Expand, collapse, extract and resolve

Subprocesses are used to structure a process design in order to make it more readable and better navigable. Sometimes it is required to have an overall view that shows the process and the content of its subprocesses on the same diagram. For example, this is necessary for the overall swim lane view. The subprocess expansion enables also an operation of moving steps or subtrees between different levels of subprocess hierarchy.

Expanding

You can also Expand and collapse process links.

In order to expand a subprocess (phase, service) click a small plus sign on top of its icon.

ExpandCollapse1

Alternatives:

►	Right mouse click a subprocess and select Expand.

►	Right mouse click any process step and select Expand all subprocesses. All subprocesses in the current diagram and below will be expanded.

The content of the subprocess will be inserted in place of the subprocess step and the Begin of expanded subprocess and End of expanded subprocess steps will be added in front and at the end of the inserted steps.

Collapsing

In order to collapse a subprocess click a small minus sign on top of Begin of expanded subprocess or End of expanded subprocess icon.

ExpandCollapse2

Alternatives:

►	Right mouse click a Begin of expanded subprocess or End of expanded subprocess and select Collapse.

►	Right mouse click any process step and select Collapse all subprocesses. All subprocesses in the current diagram and below will be collapsed.

If the collapsed process contains a Stop step then its collapsed icon will be marked by a small Stop icon on the right hand side. Since the positive and negative stops have different icons you will see one of them or both depending what is inside the subprocess.

CollapsedSubprocesses

Extracting

To extract a subprocesses from the given (sub)process level select a sequence of process steps, right mouse click and select the Create subprocess button from the menu that pops up.

. ExpandCollapse3

The Begin of expanded subprocess and End of expanded subprocess steps will be added in front and at the end of the selected sequence, correspondingly. The name of the new subprocess will be derived from the name of the first step to be extracted. Later, you can rename the subprocess and change its type into a service or a phase.

Resolving

You can also resolve a subprocess (service, phase) on the higher level making it an integral part of this level. This is actually the reverse operation to Create subprocess. In order to resolve an expanded subprocess (service, phase) select its begin step right mouse click and select the Resolve subprocess button from the menu that pops up. The Begin of expanded subprocess (service, phase) and End of expanded subprocess (service, phase) steps disappear.