Flower FAQ: Jira Workflow, BPM & BPMN Questions Answered

Flower FAQ: Jira Workflow, BPM & BPMN Questions Answered

Flower in one sentence: Flower turns BPMN process models into running Jira work items, so teams can run repeatable, cross-team processes in Jira with Jira permissions, boards, and reports.

This page answers the most common questions about Jira workflows, business process management (BPM), BPMN, and about how Flower fits in. Each answer states the general idea first and then describes how Flower handles it. Details are in the linked guides.

Last updated: October 2026. The facts about Flower, Atlassian programs, and Atlassian’s Data Center dates were checked in October 2026.

Flower at a Glance

About Flower

What is Flower?

Flower (Flower – Business Process & Workflow Automation (BPMN) for Jira) is an app on the Atlassian Marketplace that lets teams draw business processes in BPMN and run them in Jira. For every activity of a process, Flower creates a Jira work item, assigns it through swimlanes, shows its status in the process diagram, and continues the process when the work item is resolved. Flower works with Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center.

Who is Flower for?

Flower is for teams that run repeatable processes across several teams in Jira: process owners, business analysts, IT service and operations teams, HR, finance, procurement, and project offices. It suits human-centric processes, such as onboarding, approvals, change management, procurement, requests, and incident handling.

How is Flower positioned compared with other tools?

Flower is the process layer for Jira. It adds a BPMN-based, end-to-end view of a process to a tool that otherwise manages single work items. Flower is not a separate BPM suite: models, process instances, and tasks are Jira work items, so permissions, boards, filters, and reports keep working. Flower focuses on human-centric processes that run in Jira and does not aim to replace dedicated engines for high-volume system-to-system orchestration.

What is the difference between Flower and an app that only displays BPMN diagrams?

Apps that only draw or display BPMN diagrams help with documentation and communication.

In Flower: Flower also executes the model: it creates the Jira work items, assigns them, tracks their status in the diagram, and continues the process when work items are resolved. For documentation in Confluence, the separate app Flower BPM for Confluence embeds BPMN diagrams in Confluence pages.

When should I not use Flower?

Flower is not the right tool in these cases:

• A workflow of a single work item. If you only need statuses and transitions for one work item in one space, a Jira workflow is simpler.
• High-volume system-to-system orchestration. Flower can call Jira Automation rules and external services through webhooks, but it is designed to coordinate people. A dedicated BPM engine fits integration-centric processes with very many short-lived instances better.
• Fully unpredictable work. Highly unpredictable work is closer to a project, which Jira spaces and boards handle well.
• Compliance certification. Flower supports traceability but does not certify that your organization is compliant.

Which Jira platforms and versions does Flower support?

Flower supports Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center 11.x. Flower for Data Center requires Java 21. A legacy version for Jira Data Center 9.x and 10.x exists but is no longer supported. The Marketplace listing shows the current compatibility.

Is Flower Cloud Fortified, and what does that mean?

Cloud Fortified is an Atlassian Marketplace program for cloud apps. Its eligibility requirements include participation in the Marketplace Security Bug Bounty Program, a completed Privacy and Security tab, reliability programs, and a support contact who responds to critical tickets within one working day.

In Flower: Flower carries the Cloud Fortified trust signal on its Marketplace listing.

Where does Flower store its data?

Flower stores its process data in Jira. A process model is a Jira work item that holds all versions, a process instance is a Jira work item, and every activity of a process is a Jira work item. Because of this, Jira permissions, search, boards, and reports apply to Flower data, and you need no separate database for process data.

How long has Flower been available?

Flower has been on the Atlassian Marketplace for more than ten years.

How can I try Flower?

Flower offers a free 30-day trial for Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center. A Jira administrator starts it with the Try it free button on the Atlassian Marketplace listing . In Jira Cloud, a trial on a site with monthly billing converts into a paid subscription when it ends, unless you unsubscribe before. The Get Started guide walks you through your first process.

How is Flower licensed and priced?

The Flower license must match your highest Jira application tier, as for every Marketplace app. Flower for Cloud is sold as a monthly or annual subscription that follows the billing cycle of your Jira site, and annual billing costs 10 months instead of 12. Flower for Data Center is sold as an annual subscription to existing Data Center customers. See Trial & Installation, Pricing & Licensing and the pricing tab of the Marketplace listing for current prices.

What support does Flower offer?

Flower is Partner Supported on the Atlassian Marketplace. You can raise a request on the support page, ask in the Atlassian Community, and use the documentation at flower-bpm.com/docs. As a Cloud Fortified app, Flower provides a support contact for Cloud customers.

