What Flowchart Software Do You Use for Procedures and other Documentation?

[Stijloor]

In Reply to Parent Post by Marc

Let us now get back on topic. This is a very old thread which was started in 2001 which gets resurrected now and again. Further posts, other than any responses John may have per decorum considering the recent posts, should get back to the original post topic: What Flowchart Software Do You Use for Procedures and other Documentation?

Marc,

Point well taken. Agreed.

Stijloor.

[Wes Bucey]

FWIW:
I recall a time when ALL flow charts (definitely they were in existence and used LONG before my time) were hand drawn using stencils and straight edges to make them look pretty.

Bottom line, "somebody" had to know what steps were involved in the process before it could be transferred to paper (and then sometimes to a projection slide.)

Back in college in the late 50's and early 60's, I recall we had one guy in my fraternity ho would convert our hideous sketches into beautiful works of art for presentation to the professor in chemistry or physics or even social sciences when we turned in reports. I used him once to show a chemical manufacturing process for a paper I wrote in organic chemistry. My professor wrote on the corner of the chart: "Fred Hoffman does beautiful work!" referring to our fraternity draftsman, whose work he recognized. "You should give him credit for his illustrations in the introduction or afterword of your paper!"

My take on software today is that it is pretty much similar to when I had Fred redraw my sketches into something eye-catching. The idea and steps were mine, I chose to pay Fred for artistry, but there were others who did almost as good a job. None did the thinking for the students who paid them.

I don't know how often you folks reading this thread have to make flow charts, but my suggestion is to consider finding your own "Fred" to use his software to convert YOUR sketch into a pretty flow chart which can incorporate bells & whistles like links and popups into the flowchart using fancy software instead of spending a week or two trying to learn new software for one or two flow charts.

If, on the other hand, your job is to be "Fred," well, then, get the best you can afford!

[jasonthomas_iso]

Visio is a common tool for flowchart. However if the company realy want to save cost, then the MS Office tool can be your alternative.

[John Broomfield]

In Reply to Parent Post by jasonthomas_iso

Visio is a common tool for flowchart. However if the company realy want to save cost, then the MS Office tool can be your alternative.

The cost of the software is miniscule compared with the cost of using the software and the cost of maintaining the documents as the process or organization changes.

Therefore I suggest selection of software that is easy and fast to use, quick to read and understand and results in documents that can easily and quickly be updated.

On this basis we use TeamFlow.

[Marc]

What you really have to take into account is how big the company is and their needs. A small company can use Powerpoint if they have the office suite.

[amariepsu]

I have been using Microsoft Powerpoint to construct the flowcharts I need, and then I convert them to an Adobe pdf format to be used on the network for our quality management system documentation. This works very well, because powerpoint treats each slide as a drawing canvas, and therefore I am able to easily manipulate the shapes.

As someone with limited resources, this program works best for me, considering I am not able to get a license for Visio or any other flowcharting software.

[AnaMariaVR2]

I've noticed this discussion has been running for years so I wonder if my posting will be relevant to anybody here at this point.

I just wanted to share these 2 online flowcharting sites:
[1] http://flowchart.com/
[2] http://www.lucidchart.com/

Cheers,
Ana

[sorin]

Bizagi Process Modeler - Freeware

Very intuitive....

Download: http://www.bizagi.com/index.php?opti...=95&Itemid=107


Library:

http://www.bizagi.com/index.php?opti...102&Itemid=109