BPMN Workflow Discovery

BPMN Workflow Discovery

This skill provides knowledge and facilitation guidance for interactive BPMN workflow discovery sessions — modeling business processes through guided conversation and iterative refinement to find the right level of granularity.

When to Use

This skill should be used when:

• A high-level process idea needs fleshing out
• Determining appropriate diagram granularity
• Discovering edge cases, exceptions, and decision points
• Validating process understanding with stakeholders
• Modeling cross-team workflows

When NOT to Use

• Already know exactly what to diagram → use /bpmn directly
• Exploring a domain without a specific process → use /discovery
• Focusing on events and eventual consistency → use /event-storming

Invocation Modes

New Process

Start fresh — discovers process from scratch, creates new .bpmn file.

Refine Existing Process

Load existing .bpmn file, summarize current state, then continue refinement:

• Drill into a subprocess
• Add missing exception paths
• Expand a collapsed task
• Add participants/lanes

When refining, skip completed phases and jump to the relevant work.

Session Flow

Phase 1: Process Overview (2-3 exchanges)

Establish the process context and boundaries (new) or summarize existing file and ask what to work on (refine). Capture process name, trigger, outcome, key participants.

Phase 2: Happy Path Discovery (3-5 exchanges)

Map the main flow without exceptions. Walk through ideal scenario start to finish, identify parallel steps and hidden sub-steps.

OUTPUT: Generate initial Level 0 diagram showing the happy path.

Phase 3: Decision Points & Branches (3-5 exchanges)

Discover gateways and alternative paths. Identify exclusive vs parallel vs inclusive gateways, decision criteria, and who/what makes each decision.

OUTPUT: Update diagram with decision gateways and branches.

Phase 4: Exception Paths & Error Handling (3-5 exchanges)

Discover what happens when things go wrong — failures, timeouts, retries, rollbacks, cancellations, escalations.

OUTPUT: Add error events, compensation flows, and escalation paths.

Phase 5: Granularity Negotiation (3-5 exchanges)

Find the right level of detail. Drill down when steps take multiple minutes, involve multiple people, or contain hidden decisions. Roll up when details are implementation-specific or audience doesn't need them.

OUTPUT: Create subprocess diagrams for expanded steps.

Phase 6: Participants & Handoffs (2-3 exchanges)

Clarify roles, transitions, and handoff mechanisms between people/teams.

OUTPUT: Update diagrams with swimlanes and handoff points.

Phase 7: External Systems & Integrations (2-3 exchanges)

Identify system touchpoints, sync vs async interactions, data flows, and failure handling for external dependencies.

OUTPUT: Add system tasks and message events.

Phase 8: Validation & Completeness (2-3 exchanges)

Review and fill gaps. Ensure every gateway has 2+ paths, all paths reach an end event, no orphaned steps, lanes are consistent.

Phase 9: Documentation & Artifacts (2-3 exchanges)

Capture business rules, glossary terms, metrics/SLAs, and identify reviewers and follow-up sessions.

Granularity Guidance

Signal	Action
"It depends..."	Add a gateway
"Well, first we... then..."	Consider subprocess
"Someone has to approve..."	Add decision gateway with actor
"Unless it fails..."	Add error path
"At the same time..."	Add parallel gateway
"We wait for..."	Add intermediate event
"The system does..."	Add service task

Output Artifacts

Generate BPMN 2.0 XML files (.bpmn):

[process-name]/
├── [process-name].bpmn              # Main process (Level 0)
├── [subprocess-a].bpmn              # Expanded subprocess
├── [subprocess-b].bpmn              # Expanded subprocess
└── ...

Progressive output — diagrams are updated after each major phase.

Iteration Pattern

This skill supports iterative refinement across multiple sessions:

Session 1: Discover Level 0 (happy path + major decisions)
    └─► Output: order-fulfillment.bpmn
Session 2: Expand subprocess, add error handling
    └─► Output: updated .bpmn files
Session 3: Add remaining exception paths
    └─► Output: complete, validated .bpmn files

Facilitation Principles

• Start broad, narrow down — easier to add detail than remove it
• Use the participant's language — match their terminology
• Sketch before perfecting — rough diagrams spark better discussions
• Time-box deep dives — don't get lost in one subprocess
• Mark uncertainties as hotspots — capture what you don't know
• Diagrams are communication tools — optimize for the audience

References

File	Content
references/facilitator-prompts.md	Detailed facilitator prompts for each session phase
../bpmn/SKILL.md	BPMN 2.0 XML element reference for generating .bpmn files