Does Flower work with Jira Data Center, and what happens when Atlassian ends Data Center?

Atlassian will end Data Center on 28 March 2029. Since 30 March 2026, new customers can no longer buy Data Center subscriptions or Marketplace apps for Data Center. Existing customers can buy and expand until 30 March 2028 and renew until 28 March 2029, when Data Center licenses expire and the products become read-only.

In Flower: Flower supports Jira Data Center 11.x today. Flower for Jira Cloud has no such restrictions.

Does Flower work with Jira Service Management?

Yes. In a service space, every request type is connected to a work type. If you map this work type to a Flower process model on the Work Type Mapping tab of the Flower Settings, every new request of this work type starts a process. Agents work on the request in Jira Service Management as usual, while Flower creates and tracks the process tasks as linked work items. Flower maps work types, not request types: request types that share a work type start the same process.

Is there a Flower app for Confluence?

Yes. Flower BPM for Confluence embeds BPMN diagrams in Confluence pages with the Flower BPMN View Macro. The models are created and edited in Jira. The macro can show models from the Flower Process Repository, and it also works without Flower for Jira by rendering BPMN files that are attached to a page.

Jira Workflows, Business Processes, and BPM

What is a Jira workflow?

A Jira workflow is the set of statuses and transitions that a single work item moves through, for example To Do, In Progress, and Done. It is bound to spaces and work types through a workflow scheme, and its building blocks are statuses, transitions, the assignee, and the resolution.

In Flower: Flower does not replace Jira workflows. In a Flower process, a Jira workflow handles the lifecycle of each single work item, and the BPMN model coordinates all work items of the process.

What is a business process?

A business process is a repeatable sequence of activities, performed by different roles, that leads to a defined business result. Examples are employee onboarding, invoice approval, and change management.

In Flower: In Flower, you draw a business process as a BPMN model, and every activity becomes a Jira work item when the process runs.

What is business process management (BPM)?

Business process management is the practice of modeling, analyzing, running, and continuously improving end-to-end business processes.

In Flower: Flower supports this cycle in Jira: you model the process in BPMN, run it with Jira work items, measure it with Jira filters, reports, and the model report, and improve it by publishing a new model version.

What is the difference between a Jira workflow and a business process?

A Jira workflow describes the statuses of one work item and is tactical. A business process describes many activities across teams and departments, in sequence and in parallel, and is strategic. Football offers an analogy: the workflow is the game move, the business process is the team formation.

In Flower: Flower adds the strategic layer to Jira. A BPMN model describes the whole process, and each activity can use its own Jira workflow.

What is the difference between a project and a process?

A project happens once, and a process is repeated regularly. If you reuse a project template several times, you are running a process.

In Flower: Flower treats recurring projects as processes: you model the structure once and launch it as often as needed. See How to Clone Jira Work Items, Epics, and Projects.

Can Jira be used as a BPM system?

Yes, with a restriction. Jira handles projects, workflows, and tasks well, but a Jira workflow describes only the serial status changes of one work item. A BPM system also needs parallel activities, decisions, and events.

In Flower: With Flower, Jira becomes a BPM system for human-centric processes: Flower adds BPMN modeling and execution, and Jira keeps managing the work items.

Why is a Jira workflow not enough for processes across teams?

When several teams depend on each other, each team’s workflow runs well, but the hand-offs between them cause waiting and misunderstandings. A Jira workflow cannot describe activities of several work items that run in sequence and in parallel.

In Flower: Flower creates the work items of the next team when the previous activity is resolved, assigns them through swimlanes, and shows the status of the whole process in every related work item.

When should I use a Jira workflow, and when Flower?

As a rule of thumb, use a Jira workflow for small workflows that focus on status transitions of one work item, space, or department.

In Flower: Use a Flower model for the bigger picture that spans several spaces and departments. A widely used example for the combination is the four-eyes release step: it is easier to design as a Jira workflow and sits as one activity in the larger Flower process.

What is Jira Automation, and how does it relate to Flower?

Jira Automation runs rules that react to events: a trigger, optional conditions, and actions. Rules often run in the background and are hard to track across a whole process.

In Flower: Flower makes automation visible in the process: a throw event in the BPMN model calls the incoming webhook trigger of a Jira Automation rule, so the team sees when and why the rule runs. See Sync Magic.

How do Jira workflows, Jira Automation, Jira Service Management, Flower, and dedicated BPM engines compare?

They solve different problems and work together.

In Flower: Flower covers the end-to-end process of human work in Jira.

What is agile business process management?

Agile BPM combines business process management with agile principles: small iterations, close collaboration, and continuous improvement. The process model guides people instead of forcing them.

