Event-Driven Process Chain (EPC) Diagram is a widely used diagram type which is newly supported in Visual Paradigm Suite 3.3. It illustrates the control flow structure of a business process as a chain of events and functions with simple and easy-to-understand notations.

Notations

Name	Image	Description
Event		An event describes what circumstances a function or a process works or which state a function or process results in.
Function		A function describes the transformations from an initial state to a resulting state.
And Operator		An and operation corresponds to activating all paths in the control flow concurrently.
Or Operator		An or operator corresponds to activating one or more paths among control flows.
XOR Operator		An XOR operator corresponds to making decision of 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.
Process Path		A process path shows the connection from or to other processes.
Information Resource		An information resource portrays objects in the real world that can be input data serving as the basic of a function, or output data produced by a function.
Control Flow		A control flow connects events with function, process paths, or operators creating chronological sequence and logical interdependencies between them.
Organization Unit Assignment		An organization unit assignment show the connection between an organization unit and the function it is responsible for.
Information Flow

Drawing EPC Diagram

1. A new EPC Diagram can be created by the following ways:

   • Main Menu

     Select File > New Diagram > Business Process Modeling > Event-driven Process Chain Diagram in the Main Menu.

     

   • Toolbar

     Click New Event-driven Process Chain Diagram on the toolbar.

     

   • Diagram Navigator

     Right-click on EPC Diagram under Business Process Modeling, then select New EPC Diagram from the popup menu.

     

2. Name the new EPC diagram.

   

3. We can add an event shape in the diagram using the diagram toolbar. Simply click Event on the diagram toolbar and then click on the diagram wherever you want.

   

4. Enter the name of the event.

   

5. Also, we can add shapes using the resource icons. When a shape is newly created, or when we move the mouse cursor on a shape, a list of corresponding resource icons will show surrounding the shape.

   

   Move the mouse cursor over the resource icon, for instance, Control Flow -> Function.

   

6. Click on the icon and drag to where the function shape should locate, then release the mouse button.

   

7. Enter the name of the function.

   

You can keep using the resource icons to model an EPC diagram in a handy and time-saving way. Here is a sample Event-driven Process Chain Diagram:

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