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)

Primary questions for sharing

When we plan to make a Visio file available to share with others, the first and most important question is whether the file should be just viewed by them or whether they also should be allowed to contribute to the file and edit it. This first question has some implications that will influence the way the file is distributed:

  • Co-authoring/editing: We share the original file with specific rights for editing. We want to avoid having several copies of the file, so all users work with the very same file and add their input to the file.
  • View only: Others are only allowed to open the file in Reader View (even if the data in it is updated). However, they are not able to modify or edit the file. Here, we can choose whether we give them access to the original file in a view-only manner or whether we create a copy of the file to view only in a separate location.

Now that we have made our first decision, let us understand where the files could be...