Types of Flowchart — Overview

There are a plenty of flowchart applications in almost every imaginable field from business processes to cooking recipes. In addition, there are many special software tools, such as ConceptDraw DIAGRAM, using which you can create flowcharts easy and fast, which is a great advantage since you can spend your time more efficiently. When describing a process, or writing a manual, you should try just for once, not to write a long paragraph of complicated text, but to draw an illustrative diagram, which can be more explanative. There are a few tips, which help to create understandable flowcharts.

First, you need to keep in mind that flowcharts have to be easy to follow, so order your shapes in logical order and use unambiguous instructions. Choose one direction for the flow of the elements on your diagram: from left to right, or from the top of the document to the bottom. If your flowchart gets complex, use connectors to reduce the quantity of flow lines. You can also add a circular node and move a part of the flowchart to the next page to make your diagram look more tidy.

Remember, the more neat and orderly your flowchart is, the more users will thank you for that. To avoid a visual mess, keep three things in your mind: scale, proportion and space. Save an equal space around the elements of your flowcharts, so that your document would be easy to read. Keep the size of the objects proportional to the text written in them and to the rest of the objects in the flowchart. Be sure to use appropriate symbols for different cases to avoid mistakes and inconveniences. To have an easy start with developing flowcharts, take a look on examples listed below.

Should a business or government agency need to show a solution model for a some purpose of their activity, a resulting diagram will take the form of a flowchart. They are an irreplaceable tool when charting a business process — they give you the opportunity to picture and understand the process, and serve to highlight any issues or bottlenecks that might cause threats in the workflow.

Basic Flowchart

is often used to define and document basic work and data flows, financial, production and quality management processes to increase efficiency of you business.

Business Process Modeling Diagram

is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a workflow.

Process Flowchart

is also known as the system flow diagram or SFD. The main reason of using process flowchart is to show the relation between major parts of the system. A Process Flow Diagram may present a range of symbols that represent different appliances.

Cross Functional Flowchart

is often used to show the relationship between a business process and the functional units (such as departments) responsible for that process.

Procedure Flowchart

involves creating a flow chart model that illustrates and analyzes the overall flow of activities in producing a product or service.

Data Flow Diagram

is a significant modeling technique for analyzing and constructing information processes.

IDEF Flowchart

is used to apply structured methods to better understand how to improve manufacturing productivity.

IDEF2

is often used to represent the time varying behavior of resources in a manufacturing system, providing a framework for specification of math model based simulations.

List

is used to draw commonly used list, block list, picture list and table list.

Process

is used to show a progression or sequential steps in a task, process, or workflow.

SDL Diagram

is widely used to model state machines in the telecommunications, aviation, automotive and medical industries.

Document Flowchart

is commonly used to trace the movement of a document, such as internal memos, payroll information and interoffice mail, through a system.

Program Flowchart

is a graphic representation of an algorithm, often used in the design phase of programming to work out the logical flow of a program. It demonstrates how a program works within a system.

Workflow Diagram

is use to create diagrams of information flow, business process automation, business process re-engineering, accounting, management, and human resources tasks.

Value Stream Mapping

is a mechanism to improve cycle times and productivity by visually separating value-adding from non-value-adding activities.

System Flowchart

help understand how complex systems work. Systems analyzed may be anything from businesses, through biological population models, to the impact of social policy, etc.

Highlight Flowchart

is used to create good looking style flowcharts.

Sales Flowchart

allows to draw a sales process.

Discover why ConceptDraw is the best flowchart software.

Pic.1. Process flowchart. Human resource management process