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)

Technical requirements

The BPMN template and shapes are only available in Visio Plan 2 or Visio Professional. So, if you want to create BPMN diagrams, you must have access to one of the following editions of Visio:

  • Visio Plan 2: The desktop and web subscription app
  • Visio Professional 20xx: A Windows one-time purchase only

Important note

You can also use Visio Online if your subscription is Visio Plan 2, and then your Plan 2 web portion will also contain the BPMN shapes. However, a regular subscription to Visio Plan 1 will not contain the BPMN template and stencils. At the time of writing, the BPMN shapes are only available in the web version for the en-US locale, but it is expected that they will become available for other locales within the first half of 2023.