A swimlane can be associated with the start task to capture the process initiator.

A task can be specified in a start-state. That task be associated with a swimlane. When a new task instance is created for such a task, the current authenticated actor will be captured with Authentication.getAuthenticatedActorId() and that actor will be stored in the swimlane of the start task.

For example:

<process-definition>
  <swimlane name='initiator' />
  <start-state>
    <task swimlane='initiator' />
    <transition to='...' />
  </start-state>
  ...
</process-definition>

Also variables can be added to the start task as with any other task to define the form associated with the task. See the section called “Task controllers”