Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) concept mapping

This reference is for developers and architects who are familiar with Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) 2.0 and want to understand how Maestro BPMN concepts map to Flow equivalents.

For a higher-level comparison of when to use each tool, see Choosing a Maestro modeler.

Concept mapping table

BPMN concept	Maestro BPMN	Flow equivalent
Start event	Start event node	Manual Trigger or Scheduled Trigger node
End event	End event node	Terminate node (or natural end of canvas)
Task	Service task, user task	HTTP Request, Script, Data Transform, or Human Task node
Exclusive gateway	XOR gateway	Decision node
Parallel gateway	AND gateway	Parallel branches + Merge node
Inclusive gateway	OR gateway	Multiple Decision nodes or Switch node
Subprocess	Collapsed subprocess	Subflow node
Boundary error event	Error boundary event	Error handle on a node
Sequence flow	Sequence flow	Connection between nodes
Data object	Data object	Variable
Pool / lane	Pool / lane	Not applicable — Flow does not use swim lanes
Timer event	Timer boundary event	Scheduled Trigger node
Message event	Message catch event	Integration trigger node

Key differences

• No swim lanes — Flow does not model organizational roles or participants as swim lanes. Human assignment is handled at the node level via the Human Task node.
• No BPMN XML — Flow uses the .flow JSON format, not BPMN XML. Workflows cannot be directly imported from a BPMN modeler.
• Error handling is inline — Flow handles errors at the node level via each node's error handle, rather than using boundary events attached to tasks.
• No compensation — BPMN compensation flows have no direct equivalent in Flow. Compensation logic is represented explicitly with Decision and error handler nodes.