(21)What are the steps of creating flowcharts?


Answer: Following are the steps for creating flowcharts for business processes:

(1)Identification of Process: First step will be to identify the business processes that are to be documented with a flowchart.

(2)Understanding of Process: Next step will be to have complete understanding of process flow.

(3)Rough Diagram: Create a rough diagram and confirm understanding of the process with business owner.
                                                                  
(4)Obtain Additional Information: Additional information to be obtained from the people involved in each step. In some instances, employees do not follow certain processes or some processes are redundant. This should be highlighted so that corrective steps can be taken by the management.


(5)Identification of Activities: In this step, activities involved in each step to be identified along with person responsible for each activity.

(6)Identification of Starting Point: Identify the starting point of the process. Starting points generally fall into one of several categories:

  •  External events: Transaction is initiated from another business system. 
  •  Content arrival: For content management systems, the starting point might be the arrival of a new document or other form of content.
  • Human intervention: This includes customer complaints and other human intervention within or outside of the business.
(7)Identification of inter-connected steps: Identify each individual step in the process and how it is connected to the other steps. 

(8)Define each step:   Determine which action or activity completes each step. It is required to clarify who or what performs each step.