In Flower: Flower supports Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles in Jira: you draw the model, launch an instance, evaluate it with Jira data, and publish an improved version. Running instances keep the version they started with. See Agile Business Process Management.

Can Jira approvals replace Flower?

The built-in approval step of Jira is a feature of Jira Service Management. In other spaces, approvals require Jira Premium or Enterprise. An approval step belongs to the workflow of one work item.

In Flower: Flower models an approval as an activity in its own swimlane, followed by a gateway that continues the process or loops back. It works in every space and Jira edition and suits approvals that are one step of a larger process.

What is the difference between business process mapping and modeling?

Mapping describes a process on any medium, even a whiteboard. Modeling uses a formal notation such as BPMN, and the resulting digital models are the basis for automation.

In Flower: Flower works with BPMN models, which it can execute.

What are integration-centric, document-centric, and human-centric BPM?

Integration-centric BPM connects systems and typically has many short instances. Document-centric BPM revolves around a document such as a contract. Human-centric BPM coordinates work done by people, with approvals and notifications.

In Flower: Flower is built for human-centric processes. In Jira, a work item can also represent a document, which makes document workflows possible.

BPMN

What is BPMN?

BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is the open standard for drawing business processes. It looks like a flowchart and uses standardized symbols for participants, activities, events, decisions, and the flow. Business users, analysts, and developers can read the same diagram.

In Flower: Flower uses BPMN as its modeling language and runs the models in Jira. See The Ultimate Guide to BPMN in Jira.

Who maintains the BPMN standard?

The Object Management Group (OMG) maintains BPMN. Version 2.0 is also published as ISO/IEC 19510.

In Flower: Flower follows BPMN 2.0, so models are portable to other BPMN tools.

What are the benefits of BPMN?

BPMN improves communication through a shared visual language, provides clear documentation, supports process analysis and optimization, and bridges the gap between process design and implementation.

In Flower: With Flower, a BPMN model is also executable: the documented process is the process that runs in Jira.

What are the main BPMN elements?

The main elements are pools and lanes (participants and roles), activities (tasks and sub-processes), events (start, intermediate, end), gateways (decisions and parallel paths), sequence flows, message flows, data objects, groups, and text annotations.

In Flower: Flower turns activities into Jira work items, lanes into assignees, text annotations into descriptions, and gateways into decisions. It supports a subset of BPMN elements for execution, see the list of supported elements.

What is the difference between a pool and a lane?

A pool represents a participant of the process, such as a company or department. A lane is a sub-partition of a pool, for example a role or team.

In Flower: In Flower, a lane represents the Jira assignee. All work items of a lane are assigned to the same person. See Automatic Jira Assignment with BPMN Swimlanes.

What is the difference between a task and a sub-process?

A task is an atomic piece of work. A sub-process is complex work that is broken down into another level of detail.

In Flower: In Flower, each user task, manual task, and plain task becomes a Jira work item. A Jira workflow can act as a sub-process of such an activity.

What types of BPMN gateways exist?

An exclusive gateway (XOR) takes exactly one path, based on conditions. An inclusive gateway (OR) takes every path whose condition is true. A parallel gateway (AND) starts all paths at the same time and, as a join, waits for all of them. An event-based gateway waits for the first of several events.

In Flower: In Flower, the outgoing paths of an exclusive gateway carry conditions that are evaluated with the data of Jira work items. See BPMN Gateways & Decision Handling.

What are catching, throwing, and boundary events?

A catching event waits for a trigger. A throwing event triggers itself when the process reaches it. A boundary event is attached to an activity and reacts while the activity is running, for example a timeout.

In Flower: In Flower, a timer boundary event sets a due date on the work item and starts an escalation path, and a throw event can call a Jira Automation rule or a webhook.

What are the most common BPMN modeling mistakes?

Common mistakes are missing start and end events, activities placed between lanes, vague names, missing or overlapping gateway conditions, mismatched split and join gateways, unnecessary gateways, and plural activity names.

In Flower: Flower validates models against basic rules with green, yellow, and red markers. See 11 Common BPMN Modeling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

Can I import and export BPMN files with Flower?

Yes. BPMN diagrams are saved as XML files, and Flower exports models as an archive that contains the BPMN file and further files. Models from other BPMN tools that use the standard format can be imported. If you import a model from another Jira instance, adjust its space and work type values.

What is the difference between BPMN, DMN, and CMMN?

BPMN models business processes. DMN (Decision Model and Notation) models decisions as decision tables. CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation) models cases. The Object Management Group maintains all three.

In Flower: Flower is built around BPMN. Decisions at gateways are expressions that use the data of Jira work items.

