Defining properties of Exclusive Or-Join gateways

You can use an Exclusive Or-Join gateway (

) (XOR) to direct the process workflow to proceed only once from multiple predecessor worksteps to a successor workstep. When the Exclusive Or-Join (XOR) gateway is completed, any other predecessor human-performed worksteps that immediately precede the XOR are terminated. According to BPMN conventions, the Exclusive Or-Join (XOR) icon is the same to that of the Exclusive Decision icon. The Exclusive Or-Join (XOR) differs in that it has multiple predecessor worksteps and a single successor workstep.

Click the Exclusive Or-Join gateway to view its properties in the Properties view, which is similar in functionality as that for Or-Join gateway.

Figure 13 illustrates an example of the Exclusive Or-Join (XOR), wherein three companies are scheduled to collect a package. When any of these companies pick up the package, the XOR gateway is activated and the predecessor worksteps are terminated. The XOR gateway then proceeds to activate the Confirmation workstep.

Note: The XOR gateway functions correctly (that is, terminates the remaining predecessor worksteps) only if the predecessor worksteps are all human-performed Activity worksteps.

The XOR gateway allows workflow to proceed from only one of the predecessor worksteps. This action differs from the Or-Join, which would allow workflow to continue from Activity 1, 2, or 3 as each of these Activity worksteps are completed.