Flowcharts are a tool to obtain clarity over business processes, information flow, organizational structure, and many other things. They convert facts or information into a visual form, which saves explaining a complex system to new people verbally. Depending on the flowchart required, it’s faster to begin by using a flowchart template rather than a blank page. Using a digital interface, such as a flowchart system on the web, allows it to be accessed easily from multiple devices in any location. Here are six of the potential uses for flowcharts.
1. Organizational Structure
A flowchart can be used to confirm the organizational structure for a new business. Alternatively, they can be applied to existing businesses who wish to either be clearer about their current hierarchical structure or to streamline it in some way. A growing business will usually see an increasing number of managers get employed or promoted to help keep the company on track. Also, companies can create flowcharts with individual departments when they’re expansive enough to warrant their own. Furthermore, in a corporate takeover situation, referring to an organizational flowchart can assist the new owners in understanding who’s who and how departments are configured.
2. Troubleshooting Issues
Appreciating where technical problems lie within a complex system is difficult. It can be useful to visualize the unique problem to get a better handle on what might be the cause. To troubleshoot some issues, it’s also extremely valuable to walk through how they occurred. Therefore, having a customer explain what they did when they came upon the difficulty makes it possible to replicate part or all of the issue.
Once it is demonstrated or explained and validated that the problem can be replicated inside the business, a flowchart is useful to confirm the steps taken for other employees looking into the issue. It can potentially remove much of the confusion or need for clarifying questions by confirming what steps were taken, the decision points, and the various avenues that the customer explored.
While troubleshooting is most relevant to software and web apps, it has a far broader application. Indeed, any situation that needs breaking down and figuring out often will benefit from using a diagram to explore what’s causing the current situation.
3. Continuous Improvement Mindset
Some companies adopt the perspective that, “if it still works, don’t change it” whereas others are more progressive. The latter type believes that the work is never done with improvements always being possible. Given the faster pace of business life today, a continuous improvement mindset allows companies to look to refine existing processes, and in some cases, to entirely remove one from the workflow to reduce the time taken.
By using flowcharts to map out existing systems, and individual processes, it’s possible to dive deep to find where superfluous steps may be removed, or wasteful processes get refined to make them more efficient for the future.
4. Quality Control/Regulatory Assessments
Companies have a responsibility to control quality and to ensure products or services meet all regulatory requirements about them. The regulatory requirements might refer to Sarbanes-Oxley for accounting, or it could be to do with quality control (QC). For QC, various TS or ISO requirements may exist that the company is either attempting to qualify for or must continue to adhere to certain standards to retain its certification.
Using process flowcharts and other types to procedurally plan for major processes and activities within all departments ensures the business can meet the required standards. Deviation from these established processes, which previously assured the business met the right standard, provides an early warning system of what’s beginning to go awry.
The company can refer back to flowcharts to rectify the situation before it worsens and gets the work back on track.
5. Programming Logic
With complicated programming, it becomes necessary at times to plan it out as a flowchart workflow diagram first. This avoids chasing their tail and writing unnecessary code due to both a lack of planning and effective problem-solving. For instance, creating an e-commerce system from scratch for a startup is no small matter. While programmers may partially use existing solutions to speed up implementation, it becomes even more necessary to have clarity around the step-by-step flow and functions needed to complete the task. This avoids not only accidentally missing an important step but also, figuring out all the places where things could go wrong.
In object-oriented programmings, such as the Java language, it’s a little different. Programmers in OOP are less likely to use traditional flowcharts.
6. SOPs
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are used by mid to higher-level corporations to create a structure around how work is completed. These can be for the department but are best created for individual activities within a single role. For someone new to the company, understanding how the processes work is often better configured using diagrams and flowcharts. At the very least, they can be included alongside written instructions to reduce the amount of initial confusion.
Smaller companies also benefit from figuring out their SOPs for the different types of work performed on behalf of the business. Some do lack this type of structured procedural documentation, which can make for troublesome job changeovers from an exiting staff member and a new person coming in.
There are many possible uses for flowcharts in a business setting. While they’re frequently used in tech, that’s not their only usage as indicated in this article.