Standards families
Activity partitions (swimlanes)
An activity diagram whose actions sit in named partitions — one lane per role or system that owns the work.
uml.activity@1New DDN source
Why use it?
Most process disputes are ownership disputes; lanes make the handoffs (and their number) visible.
When it helps
Cross-team processes where "who does this step" matters as much as the step.
How to read it
- Each lane is a responsible party; arrows crossing a lane boundary are handoffs.
- Count the crossings — each one is a delay and a failure mode.
What you need
- The steps
- The owning role per step
- The flow order
Things to check
- Do not put one step in two lanes — split it at the handoff.
- A lane that only receives work is a queue, and should be drawn as one.
Scope of this diagram
Declared partitions and flow; organisational truth is documented, not enforced.
Work with the converted example
- Open the viewer and select
fulfilment. Inspect the rendered view and its source. - Open the designer. Keep the selected profile and inspect its legal palette and property controls.
- Change one displayed title or an appropriate data value. Apply the edit and check the resulting diagram.
- Run the verifier and review its diagnostics before moving complete content into review.
- Download your edited DDN source to retain the change.
The example uses the indentation-based ddn-next-1 dialect. The language guide explains reusable definitions, dotted data rows and explicit property blocks.