Making flowcharts easy to read requires some discipline and technique. Three guidelines that will help are:
- Use symbols in a consistent manner.
- Connect them to clearly show how the work is going to be done.
- Make the flowchart understandable to all involved.
There are lots of symbols to choose from, and not only are there many, but authors use them to mean different things. For example, the terminator symbol is used not just to show the End of a process, but the Start by many BPM analysts. Because they understand that application it’s not complex for them, but for everyone else it’s a problem.
With scores, and in some cases hundreds of symbols to chose from you can see the challenge. It’s like having characters in a language with no grammar to police their use.
- Simplifying the number of symbols and using them in the same way is a good start to a concise and clear flowchart.
Once you have your tasks in place they need to be connected to illustrate the flow to be followed. This is important not just for when things go right in a process, but also to show the exception paths when things don’t pan out. These exception paths often provide the most useful information; especially when readers are trying to troubleshoot a problem.
One major reason a lot of flowcharts are left on the shelves, or on the server is the lack of a legend. Without making it clear what each symbol means readers have a tough time understanding. Even if you have customized symbols for you own application, ensure everyone understands them by providing a legend.
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