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Visio to BPMN 2.0: turning a client's old process drawings into a model
Robbert Schuurmans
Process Innovation
Converting Visio to BPMN 2.0 is not a matter of redrawing shape by shape. You read the Visio drawing as a description of the process, rebuild it with BPMN elements (tasks, gateways, events and lanes), and fill in what the drawing never said with the people who do the work. Done that way, an old drawing is a head start instead of a week of redrawing.
The zip file at kickoff
Most process projects start the same way. The client sends a zip file with forty Visio files. Some are from 2017, a few have "final_v3" in the name, one uses the BPMN template and the rest are boxes and arrows. Nobody is sure which ones still describe how the work is done today.
That zip file is useful. It tells you which processes the client once cared enough about to draw, which terms they use and where the hand-offs are. It is just not a process model yet.
Why a Visio drawing is not a BPMN model
Visio is a drawing tool. It has a BPMN 2.0 template and can check a diagram against BPMN rules, but most drawings in a client archive were made with basic flowchart shapes. Those shapes leave the important questions open:
A diamond is a question without an answer. It shows that something is decided, not on what condition, and not whether only one path or several can follow.
There are no events. A flowchart has a start and an end shape, but nothing for "the invoice arrives", "two days pass" or "the customer cancels".
Lanes are optional. Many drawings show the steps without saying who does them, or put the role in the box text.
An arrow means anything. The same arrow is used for the order of steps, for a document going to another team and for an email to a customer.
BPMN 2.0 has a fixed meaning for each of these. That is why a BPMN model can be checked, reused and read by other tools, and a drawing usually can't.
From Visio to BPMN 2.0 in five steps
Triage the files first. For each drawing, ask the client three things: is this process still run this way, who owns it, and is there a newer version somewhere? Archive what nobody claims. This step alone often makes the pile a lot smaller.
Map every shape to a BPMN element. Use the list below. Where a shape has no clear meaning, mark it as an open question instead of guessing.
Fill in what the drawing didn't say. The conditions on each decision, the exceptions, the waiting times and who does each step. These become the questions for a short process interview with the person who runs the process.
Check the model with the client. Walk through it step by step. Because the drawing gave you the outline, the conversation goes to the exceptions straight away, which is where the value is.
Deliver BPMN 2.0 XML, not another drawing. Then the next consultant, or the client's own team, can open the model in a BPM tool instead of starting from a picture again.
How Visio shapes map to BPMN
Process box (rectangle): a task. Give it a verb and an object: "Check invoice", not "Invoice".
Decision (diamond): an exclusive gateway, with the condition written on each outgoing path. If more than one path can be taken, it is an inclusive or parallel gateway instead. The gateways post explains the difference.
Terminator (rounded start or end shape): a start event or an end event. If the process starts because something arrives, use a message start event.
Document or data shape: a data object attached to the task that uses or produces it.
"Wait" or delay notes: an intermediate timer event.
Columns or swimlanes: lanes in a pool, one per role. The swimlane diagram post covers how to choose them.
Arrows to another team or the customer: a sequence flow inside your process, or a message flow when it crosses to another organization.
If a shape is not on this list, the BPMN symbols overview usually has the right element.
When Visio is fine as it is
If the client only needs a picture for the intranet, nobody will automate the process and nobody will maintain it, a clean Visio flowchart is enough. Redrawing it in BPMN costs time and adds nothing.
The same goes for teams looking for a Visio alternative for general diagrams. Lucidchart, draw.io and Miro are good drawing tools. If the goal is a process model that other tools can read, look at BPMN modelers instead: Camunda Modeler is free and saves BPMN 2.0 XML, and suites like SAP Signavio add a repository and governance around it.
How ModelMatic does it
In ModelMatic you upload the Visio file and get a BPMN 2.0 model back, with every element linked to where it came from in the source. You check it with the client and export it as BPMN 2.0 XML. The open questions from step 3 are what is left for you to ask, not the redrawing.
At one consultancy, working out a process went from about 8 hours to about 1 hour. With a zip file of forty drawings, that is the difference between eight working weeks and one.
See the features page for the other input formats, or book a demo to see a Visio file turned into a BPMN model.
