the
creators and users of the content to focus on what they are actually
delivering rather than what they are doing (results versus activity).
To be most effective authors and subject matter experts should
focus on identifying an output that is tangible. This should be
something that can be quantified, measured and tested for its
existence. This may be a hard copy document, or a project ID, that
has been recorded in an ERP system. It should be something that
clearly tells the actor that the activity is complete. In doing so it
becomes the input to the next activity telling the resource of this
activity that it is time to start.
The identification of such a tangible output makes it easier to
identify metrics and measurements that will help manage the
effectiveness and performance of the process. All outputs in a
process flow should ultimately add up to the final output and overall
The lack of a decision diamond
is one of the most notable objective of the process. This in turn should be derived from the
differences in the UPN notation. organization’s strategy and organizational objectives, thus facilitating
Please refer to Appendix 1 for a the communication of company strategy right down to the individual
more detailed explanation.
actors and the part they play in the execution of that strategy.
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Avoid using of the past tense of the activity.

Using the past tense of an activity as an output should be avoided
wherever possible. Simply recreating the activity description in a
modified form adds little or no value to the process diagram and
may suggest there is no purpose to the activity. If we are focused
on results, we need to ask what the desired result is, what is likely
to be our output. It may help to look forward to the requirements
of the next activity. But do not allow this point to get in the way of
productive process mapping.

UPN-GL4 DESCRIBING RESOURCES

Relates to rule 4. Resources are always defined for every activity.

Never use individuals’ names or titles; use roles instead.

For example, in a large Resources are the people or systems tasked with carrying out process
organization with many activities. In large organizations several different people carry out
thousands of job titles, everyone
has to know how to submit a the same activities at different times, with each of these players
holiday request. In this context, possessing different job titles. It is, therefore, often impossible to
a role of ‘Employee’ is used identify a single individual as being solely responsible for a process
instead of adding every job title
to the activity. activity. Indeed it may be equally difficult to identify a common job
title that is responsible for the execution of the task. As a result the
recommended approach is to identify the role that each actor plays
when executing the task rather than an individual name or job title. A
good UPN Application should have the ability to associate individuals
with the roles they play in the organization.

At higher levels use the accountable role, at lower levels use the responsible
role, to ensure only one ‘role’ resource per activity box.
Given the hierarchical nature of the UPN, high level process steps
may have a large number of resources involved in the execution
of the lower level steps. Attempting to display all of these against
a single activity box will make the diagram unreadable for the
average user. The best approach is to identify the resource that
is accountable for the overall execution of the step. This resource
may not even play a part in the lower levels but they have overall
accountability for the output of the high level activity.
Note: When automated activities are found in the process flow it is often useful
to display the system, or systems, that perform the activity as a resource. When
doing so it is recommended that a suitable identifier is used to clearly denote
a ‘system’ type resource from a ‘human’ type. This may be a prefix such as
[s] against the resource name. However, it must be recognized that individual
systems cannot be made accountable if any step in the process fails. It is
recommended that a further human role is included as a contact point in the
event of an issue with the system execution of the step. If a whole diagram
is describing automated steps then it would only be necessary to add an
accountable resource to the parent activity.
If all these guidelines are followed it should never be necessary to have more than
one role resource on an activity box. If you still need to do so, the possibility exists
that your activity needs breaking into more than one activity, or requires a drill down
(in which case you can use an accountable resource on the parent activity).
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UPN-GL5 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (ATTACHMENTS & DRILL DOWNS)

Process related information must be easily available to the user.

Additional process related information should be easy to access
directly from the process step to which it is related using an
interface from the process application. As a user follows a process
flow they should be able to directly launch any associated
documents, tools and other information in order to assist in the
execution of the activity. This could be more detailed steps within
the process, with further process steps, or a completely separate
system that supports the execution of the process.

