Every business analyst and consultant has drawn a flowchart at some point in their career. Many probably still are.
Type "flowchart" into Google and you get 75 million results. Type "horse and cart" into Google and you get 380 million results. But the car has superseded the horse and cart.
In the same way, flowcharts are now an outdated way of capturing process content. Over the last 5-10 years there is a simpler and more engaging diagramming notation. It is proven in major highly regulated industries right down to innovative startups and small nonprofits. It is called UPN (Universal Process Notation) and it is not proprietary to any company and doesn’t require any specialized software.
Why the change?
What are the specific diagramming changes?
We need smaller / tighter and more easily understood diagrams that can be viewed online and embedded in webpages and apps so:
This approach is described as UPN (Universal Process Notation). The notation is not linked to any application software.
https://www.tibco.com/sites/tibco/files/resources/wp-nimbus-universal-process-notation.pdf
Comparison: Flowchart (old) - Process Map (new)
Typical flowchart with swimlanes and decision boxes.
Taking the information in this flowchart example and applying the simple UPN notation of "Who needs to do What, When, Why and How?" Note how much simpler this is with a clear left to right flow, and more information and less ambiguity.
Some subtle but critical aspects of UPN
Activity boxes start with verbs; this makes the processes more accurate/specific. Avoid using ‘manage’
Activity boxes have a ‘resource’ rather than positioned on a swimlane; this enables the diagrams to be tighter with a more logical flow left to right and activity boxes can have multiple resources.
Lines with text exist between every activity box; these are the handoffs between processes and are absolutely fundamental as many process issues are a misunderstanding on what the handoff criteria are e.g. what is the shared and agreed definition of "qualified lead" or "closed opportunity".
Decisions are several lines coming out of an activity box with line text explaining flow; this reduces the number of activity boxes on a diagram without losing any of the information.
Drill downs give more detail; this enables the diagrams to be kept to 8-10 boxes, but still describe a broad scope or complex processes. There is no limit to the number of levels you can go down (shown as corners).
Attachments show documents/metadata/metrics in context; this reduces the time to find the related documentation (shown as paperclips).
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