Documenting Business Process with Swimlanes

October 2007 from CAmagazine and written by Michael Burns – “Swimlanes are often used to document “as is” (i.e., current) and “to be” business processes. Although you’ll find swim-lanes very useful as a conceptual tool, you will still come up against one major obstacle, especially with the “to-be” version. This obstacle is of the human variety: gaining consensus.

Some people may not have a clue what should be done. Others might get mired in the details, missing the big picture. Others still may want to protect their turf and stick with the status quo. Others still will come up with grandiose or expensive solutions. You could have a real battle on your hands. Moreover, changing the swimlanes can be labour intensive…”

Swimlane flowcharts

June 1, 2007 from CAmagazine and written by Michael Burns – “Remember drawing flowcharts? As accounting students, it’s something we all had to learn — and it was usually a struggle. The charts took forever to draw, and then were left to gather dust as soon as they were finished. But if you think flowcharts are passé, think again. Business process improvement is the new mantra of business, and process maps are a key component. Fortunately, we now have a flowchart technique called swimlane that is easy to understand and apply...”