Visuals for Managing Processes and Projects
- Describe a Process: Flowchart
- Plan and Track a Project: Project (Gantt) Chart
- Show a Sequence of Events: Timeline
1. To Describe a Process, Use a Flowchart
Before you can improve the way you work, you have to get a clear picture of how things are done today. The best way to do this is to document the process with a flowchart.
Flowcharts are used for communicating, planning and managing processes, and are far superior to a written list of steps. Take a look at this example:
The flowchart allows you to visually follow the work flow by traveling down different possible paths and reading them to the end—something that a linear list of steps simply cannot communicate.
Documenting a process with a flowchart is the best way to improve it because it allows you to easily spot inefficiencies that need to be corrected. They are also great for communicating the processes to others in the organization.
Process flowcharts can be complex—with many roles, inputs, outputs and other parameters specified—or they can be quite simple, with a high level outline of steps.
How to Create a Process Flowchart
To prepare a flowchart, start by thinking about the boundaries of the process such as the starting event and the end results.
Then start listing the steps in the process. In most cases, these consist
of only two steps: tasks to do and routing decisions to make.
Use rectangles for tasks and use diamonds for decisions. There are other symbols depending on the application, but boxes and diamonds will cover most presentation flowchart needs.
Once you have the steps in the right order, you can connect them with lines to show the flow. SmartDraw automatically makes these connections for you. Here's an example of a simple process flowchart.
To watch a video on how to create process charts with SmartDraw,
click here.
2. To Plan and Track a Project, Use a Project Chart
In every project, no matter what the size, effective project management is critical to getting things
done on time and under budget; and the key to effective project management is
communication. How well you communicate tasks, responsibilities, dependencies,
deadlines, and issues with the team will to a large part determine the success
of the project. Simply stated, there is no better way to actively communicate
all this information with a work group than visually with a project chart.
In fact, the project chart (officially known as a Gantt chart) is the most powerful graphical tool of all for managers. Using a project chart helps you scope out your project, assign tasks, track progress, and communicate it all with everyone involved.
An example makes this clear. It's immediately apparent below that
a project chart gives a clearer picture, faster, than a simple
list of the project details.
A project chart is a combination of a table, a calendar and a horizontal bar chart. The table information can show task names, duration, dates and other information. The bars visually indicate task start and end dates, and task durations.
How to Create a Project Chart
As the video portion of this lesson shows, you can create a project chart in just a few minutes
with SmartDraw. Here's a brief summary of the steps covered.
Step 1:
Start by opening a blank project chart template.
Step 2:
List your tasks and sub-tasks by typing directly into the chart. List the earliest starting top-level tasks first.
Step 3:
Enter start and end dates and/or duration for each task.
Note that task bars are automatically created and appropriately positioned in the chart.
You can add even more information by using colors and styles. First,
let's color each top-level task with different colors. This will help us
distinguish one from the other. Also, if different teams or individuals
will work on each task, you can use color coding to identify these resources.
To watch a video on how to make a project chart with SmartDraw,
click here.
3. To Show a Sequence of Events, Use a Timeline
Timelines place events in order of occurrence while adding, visually, a feel for the time in between events. This lets viewers of the timeline
understand not only the sequence of events, but also the time delays, lead times,
task durations and other relationships. Being able to see these relationships
in a graphic is much easier than deriving the same information in one's head while
parsing a text list. With timelines, your audience will get the message quicker.
The example blew shows how a timeline is more immediately informative than the
same information expressed as a list of events:
How to Create a Timeline Diagram
To begin, make a horizontal line in the center of your page.
Place the start date at the beginning and the end date at the end.
Depending on your dates, divide the timeline into reasonable sections
using small vertical line segments or dashes and labeling each piece
respectively. For instance, if your timeline covers a year,
you may want to divide it into months; for a day, it should be
divided into hours; and for a century, into decades; etc.
The timeline SmartTemplate in SmartDraw does this for you. All you need to do is add events by clicking the "Add Event" button in the SmartPanel.
To show an unequal lapse in time, for instance, such as to skip 20
years of time, where nothing pertaining to your timeline occurred at
that time, you can use a zigzag line in the middle of the timeline.
Continue clicking "Add Event" until all the events you want to show
are on your chart. You can manually move the events along the
timeline by clicking and dragging. Add any necessary titles and
annotations by typing directly into the label.
You can also use icons and pictures to illustrate the events, tasks or people on your timeline. This can provide clarity for the audience and help them to identify with the events better.
To watch a video on how to make timelines with SmartDraw,
click here.