Sales Flowchart Symbols Color Coded Chart Steps In Making Involvedg

By Lena Wagner on December 05 2018 02:53:33

Creating purchase requisitions is a standard function in every business. Unfortunately, the manual paper purchase order or requisition is one of the most frustrating areas of every business because the constant approval issues and long turnaround times that can occur.

A flowchart can enable the process analyst to effectively document the information given to them by the subject matter experts. With a defined list of symbols, directional arrows and flow diagrams, flowcharts can help the team find gaps and or problem areas that have been known for awhile but have never been visually mapped out in an as-is process map.

This is not easily done, especially in a large room with multiple experts who know only a small portion of the entire process. Each contributor who works within the team can identify their specific areas they deal with on a daily basis, but do not necessarily understand or know the linkages and dependencies that exist outside of their general areas.

Each flowchart should ideally begin with a Terminator shape, from which the next step should be linked. Each shape should be indicative of a specific stage in the process and there are conventions for each of these, the most common being the rectangular "Process" shape. Many others exist, however, including shapes representing Data, Documents and Decisions. Decision shapes are diamonds, each of the four corners (or nodes) being either a link from the preceding shape or action to be taken in the next stage depending on the decision.

Usually, this exercise takes place during an e-procurement project as part of the analysis phase, but can be done at any time. As long as there is a resource who has the proper skills and knows how to draw a flowchart to help the various departments identify their current procedures and potential problem areas within the purchase order approval process.

In terms of the Information Systems industry, flowcharts have been used for years, well before the introduction of the commercial computer in business. Originally they included process diagrams; later they were used by programmers as a convenient means to document program logic. Such flowcharts typically made use of ANSI standard flowcharting symbols. But as the Structured Programming movement flourished in the late 1970`s, ANSI symbols were considered archaic, and many new types of diagramming techniques emerged, including Bubble Diagrams, Data Structure Diagrams, E/R Diagrams, HIPO, VTOC, etc. (anybody remember Nassi-Schneiderman Charts?). I could argue the pros and cons of the various techniques but that is not the point. What is important is that all of these diagramming techniques acknowledged documentation as an inherent part of the design process.