A Beta-Version of the BPMN 2.0 specification is released in September, the final draft is announced for June 2010 (see Bruce Silver). Enhancements are explicit execution semantics, a metamodel as well as a standardized interchange format. BPMN 2.0 is a serious development especially for tool vendors as the language now consideres process execution.
We tried to collect and share information concerning BPMN 2.0 in the BPMN-Community. These are the most important innovations introduced with BPMN 2.0:
BPMN 2.0 introduced two entirely new diagram types, the Conversation-Diagram and the Choreography-Diagram. These models focus on communication across participant boundaries. Thereby the particular internal processes are not as important as the global interaction between process participants. We provide a tutorial where both new diagrams are described and explained: http://en.bpmn-community.org/tutorials/34/
Another fundamentally new element is the Escalation-Event. It is used to model the so far complicated case of escalation in which the next higher level of responsibility gets involved. A tutorial concerning the modeling of escalation can be found at http://en.bpmn-community.org/tutorials/32/
In the area of Subprocesses there is a significant enhancement: Event-Subprocesses. These are used to process Events occuring within a Subprocess. It is distinguished between interrupting and non-interrupting Events. Furthemore Call Activities now allow to reference globally defined Subprocesses. Event-Subprocesses and Call Activities are explained here: http://en.bpmn-community.org/tutorials/6/
Refinements have been made in data modeling. It is now possible to model persistent storages like for example databases. Besides processes can now define global Input and Output. Our tutorial concerning Artifacts has been updated for the new constructs: http://en.bpmn-community.org/tutorials/13/
Although not completely new but anyway important for execution semantics are the new Gateways Exclusive Event-based Gateway (instantiate) and Parallel Event-based Gateway (instantiate). These are used at the beginning of processes. http://en.bpmn-community.org/tutorials/4/
We now use the newest release of the Oryx-Editor that offers lots of usability improvements and now supports BPMN 2.0. Closing I want to mention that our content is not complete at all. I am looking forward for suggestions and your participation. Especially in the area of Best Practices there will be a lot to discuss.
Markus Güntert Sept. 4, 2009, 3:04 p.m.