[BPMN] Object instances limited to 1 per model

[Jef Martens]

Hi all, while working with BPMN models, I've come across a nasty little feature:
Elements with the same GUID are limited to be represented only once on a model.

In my case I'd like to reuse documents for example as input / output related elements. Obviously, I'd reuse the same object and give it another state (input / output), but EA wouldn't let me. This occurs within pools / lanes and is essential for handover points in activity sequences.
The same goes for intermediate (link) events where on/off-page references are used. These intermediate link events are substantial for BPMN as they show where (sub)processes are triggered and should be linked.

How to handle these issues? Ideally I'd say as per BPMN convention, you'd reuse the object instead of creating more objects which obviously are not the same at the lowest level.

[qwerty]

I'm not a BPMN expert. But if you talk of object states you rather need objects for that. No way to place the same object twice on a diagram. But with different states they must be different objects.

q.

[Jef Martens]

To clarify, here are some examples in a picture:


Documents are identical, but alternating in state because of input / output
The same goes for the systems, same objects & instances.

How should this be handled if you'd later would reuse the whole repository for analysis? I.e. analyzing which process steps will use the CRM system or ERP system?

[qwerty]

If you use an instance this is classified by something. You can find that out manually (try Ctrl-U for the classifier to find out where instances are used).

q.

[Jef Martens]

Thank you Qwerty for mentioning the useful shortcut (it allows to circumvent the alphabetical ordering of similar objects in classes for navigation) but the documents and systems as shown on the image are still the same objects in name, but not instance.
Where competing products have BPMN modeling solutions that allow for architectural best practices such as one single object with instances where needed on a model, it seems that EA cannot fulfill this best practice.
Therefore a nice repository with reusable objects is available, but limited to one instance per model. Not being able to represent multiple instances of an object will result in spaghetti like models OR an explosion of models to represent the relationships per activity of a process flow to model the relationship to a document / system / intermediate event.

Is the one instance per model defined by a higher hierarchical definition somewhere?

[qwerty]

I'm not sure what you're talking of. You can create as many instances of a class as you like. It's just that you can place it only once in a diagram (which is a good practice as you can not tell any element to be a clone display of another one).

q.