Drill Downs
The look and feel guidelines above describe the limitation on the number of activities
to display on a single diagram. This leads to a hierarchy in the process map in which
the content creator describes each level of the process in terms of the key steps. For
each key step the author will create a new level as a drill down which will describe
the parent activity in more detail. The UPN Application should facilitate the creation
of the drill downs and place no limit on the number of levels allowed.

Attachments
Data transfers / transforms as a result of an activity in a process flow, and
completion of a process step may require a user to make reference to other
content. End users still require access to this data in order to make changes,
create it for the first time or to validate. Just as the notation is easy to follow it
should be equally easy for the user to access the associated data.
This additional information is normally available in the form of an attachment
menu that is directly accessible from the activity box.
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IS UPN SUITABLE FOR IT DEPARTMENTS?

UPN allows Business Process to be defined with a degree of rigor and detail that
is consistent with the needs of an IT department. The simplicity of the notation
makes the content accessible to all audiences. So what happens when the IT
department wants to automate part of the process? This represents a level of
detail that the end users may or may not be interested in and the underlying UPN
Application will need to accommodate the needs of the IT department. This can
be achieved in various ways:
• By the native support for a notation such as BPMN, into which the IT
department can switch to develop the detailed solution
• By the use of additional data elements on the activities to allow IT to identify
system connection points
• By integration with ERP tools such as SAP’s Solution Manager
• By the ability to exchange content with other platforms such as BPMN and
BPEL through XML interfaces

IT departments may take a different view – that the technical tools used for
process automation can be extended into the manual process area. This is not a
practicable solution. The complexity of those notations is such that the amount
of training required to generate process content, even using a cut down version
of the symbol palette puts the tool beyond the reach of ordinary business users;
and the content created requires additional training of the end user audience, to
interpret the more complex notation. Both of these are a bar to adoption outside
the IT department. It makes more sense to allow IT to add their complexity where
they need it than to force the business to adopt a language that is more complex
than they need for the vast majority (~80%) of the business processes that will
never be automated.

CONCLUSION
UPN provides a simple notation for use by line of business managers to document,
improve, publish and manage their business processes, the majority of which will
never be automated. Its simple notation makes process accessible to all users
instead of creating “shelfware,” and through the capabilities of the underlying
application can provide an extensible solution for IT departments.
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APPENDIX 1 – DECISION BOXES

UPN’S SIMPLE ALTERNATIVE TO DECISION DIAMONDS
In reality most flow chart decision boxes are not decisions at all, they are process
routing branches based upon a decision made by the process designers when they
drew the diagram. e.g. if the sale is a direct sale do this, if it’s an indirect sale do this.
In simple terms you could represent a branch point with an activity box ‘Consider
whether this is a direct or indirect sale’ and use output flow lines for Direct and
Indirect sales to reroute the user. In practice in UPN you can usually omit the box and
make the routing clear on the output lines from the previous activity.
The UPN solution also has another significant advantage over the diamond
decision box. Decision boxes are binary. In our previous example the decision box
would say ‘Is the sale direct?’ There are then two possible outcomes, ‘Yes’ and
‘No’. But what if the question has multiple outputs? In the decision box world we
have to have a sequence of binary decision boxes. “Do you want a cup of tea?”
Yes/No. “Do you want a cup of coffee?” “Do you want a glass of water?” The
diagram will soon become cluttered with drawing objects as we try to cope with
the multiple options.
In UPN we have as many output line options as we need from the previous
activity, drastically reducing the number of drawing objects required. Typically,
representing a choice with decision boxes requires 50% more drawing objects
than the UPN activity box solution. That’s 50% more to draw, 50% more to
maintain and 50% more for the user audience to read, and potentially get wrong.
Less is more.
Some drawing tools have addressed this issue by providing a multiple output
decision box which is essentially the same as the UPN solution except that it
still uses a diamond shape. Given that typing text into a diamond shape is less
efficient than into a rectangular box, the UPN solution is still better, especially as
it can eliminate the need for the box.

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05/13/2014