"Beam me up, Scotty!"

The Escalation-Event, that is introduced with BPMN 2.0 looks a bit like the badge in Star Trek.

The new construct reflects a concept that was yet missing in BPMN, the case of escalation. If an escalation happens, the next higher level of responsibility shall be involved.

The Escalation-Event is a variant of the conventional Error Event but an Escalation does not necessarily imply an Error. Escalation is thrown by either an according End Event or a Throwing Intermediate Event. It is caught by a Boundary Event or an Event-Subprocess (see Event-Subprocesses).

Example1:
In a bank the crediting process shall be modeled. The employee receives a credit request and can process it on his own - unless the credit value is not more than 5000. If the credit value is more than 5000, his manager gets involved and has to decide whether it is accepted or rejected. This simple example shows the escalation to the next higher level of responsibility.