End event
Where a path through a process finishes. The end event is a circle drawn with a single thick line.
Easily confused with
How to read it
BPMN 2.0.2 says the end event indicates where a process will end, and its line must stay thick so that it can be told apart from start and intermediate events. An end event can only throw a result. Politecnico di Milano’s exercise book describes end events as defining when a process ends and in what way, and the marker inside the thick circle names the result, such as a message sent.
Also searched as: bpmn end, bpmn end event, end event symbol, thick circle bpmn.
Look-alikes
The thick ring is the only difference from a Start event, which is thin, and from the double ring of an Intermediate event. In a UML activity diagram the end is a final node, a filled dot inside a ring. A flowchart ends at a terminal, the same rounded shape as its start.
Read next
- Next in BPMN symbolsMessage eventA message being received or sent. The message event is an event circle with an envelope inside: an unfilled envelope waits for a message, a filled one sends it.
- UML activity diagrams end at a dot inside a ring.Final nodeA filled circle inside a ring, like a bull's-eye, is the activity final node, where the flow of a UML activity diagram ends. In a state machine diagram the same symbol is a final state.
More BPMN symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles.
Sources
- Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), Version 2.0.2, OMG document formal/2013-12-09, December 2013 (also ISO/IEC 19510), Object Management Group, Sections 10.5.3 and 7.3.2 (Table 7.2)
- Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN): Modeling Exercises, Cinzia Cappiello, Pierluigi Plebani and Monica Vitali, v.1.1, 2016 (CC BY-SA), Politecnico di Milano, Chapter 3, Events; Example 1.1
- Data and Process Modelling, 8a. BPMN: Basic Modelling, Marco Montali, lecture slides, A.Y. 2014/2015, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Slide 10, The Main Basic Elements
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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