Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By : David Parker, Senaj Lelic
Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By: David Parker, Senaj Lelic

Overview of this book

Every business has process flows, but not all of them are fully described to or verified for accuracy with each stakeholder. This not only presents a risk for business continuity but also removes the ability to make insightful improvements. To make these complex interactions easy to grasp, it’s important to describe these processes visually using symbology that everybody understands. Different parts of these flows should be collaboratively developed and stored securely as commercial collateral. Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio helps you understand why it is crucial to use a common, systematic approach to document the steps needed to meet each business requirement. This book explores the various process flow templates available in each edition of Microsoft Visio, including BPMN. It also shows you how to use them effectively with the help of tips and techniques and examples to reduce the time required for creating them, as well as how you can improve their integration and presentation. By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered the skills needed to create data-integrated business flowcharts with Microsoft Visio, learned how to effectively use these diagrams collaboratively, but securely, and understood how to integrate them with other M365 apps, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Power Automate.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

Adding the phase of swimlane to process shapes

We learned about the formula in the Value cell of the Prop.Function row, which displays the label text of the swimlane that the flowchart shapes are within. The formula is as follows:

=IFERROR(CONTAINERSHEETREF(1,"Swimlane")!User.VISHEADINGTEXT,"")

The Swimlane shape is actually a group shape with two sub-shapes, one of which is the colored rectangle shape with the label text in it. We are using the Horizontal Cross-Functional Flowchart sample in this section, which can be created from the New | Templates | Flowchart | Cross-Functional Flowchart template:

Figure 11.1 – Blank and sample diagrams

Figure 11.1 – Blank and sample diagrams

When we type the text on one of these Swimlane shapes, we add text into this sub-shape, not onto the group shape. In the following screenshot, we have the Drawing Explorer window open and we have expanded the tree view of Swimlane.9, which has two sub-shapes, Sheet.10 and Sheet.11:

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