Lesson 2 of 3
What a handoff is
A handoff is when work passes from one Lane to another inside the same Pool. In BPMN, it is visible as a Sequence Flow crossing a Lane boundary. Every Lane-crossing arrow in your diagram represents a moment where responsibility transfers.
This is one of the most analytically powerful aspects of BPMN: the diagram makes handoffs structurally visible, rather than leaving them as implicit assumptions buried in written documentation.
Why handoffs are where processes fail
Business processes almost never fail because individual tasks are performed badly. They fail at the transitions — the moments between one actor finishing and the next actor starting.
| Failure mode | What it looks like in reality | How BPMN reveals it |
|---|---|---|
| No notification | The next person doesn't know work is waiting. It sits in an inbox unseen. | A Sequence Flow crossing a Lane with no accompanying Message or Signal Event |
| Missing information | The handoff package is incomplete. The next person must chase before starting. | A Data Object missing from the task that sends the handoff |
| Unclear ownership | Two people each think the other is handling it. Nobody acts. | A Sequence Flow crossing a Lane boundary to a task with no lane assignment |
| SLA invisibility | No one has agreed how long the next step should take. Delays accumulate silently. | A task after a handoff with no Timer Boundary Event and no defined SLA |
Exercise
Take any process you have modelled. Count every point where a Sequence Flow crosses a Lane boundary. For each handoff, ask: what could go wrong here? Who is responsible if the transfer fails? The answers are raw material for a business requirements list — directly from the diagram.
Concrete example: invoice approval handoff failure
In a typical invoice approval process, the handoff from Finance Clerk submits for escalation to Finance Manager reviews is a known failure point. In reality, invoices sit in a shared inbox for days because the Manager is not notified that something requires their attention.
A BPMN model showing a bare Sequence Flow crossing the lane boundary makes this gap explicit. The BA can immediately see there is no notification mechanism and recommend one — a Message Event, a system alert, or a workflow trigger on task completion.
✓ When to use
- Use handoff analysis every time you complete a BPMN model — it converts the diagram into BA outputs
- Add Timer Boundary Events to tasks that receive handoffs and have SLA expectations
- Add Message or Signal events where a lack of notification has been identified as a pain point
✗ When not to use
- ✕Don't treat all handoffs as problems — some are necessary and well-managed
- ✕Don't add notification mechanisms to every handoff by default — only where a gap has been identified