Glossary

Trajectory

Also called: process path

Each possible path a process instance can follow from a start event to an end event.

Each possible path a process instance can follow from a start event to an end event. Trajectories are classified as normal or exceptional and are the unit against which satisfaction of the objective is assessed.

Enumerating them is what makes validation checkable. As long as the design is discussed over the diagram, what gets reviewed is the path the author had in mind; enumerating trajectories reviews all of them, including the ones nobody intended.

Related terms

Governed exception

A deviation from the normal course that the design anticipated and resolved explicitly: resolve, compensate, escalate, reject or close with evidence.

Happy path

The main trajectory of a process, in which everything happens as planned and without exceptions.

Process instance

A concrete, individual execution of a process: a case, a request, a file. It is the unit on which evidence accumulates, timings are measured and fulfilment of the objective is verified in…

Strong satisfaction

The level of fulfilment in which every normal trajectory reaches an expected outcome while meeting criteria and thresholds, and every exceptional trajectory ends in a governed exception with…

Unsatisfied objective

The situation in which some normal trajectory leads to no expected outcome, or some criterion lacks the data to be evaluated.