Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By : David J Parker, Šenaj Lelić
Book Image

Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio

By: David J Parker, Šenaj Lelić

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)

Creating subprocesses

If we break down processes into smaller chunks, then each subprocess page should still have a logical beginning and one or more logical endings to the flow. These should be denoted with labeled Start and End shapes at each end of the flowchart and preferably with hyperlinks back to the parent process shape.

Desktop Visio, except for Visio Standard, has three specific ribbon buttons in the Process | Subprocess group to assist with these tasks, as shown in the following list:

  • Create New: This can be selected when the subprocess has not been created yet.
  • Link to Existing: Select this when a subprocess page has already been created.
  • Create from Selection: Select this when you want to move a selection of shapes to a subprocess page and replace it with a single subprocess shape on the original page. This is often done after realizing that the original page is getting too complex and that some parts of the process can be moved to a separate page for...