BPM Traps: Deadlock & Multimerge in BPMN

No New Elements This Time This chapter is different. There are no new shapes to learn, no new symbols to memorize. Instead, we're going to break things - on purpose. Because two of the most common mistakes in BPMN come from mixing up gateways you already know, and the consequences are brutal. Both traps are so common they have their own names: the deadlock and the multimerge . Both are caused by pairing the wrong opening gateway with the wrong closing gateway. Before you go any further, make sure you can tell the exclusive gateway (X) from the parallel gateway (+) at a glance. ## Trap 1: The Deadlock The deadlock is the trap of getting stuck forever. It happens when you open with an ** exclusive gateway** but close with a parallel gateway . Remember how these gateways work: the exclusive gateway sends the token down exactly one path. The parallel gateway, when used as a closing gateway, waits for tokens from all incoming paths before releasing anything. See the problem? The exclusive g