Human vs automated work

BPMN has different shapes for different kinds of work:

• Task (plain rectangle) — generic work, type unspecified
• User task (person icon) — a human does this: fills a form, makes a decision
• Service task (gear icon) — software does this automatically, no human needed

Service tasks in Camunda

When a process reaches a service task, Camunda publishes a job to a queue. A job worker — a piece of your code running somewhere — picks up that job, does the work, and completes it.

The process then continues automatically.

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Process Engine → publishes job → Job Worker → does work → completes job → process continues

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Why this matters

Service tasks are the integration point between your process and your systems: APIs, databases, email providers, payment processors. Everything that should happen automatically goes in a service task.

> 💡 You don't need a running Camunda instance to model service tasks — you're just drawing the blueprint. The automation happens when you deploy and run it for real.