Parallel type conversion

It sometimes happens that modelers misuse a parallel step adding it to a process diagram in a place where they actually expect a decision. Both parallel and choice/decision steps allow to create two or more branches in the diagram flow. So, graphically there is no big difference. However, the evaluation results for a diagram with a parallel step will be much different from the results for a diagram with a choice. This is because the parallel execution means that activities in all parallel branches are executed concurrently whereas only activities from one branch are executed in a diagram with a choice.

In order to help fixing this mistake we allow converting a parallel step into a choice step. This, however, is one-way conversion. A choice can be converted into decision but not back into a parallel step. (You can still restore the parallel step by undoing the conversion.)

Select a parallel step in the process diagram and change its Type from Split to Choice in the Properties pane.

The Parallel step will be converted into Choice step and the Sink step ending the parallel branch will be converted into a Stop step. If a parallel branch ends with a Goto step pointing to a Join step then this Join step will be converted to a Milestone step.