Flowcharts and Process Scope

I have always been a very visual learning individual and I am a fan of flowcharts because I always believe that before you begin work on a project, it is helpful to diagram what you know about a process or what you plan to do with the process. When gaining knowledge about a process, it is essential that you understand process scope (how big it is), process steps (what happens and in what sequence) and process relationships (which steps must happen before other steps occur). Flowcharts create a graphical or visual representation of a process. It is so much easier to describe a process using a chart then it is by just using words. In my experience visual aids assist in the understanding of the application under development and can be used by developers, quality assurance, business analysts, project stakeholders and even clients.

Benefits of Flowcharts for Application Development:

1.Levels of common understanding.

They increase your understanding of various process levels. This will assist you in understanding the inner workings of its basic elements. This will help individuals with varying skill sets from varying teams solidify the understanding or interpretations of what is occurring in this process.

2.Identify waste.

Flowcharts will always uncover wasteful process steps and redundancies (duplication of effort) in the process, teams or application.

3.Create efficiency.

Communication is key no matter what development framework you are using to develop your application. Creating efficiency by creating a picture with symbols, lines, and labels, semantic and interpretive differences are overcome and the team or teams communicate efficiently.

4.Simplify the development of procedures.

Flowcharts will simplify development of procedures; try using a one or two-page flowchart instead of pages and pages of documentation.

The real key to creating flowcharts is to involve your project team, teams usually don’t accept procedures that they have not had any input into.

#flowcharts #ApplicationDevelopment #ProjectManagement #processflow