How Flower Runs Processes in Jira

How do I create a process model in Flower?

Open the Flower app in Jira, create a model, and draw the process in the graphical BPMN modeler. You can start from a template. Before you publish, run the validation check and the token simulation. See Get Started with Modelling.

How does a process start in Flower?

A process starts in one of three ways: a user clicks the play button of a published model, a Jira work item of a mapped work type is created (Work Type Mapping in the Flower Settings), or a submitted Jira form or Jira Service Management request creates a work item of a mapped work type. In the last two cases, the new work item becomes the process instance.

What happens when a process reaches a user task?

Flower creates a Jira work item for the activity. The activity name becomes the summary, the documentation becomes the description, and the swimlane decides the assignee. The work item follows its normal Jira workflow, and the process diagram in the work item shows the status of the process.

How does the process continue?

The process continues when the Jira work item of the activity is resolved. Flower then starts the next activities of the model.

Does Flower change the status of work items?

While the process runs, Flower does not change the status of task work items. Users complete them. Flower changes statuses at the end: it resolves the work item of the process instance when the process has ended, and it closes all open task work items when a terminate end event ends the process.

How does Flower assign work items?

Through swimlanes. When a work item in a lane is assigned for the first time, Flower uses this user for the lane, and work items created later in the lane get the same assignee. If you reassign a work item, Flower updates the open work items of the lane. See Automatic Jira Assignment with BPMN Swimlanes.

Can activities and lanes use different Jira spaces and work types?

Yes. Flower determines the space and the work type separately. The first level that defines a value wins: the activity, then the swimlane, then the global default in the Flower Settings. See User Tasks.

How does Flower make decisions at gateways?

Each outgoing transition of an exclusive gateway carries a condition: a JavaScript expression inside ${ } that Flower evaluates with the data of the Jira work items. cur is the work item of the last activity, and pi is the process instance. The process follows the first transition whose expression is true. A default transition keeps the process moving when no condition applies. See BPMN Gateways & Decision Handling.

What happens when a transition loops back to a completed activity?

Flower reopens the work item of that activity. For this, the Jira workflow must offer a transition without a screen from the completed status back to a To Do or In Progress status. Otherwise, Flower cannot reopen the work item and adds an error comment to the process instance.

How do timers and escalations work in Flower?

A timer boundary event on an activity sets the due date of the work item and starts a timeout path when the date passes. You define the timer with an ISO 8601 date, duration, or repeating interval, and it can be interrupting or non-interrupting. A timer job runs once a day at 00:00 UTC, and you can also run it manually in the Flower Settings. See Set Jira Due Dates with Timer Events.

How does Flower run activities in parallel?

In Flower, a parallel gateway creates the work items of all its branches at the same time. A parallel join gateway waits until all incoming branches are done before the process continues.

How does a process end in Flower?

In Flower, a regular end event ends only its own flow, and parallel flows continue. A terminate end event ends the whole process instance and closes all open task work items. Closing them does not continue the process. See BPMN End Events.

Can Flower trigger Jira Automation rules or external services?

Yes. A Flower throw event in the model sends an HTTP POST request with the key of the process instance, for example {"issues": ["KEY-1"]}, to a webhook URL. For Jira Automation, use the incoming webhook trigger of a rule and add its secret to the end of the URL. In Jira Cloud, the URL must start with https:// and point to a public address. See Sync Magic.

How do Jira forms work with Flower?

Every Jira form belongs to a work type. Because each activity of a process is a work item with its own work type, you can give every activity its own form. A form on the process instance collects data for the whole process. A submitted form can also start a process when the work type of the created work item is mapped to a model. See Jira Forms Meets Flower BPM.

Can I find Flower data with JQL?

Yes. Flower adds search fields to JQL: flowerType (Model, Process Instance, Activity), flowerModel, flowerInstance, flowerLane, and flowerNode. For example, flowerModel = YOUR-MODEL-KEY AND flowerType = "Process Instance" finds all process instances of a model. Save queries as filters and use them for boards and dashboards. See Search Flower Data with JQL.

How do I report on processes with Flower?

Flower provides a model report with the number of open work items per activity. Because Flower data are Jira work items, you can also use Jira filters, dashboards, the Created vs Resolved, Resolution Time, and Control Chart reports, and reporting apps from the Marketplace.

How does versioning work in Flower?

A model is versioned. Your drawing is a draft until you publish it, and each publication creates a new version while Flower keeps the previous ones. New process instances use the latest version, and running instances are not affected. You can revert to or compare versions.

Can I test a model before I use it?

