Managing modeling conventions

The modeling convention feature enables users to check if diagrams stick to certain rules regarding notation(/BPMN-language), labeling, process structure and diagram layout. This check can be displayed while modeling (or saving). Additionally, a modeling conventions report can be generated.

SAP Signavio offers SAP Signavio Best Practices modeling conventions as well as custom modeling conventions.

To manage modeling conventions in your work space you need to be a member of the Administrators group.

To access the modeling convention dialog open the explorer and click Setup, then Define modeling conventions in the top drop-down menu.

The following dialog will pop up:

In this dialog you can manage the existing modeling conventions and create new ones.

This dialog offers an overview over the existing modeling conventions. Furthermore conventions can be (de-)activated:

• Globally for the whole work space

• And specifically, the check button in the Editor and the auto-check in the save dialog

  

Defining custom modeling rules and conventions

In addition to the SAP Signavio Best Practice modeling convention, it is possible to define custom modeling rules and conventions, that fit exactly to your needs.

Custom rules can be defined to complement already existing modeling conventions, whereas defining a new convention means creating a customized set of rules, either from scratch or derived from an existing convention.

If you want to create a whole new modeling convention, select Add custom modeling convention in the upper right corner of the dialog:

Now you can chose between creating a new convention from the beginning or copying an existing convention:

Afterwards, the new convention shows up as a new column in the convention table and you can now configure it by activating rules and adjusting the importance of rules and other parameters:

The new modeling convention is saved after closing the dialog and is now included in the convention checks if activated (default setting).

To add a custom rule, click Add new custom rule in the corresponding section of the convention's table:

A dialog will appear. Here you can insert the name and description of your new custom rule:

After clicking Create , the new rule appears in the modeling convention dialog, where it can be edited by clicking on the small pen-icon:

In addition to creating this kind of custom rules, you can define custom mandatory attributes. If a process diagram contains empty mandatory attributes, this will be reported by the modeling convention check.

To define mandatory attributes within an existing modeling convention, open the modeling convention dialog and click Add new rule under Definition of mandatory attributes :

In the following dialog, you can now select the attributes you want to be mandatory:

After saving the configuration, the attribute set will be added to the modeling convention table.

To change the selection of mandatory attributes or to delete the mandatory attribute set, click the small pen icon.