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4.16. Exception Management
When an unexpected event, that deviates from the normative behavior, occurs in a Process instance, it is referred to as an exception. There are two types of exceptions: business exceptions and technical exceptions.
Business exceptions
Business exceptions relate to the possible incorrect scenarios of the particular Process, for example, trying to debit an empty bank account. Handling of such exceptions is designed directly in the Process model using BPMN Process elements.
When modeling business exception management, the following mechanisms are to be used:
- Errors
- An Error is a signal that an unexpected situation occurred (refer to Section A.4.1, “Errors”). The mechanism can be used immediately when the problem arises and does not allow for any compensation.
- Compensation
- Compensation is equivalent to the Error mechanism; however, it can be used only on Sub-Processes when it is required that the execution flow continues after the compensation using the "regular" outgoing Flow (execution continues after the compensation as if no compensation occurred).
- Canceling
- Canceling is equivalent to the Error mechanism; however, it can be used only on Sub-Processes and it is required that the Sub-Process takes the flow leaving the respective Cancel Intermediate Event so that the "normal" execution flow is never taken as opposed to compensation.
Technical exceptions
Technical exceptions happen when a technical component of a business process acts in an unexpected way. When using Java-based systems, this often results in a Java Exception being thrown by the system. Technical components used in a Process fail in a way that can not be described using BPMN (for further information, refer to Section 5.1.5, “Technical exceptions”).
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