BPMN End Events
What are BPMN End Events?
In BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation), End Events define how a process instance completes. There are two main types:
- Regular End Event: Ends the flow at that specific point but does not affect parallel branches.
- Terminate End Event: Ends the entire process instance, including all active branches.
How Terminate End Works in Flower
Flower follows the standard BPMN behavior but also integrates with Jira for process tracking. The key differences between a Regular End Event and a Terminate End Event in Flower are:
Regular End Event
- Ends only the current process flow at that point.
- Parallel branches continue to execute.
- The process instance ticket in Jira is already marked as “Resolved” once one branch reaches an End Event.
Terminate End Event
- Immediately stops all parallel executions in the process.
- All related Jira tickets associated with the process instance are marked as Resolved.
- If the underlying Jira issue type supports “Rejected” or “Canceled” statuses, these are used instead as “Resolved.”
- Closing these tickets does not trigger further process continuation—the process is completely terminated.
Why Use Terminate End?
Terminate End Events are useful when a business decision requires the process to stop entirely, such as:
- A project is canceled, and all related workflow actions must be stopped.
- A request is rejected, and no further steps should be executed.
- A compliance rule invalidates the process, requiring an immediate halt.
By using Terminate End Events, Flower ensures that all related Jira entities reflect the true process status, preventing unnecessary or incorrect workflow execution.
Example: Job Application Process
In this BPMN process, multiple interviews run in parallel. A Regular End Event is used when all interviews are completed successfully. However, if one interview fails, the Terminate End Event ensures that all other ongoing interviews are immediately stopped.
This prevents unnecessary work and ensures that the process reflects reality: If a candidate is rejected in one evaluation, no further assessments are needed.
In Flower, this means:
- Regular End Event → The Jira process instance ticket is marked as “Resolved”.
- Terminate End Event → All open Jira tickets for the process are immediately set to “Rejected” or “Canceled”, ensuring a clear outcome.
This approach optimizes resource use and prevents unnecessary workflow execution.