A process flow may be simple or complex. A simple process flow has a straightforward route with only a few people (referred to in EPX as participants) and tasks involved. For example:
A complex process flow has a complicated route with numerous participants and tasks (referred to in EPX as activities). As a work item travels through the process flow, decisions are made regarding whether to send it to single or multiple activities. A decision is also made regarding whether to wait until all recipients have released the item before sending it along the process flow, or instead to send the item along each time an activity releases it. These decision points are called splits and joins. In the following illustration, each box in the diagram represents a different activity in the process flow, and each activity may involve a different participant or more than one participant.
Very complex process flows may consist of a series of activities with multiple, exclusive, and nonexclusive splits and joins and may have multiple starting points and ending points. To reduce complexity, process flows may be divided into subflows (discussed later in this chapter), which may then be reused any number of times in any number of process flows and subflows.