What is Event-Driven Process Chain (EPC)

What is Event-Driven Process Chain (EPC)?

3-4 minutes

The event-driven Process Chain (EPC) is a flow chart for business process modeling introduced by August-Wilhelm Scheer in the early 1990s. It illustrates the business process workflows. It uses graphical symbols to show the control-flow structure of a business process as a chain of events and functions.

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EPC Symbols

EPC diagrams use graphical symbols to show the control-flow structure of a business process as a chain of events and functions.

It provides various connectors that allow alternative and parallel execution of processes. Furthermore, it is specified by the usages of logical operators, such as OR, AND, and XOR. A major strength of EPC is claimed to be its simplicity and easy-to-understand notation. This makes EPC a widely accepted technique to denote business processes.

The building blocks used in EPC diagrams are:

Event

An event describes what circumstances a function or a process works or which state a function or a process will be resulted in.

Function

• A function describes the transformations from an initial state to a resulting state.

Operator

• And – An and operation corresponds to activate all paths in the control flow concurrently.
• Or – An or operator corresponds to activate one or more paths among control flows.
• XOR – An XOR operator corresponds to make a decision on which path to choose among several control flows.

Organization unit

• An organization unit determines which person or organization within the structure of an enterprise is responsible for a specific function.

Control flow

• A control flow connects events with function, process paths or operators that create a chronological sequence and logical interdependencies between them.

Process path

• A process path shows the connection from or to other processes.

Organization unit assignment

An organization unit assignment shows the connection between an organization unit and the function it is responsible for.

Information

• An information resource portrays objects in the real world

resource

• that can input data serving as the basis of a function or output data produced by a function.

System

• A system is the provider of functions in a process. Information flow Information flow shows the connection between functions and input or output data, upon which the function reads changes or writes.

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