Effective Software Project Management

Business Process Work Flow Diagrams

When you need to identify the actual and ideal path that any product or service follows in order to map process quality and identify deviations and improvement opportunities, the flow chart is another tool that can be beneficial in mapping process quality and performance. It is a picture of steps in a process, and can be used to examine the relation and sequence of steps; to identify redundancy, unnecessary complexity, and inefficiency in a process; and to create common understanding of the flow of the process.

Considered one of the simplest tools, the flow chart can be as basic or technically intricate as the process it’s used to illustrate. Each type of process step is traditionally identified on the chart by a standardized geometric shape. A flow chart illustrates a process from start to finish and should include every step in between. By studying these charts you can often uncover loopholes, which are potential sources of trouble. Flow charts can be applied to anything from the travels of an invoice and the flow of materials to the steps in making a sale or servicing a product.

In process improvement, flow charts are often used to clarify how a process is being performed or to agree upon how it should be performed. When a process is improved, the changes should be noted on the flow chart in order to standardize the revised flow.

Follow the steps below to create a flow chart:

1.	Decide on the process to be diagrammed.
2.	Define the beginning ...