Parallel gateway
A point where the process splits into paths that all run, or where parallel paths wait for one another. The parallel gateway is a diamond with a plus sign inside.
Easily confused with
How to read it
BPMN 2.0.2 says the parallel gateway creates parallel flows and synchronizes them, and requires the plus marker. As a split, every outgoing path is followed and none has a condition; Politecnico di Milano’s exercise book calls it the AND gateway. As a join, Montali’s slides say it passes the flow on only when all the incoming paths have arrived.
Also searched as: and gateway, bpmn parallel gateway, parallel gateway symbol, plus diamond bpmn.
Look-alikes
An X in the diamond is an Exclusive gateway, which takes one path. In a UML activity diagram the same split and join are drawn as a thick fork or join bar. A small square with a plus sign at the bottom of a rounded box marks a Sub-process.
Read next
- Next in BPMN symbolsInclusive gatewayA point where the process takes one or more of several paths, depending on which conditions are true. The inclusive gateway is a diamond with a circle inside.
- UML draws the same split and join as a thick bar.Fork and joinA thick bar in a UML activity diagram is a fork or a join. With one arrow in and several out it is a fork, which splits the flow into parallel flows; with several arrows in and one out it is a join, which waits for all of them before the flow goes on.
More BPMN symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with crosses or diamonds.
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, Section 10.6.4
- 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 2, 2.3 Parallel Gateway (AND)
- Data and Process Modelling, 8a. BPMN: Basic Modelling, Marco Montali, lecture slides, A.Y. 2014/2015, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Slides 13 and 15, Main Gateways and Parallel Gateway
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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