Yes. Flower validates a model against basic rules with green, yellow, and red markers, and you can still publish a model with warnings. The token simulation shows how a token moves through the process. It supports most BPMN elements, except OR gateways, transactions, cancel events, and compensation tasks and events.

Does Flower provide templates?

Yes. Flower includes sample processes that you can open as templates and adjust. See The 25 Most Relevant Business Processes for common processes with steps and roles.

How do permissions work with Flower?

Flower builds on Jira permissions and adds no separate permission model. A user sees a model, process instance, or task only if Jira allows access to its work item. The Flower engine creates and updates work items in the background with the Flower app user in Jira Cloud, or with the user configured in the Flower Settings in Jira Data Center, so this user needs access to the spaces that processes use.

How do I model an approval or four-eyes principle in Flower?

Put the approval in its own swimlane, followed by an exclusive gateway. If the work is approved, the process continues. If it is rejected, a transition leads back to the work, and Flower reopens its work item. The condition can use the status, the resolution, or a form field. See the Four Eyes page in the documentation and BPMN Gateways & Decision Handling.

Can Flower clone a Jira epic or project structure?

Yes, in the sense of a template. With Flower, you describe the structure once as a process model, for example an epic with stories and tasks, and launch it as often as needed, in different spaces and with different work types. See How to Clone Jira Work Items, Epics, and Projects.

Use Cases and Industries

Which business processes can I automate with Flower?

Flower suits any repeatable process with several roles and hand-offs. Typical examples are onboarding and offboarding, approvals, change management, procurement, RFPs, invoice workflows, incident reporting, customer onboarding, and complaint management. See The 25 Most Relevant Business Processes.

How is Flower used for HR processes?

HR teams use Flower for onboarding, offboarding, recruiting, performance reviews, and employee requests. HR, IT, facilities, and the manager work in swimlanes and in parallel branches. See Business Process Automation for Human Resources.

How is Flower used in banking and financial services?

Financial service teams use Flower for client onboarding and KYC, account opening, loan approval, complaint handling, and regulatory change. Each step is a Jira work item with an assignee and history, and approvals are explicit steps. See Business Process Automation for Banks and Financial Services.

How is Flower used in healthcare?

Healthcare organizations use Flower for the organizational processes around care: staff onboarding, procurement, equipment maintenance, incident reporting, and the organizational steps of the patient journey. Whether patient data may be stored in Jira depends on your compliance requirements. See Business Process Automation for Healthcare Organizations.

How is Flower used in insurance?

Insurers use Flower for quoting, underwriting, policy changes, renewals, and claims handling, with Jira Service Management as an optional customer portal. See Business Process Automation for Insurance Companies.

How is Flower used in manufacturing?

Manufacturers use Flower for supplier onboarding, procurement, quality deviations, maintenance, and after-sales service. See Business Process Automation for Manufacturing Companies.

What are ITSM and ITIL, and how does Flower support them?

ITSM (IT service management) is the practice of designing, delivering, and improving IT services. ITIL is the best-known framework for it, and the current version is ITIL 4, published in 2019.

In Flower: Jira Service Management covers the service desk. Flower models multi-team ITIL processes such as change enablement, with risk-based paths, approvals, and parallel steps, and runs them in Jira. See What Are ITSM and ITIL?.

Security, Privacy, and Compliance

How does Flower approach security?

Flower is Cloud Fortified, which includes participation in the Atlassian Marketplace Security Bug Bounty Program. Flower stores process data in Jira and uses Jira permissions. In Jira Cloud, webhooks of throw events may only call public https:// addresses, internal addresses are blocked, and redirects are not followed.

Does Flower make my organization compliant?

No tool makes an organization compliant by itself. Flower supports traceability: every activity is a Jira work item with an assignee, status, and history, models are versioned, and access follows Jira permissions. Check regulatory requirements, such as data protection or industry rules, for your organization and your Jira site.

Can I keep sensitive processes restricted?

Yes. Flower creates work items in the Jira spaces you choose. Keep a space restricted with Jira permissions, and the process data in it stays restricted.

Glossary

Where to Learn More

• Get Started with Modelling: Create your first BPMN process in Flower.
• Get Started with Automation: Run a process and track it in Jira.
• Setup Flower: Configure space, work types, and the Work Type Mapping.
• The Ultimate Guide to BPMN in Jira: The BPMN notation in detail.
• Jira Workflow vs. Business Process Management (BPM): The difference between workflow, process, and project.
• Jira Project Management vs. Business Process Management (BPM): When to use which approach.
• The 25 Most Relevant Business Processes: Common processes with steps and roles.
• Atlassian Marketplace listing : Trial, pricing, and version compatibility.