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Workflow object: Parallel gateway

A parallel gateway can be used in a workflow to perform several tasks in parallel. Use cases. If the activities to be carried out in parallel are to be processed by the person currently responsible,…

Christoph Lemos
Updated by Christoph Lemos
Table of Contents

A parallel gateway can be used in a workflow to perform several tasks in parallel.

Use cases

If the activities to be carried out in parallel are to be processed by the person currently responsible, tasks, sub-processes or send e-mail objects can be modeled behind the gateway. All activities are displayed to the person currently responsible in the process at the same time and can be processed in any order (see note in the following section).

Alternatively or additionally, one or more tasks or sub-processes can be requested by one or more agents.

If different people are to perform the same task in parallel (e.g. check or release something), a parallel gateway is not required. The persons can be collected in a field group that serves as an address list for the request.

Modeling with and without the merging second parallel gateway

Close open gateway

Do not close open gateway

If an open parallel gateway is closed by a second gateway after the triggered activities, a case will wait for the completion of all activities between these two gateways. The intermediate event "Target" is therefore only reached if task 1 and task 2 are completed.

If an open parallel gateway is not closed by a second gateway after the triggered activities, a process will continue to run after one of the activities has been completed. The intermediate event "Target" is therefore reached when task 1 or task 2 is completed.

Attention points in connection with other workflow objects

Forwarding: There can only be a maximum of one forwarding object between two parallel gateways, as a task can only be in the hands of one responsible person at any one time. On the other hand, tasks can be requested by several people at the same time because the responsibility of the task does not change.
Intermediate event: There must be no intermediate event between two parallel gateways. If a status change does take place, the tasks that have not yet been executed are ignored by the workflow. Therefore, intermediate events should always be modeled before an opening parallel gateway and after a merging gateway only.

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Workflow object: Timer

Workflow object: Sub-Process

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