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)

Getting started with placing the shapes and formatting the shapes

Here, we will create our first BPMN-type diagram and modify the shapes. Since a simple flow in BPMN always follows the same principle and contains at least the four basic elements, we will start with those. After that, we will see how to manipulate the appearance of the shapes (following the BPMN standard) by manipulating the shape data (i.e., the metadata of the shapes).

Adding the start event

The first step in a BPMN flow is an event initiating the flow – typically, a start event, so we place this shape on the page. Initially, it looks like a simple circle; however, the BPMN standard defines several variations to the start event (for a full description, please check out the aforementioned BPMN quick guide).

Figure 4.11 –The Start Event shape fully configured

Figure 4.11 –The Start Event shape fully configured

Extending the diagram with a task

After this, the next step is to add the follow-up component, which would...