BPMN offers the construct of pools and swim lanes to better organize activities in a process model. They allow the mapping of roles, responsibilities and organizational structures. Two basic types are differentiated:
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Pools – are used for limiting the process participants at a higher level of abstraction and generally represent an organization.
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Lanes – sub divide pools and allow a structuring of organizations by roles or responsibilities within the organization.
A process will always belong to one pool, an action or task to one lane.
A pool cannot be nested with any other pool. A lane can only be integrated into an existing pool. lanes can also not be nested into other lanes.
Pools and lanes can both be minimized for a better overview.