- Introduction and getting started
- Maestro landing page
- Process modeling
- Process implementation
- Process operations
- Process monitoring
- Process optimization
- Licensing
- Reference information
Maestro user guide
A participant is anyone or anything that takes part in the process, an organization, a department, a system,or even a single role. Participants are drawn as pools, and each pool can be subdivided in to horizontal or vertical lanes to show internal responsibilities.
Use pools and lanes to define the participants in your process and clarify who is responsible for each step. In BPMN, pools represent major participants or systems, while lanes divide the pool into logical roles or departments. This structure helps make responsibilities and handoffs explicit, especially in complex, multi-actor workflows.
| Element | Purpose | Execution in Maestro |
|---|---|---|
| Pool | Represents a participant | |
| Lane | Visual responsibility grouping |
A pool represents a participant in the process. This can be an organization, system, team, or external entity.
- Use a single pool to model processes in Maestro.
- Additional pools may be used for modeling only, to indicate interactions with external participants.
- Pools do not share data or execution context.
Example use case: Displaying interaction between an internal approval process and an external customer or system.
Lanes subdivide a pool into roles, departments, or logical groupings. They do not affect the behavior of the process.
- Use lanes to assign tasks visually to participants (e.g., HR vs. Finance).
- All lanes share the same process context (variables, flow).
- Lanes are layout-only elements; they do not represent callable units.
Example use case: Separating tasks performed by Employee vs. Manager in the same approval process.
Example
Lane are horizontal or vertical segments within a pool that organize activities according to specific responsibilities, roles, or functions. Lanes maintain the organizational structure while allowing sequence flows to freely cross between them, visually representing internal handoffs without violating the participant boundary established by the parent pool.
Message flows indicate communication between pools. They are used to model asynchronous interactions, such as API calls, emails, or external triggers.
- Only allowed between separate pools.
- Cannot be drawn between elements in the same pool.
- Do not imply execution — they are used to document interactions only.
Use case: Showing a message sent from an internal system to an external CRM.
- Use pools to isolate external actors or systems, not for internal structuring.
- Use one executable pool only. Any additional pools are non-executable.
- Label all message flows clearly with the intent (e.g.,
Send Confirmation Email). - Avoid overusing pools — prefer lanes within a single pool for internal structure.
- Message flows should never cross inside a single pool — use sequence flows instead
Pools and lanes bring clarity to process ownership and interaction. Use them to visually separate teams, systems, or roles, and ensure each task is modeled within the correct participant's context. They are foundational for understanding responsibility boundaries in cross-functional and agentic processes.
For more details about the BPMN elements supported in Maestro, see BPMN support.
