Swimlanes

Swimlanes are helpful when modeling a business workflow because they can represent organizational units or roles within a business model. Swimlanes are very similar to objects because they provide a way to tell who is performing a certain role. Swimlanes only appear on activity diagrams. You should place activities within swimlanes to determine which unit is responsible for carrying out the specific activity.

When a swimlane is dragged onto an activity diagram, it becomes a swimlane view. Swimlanes appear as small icons in the browser while swimlane views appear between thin, vertical lines with a header that can be renamed and relocated.