In Appian, both End Event and Terminate End Event are used to stop process execution — but their scope is different.

A normal End Event stops only the current process path, allowing other parallel paths to continue executing until they reach their own end nodes.
A Terminate End Event immediately stops the entire process instance, including all active parallel paths, sub-processes, and tasks.

Example: IT Asset Request Workflow

In an IT Asset Request process within an organization:

An employee requests a laptop.
The process runs three parallel branches:
Manager Approval
Procurement Approval
Inventory Check

Each branch ends with a normal End Event once completed.

However, if the employee cancels the request or leaves the company before approvals are completed, there’s no reason to continue the rest of the flows.

In that scenario, a Terminate End Event is triggered to immediately stop the entire request process, cancel all pending approvals, and close related tasks.

This ensures that no unnecessary workflow continues and system resources are not wasted.

Best Practices:

Always have only one Terminate End Event in a process model — usually in the exception or cancellation path.
Ensure all required notifications, logging, and data cleanup occur before reaching the Terminate node.
Use normal End Events in regular completion paths to allow natural and graceful process closure.
Avoid using multiple Terminate nodes, as it can cause unpredictable process termination and complicate debugging.