An Exclusive Decision indicates that the workflow can go through only one outgoing link, while the typical Decision executes all links that meet specified conditions.
To set the Decision gateway as an Exclusive Decision gateway, select the Exclusive check box. When you select the Exclusive checkbox, the Move Up and Move Down buttons are displayed, allowing you to establish the sequence of the outgoing links.
This ordering is important because links are evaluated in sequence, and the first link that fulfills the specified condition is executed. The remaining links are not evaluated.
In an Exclusive Decision, there must be only one default link (that is, a link with no condition). This link is executed when conditions on the other links are not fulfilled. If there is more than one default link or if there is no default link, then an error message is displayed.
Once you have defined the Decision as an Exclusive Decision gateway, it is displayed as a Decision gateway with an ‘X’ through it (
). According to BPMN conventions, the appearance of the Exclusive Decision icon is the same as that of the Exclusive Or-Join (XOR) icon. The Exclusive Decision differs in that it has a single predecessor workstep and multiple successor worksteps.
Note: The Exclusive Decision gateway is not available for Web applications.
). According to BPMN conventions, the appearance of the Exclusive Decision icon is the same as that of the Exclusive Or-Join (XOR) icon. The Exclusive Decision differs in that it has a single predecessor workstep and multiple successor worksteps.