Published: 24 June, 2024
Contributors: Ivan Belcic, Cole Stryker
A workflow diagram is a visual representation of a business process, project or job in the form of a flowchart. Using specialized symbols and notation, workflow diagrams illustrate the step-by-step processes by which work is done.
Workflow diagrams identify each step in a business process along with the personnel responsible for delivering that work. Here are several of the most common use cases for this type of flowchart:
Visualize business processes and information flows for business process management.
Perform workflow analysis to achieve operational excellence.
Clarify personnel roles and responsibilities.
Prepare and facilitate change management strategies.
Reveal potential bottlenecks, redundancies and inefficiencies.
Safeguard against risk.
Learn how IBM® Blueworks Live can help extract data-driven insights to optimize workflows and increase efficiency.
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Creating and using a workflow diagram imparts a wide range of benefits:
- Operational optimization: Workflow diagrams improve efficiency by streamlining business processes. For businesses of any size, workflow optimization increases productivity and eliminates inefficiencies, leading to cost savings or increased revenue.
- Improved project management: Project managers are responsible for coordinating complex processes and teams, and workflow management is one of their core duties. Workflow diagrams assist project managers in ensuring that their teams collaborate as efficiently as possible.
- Process documentation: Workflow charts are valuable visual representations of core business processes and provide the necessary documentation for legal, compliance or audit requirements.
- Clear communication: Workflow diagrams clarify communication channels and codify the specific responsibilities of employees and departments. Many organizations use workflow diagrams as onboarding resources.
- Strengthened security: Creating workflow diagrams to monitor security processes can highlight potential vulnerabilities. Visualizing a security process can help to implement and support security best practices.
- Workflow automation: Business process automation leads to major boosts in efficiency. Workflow diagrams can identify portions of a workflow that can be automated, freeing up team members to focus on more demanding tasks.
Workflow diagrams are composed of standardized symbols, shapes or pictures that illustrate each step of a workflow. Today, workflow diagram software is available online, which makes it easy to construct workflows with the use of premade templates. These diagramming tools typically feature these symbols:
- Oval: Defines the starting and ending point of a workflow diagram.
- Rectangle: Conveys a step in the process or an action that needs to be taken.
- Diamond: Symbolizes a decision point that leads to the next step.
- Parallelogram: Indicates an input or output of data in a workflow process.
- Cylinder: Depicts data used in a process and how and where it can be accessed.
- Connectors: Lines with arrows that show the flow of work from one step to the next.
Workflow diagrams were originally developed to better illustrate repeatable tasks and work processes. These visual tools have evolved to the point where today, organizations use workflow diagrams of many types to meet specific needs and contexts. The following workflow diagram examples represent the most common implementations.
- ANSI diagram: The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) diagram standardized workflow diagram symbols, creating a universal language for future iterations.
- SSD flowchart: Structured systems design (SSD) flowcharts are useful for large or complex projects. These process diagrams break each phase of a project into more manageable steps for greater efficiency.
- Swimlane diagram: A swimlane flowchart is modeled after the swimming lanes in a pool. It separates a workflow into tasks per employee, team or department, depicting each as its own lane.
- Data flow diagram: Data flow diagrams chart the flow of data through a system. They can also include assigned responsibilities for various stakeholders in a project.
- UML activity diagram: Software developers originally created the unified modeling language (UML) to provide a standard means of visualizing a system's design. Today, UML diagrams are not limited to software and depict a range of conditional behavioral flows, such as an e-commerce customer experience or website development.
- SIPOC diagram: The Six Sigma approach originated this form of workflow diagram. Supplier-Input-Process-Output-Customer (SIPOC) diagrams are often created as tables and are used for organization-wide process improvements.
- BPMN diagram: Business process model notation (BPMN) diagrams depict an overview of a business process. Often consisting of multiple sub-charts showcasing a larger ecosystem or industry, BPMN diagrams provide an overview of enterprise-level processes.
Workflow diagrams depict one of two process structures: linear and conditional sequences.
A linear workflow diagram is the simplest type and consists of a straightforward step-by-step path with no alternative steps or pathways.
These more complex workflow diagrams depict the conditions or actions that are necessary to progress through the different steps and paths of a workflow. Most workflow diagrams include some conditional sequences.
Henry Gantt, a nineteenth-century mechanical engineer and management consultant, first developed the workflow diagram to sequence and prioritize tasks. Gantt partnered with Frederick Winslow Taylor, a management science specialist, to originate workflow processes as a new form of business-related scientific management. The result is the Gannt workflow diagram, which is still in use today.
The pair’s work jumpstarted the deeper study into workflow diagramming for better process and quality management.
The difference between a workflow diagram and a flowchart is that while a workflow diagram is one type of process flowchart, many other types of flowcharts exist to document other systems and processes.
Meanwhile, business process mapping is the practice of organizing and mapping every aspect of a business process—personnel, facilities, data, activities and more. Process mining uses data to uncover workflows and optimize them. Business process modeling is a related discipline that generates comprehensive visual representations of workflows using data-driven algorithms.
Any organization can benefit from implementing workflow diagrams. Here are a few business practice management examples that incorporate workflow diagrams.
- IT: IT departments and organizations use workflow diagrams for security monitoring. They can also be applied to equipment usage best practices and administration.
- Healthcare: Workflow diagrams can greatly improve intake flows and update employee protocols in healthcare.
- Education: Educational institutions use them to map multiple department approval workflows and interdepartmental processes.
- Retail: Retail and procurement teams use workflow diagrams to optimize supply chain processes and manufacturing while enhancing customer experience.
Workflow diagrams are a natural pairing for many of the most popular business operations approaches:
As a direct result of Gantt and Winslow’s work, the workflow diagram evolved as a starting point for the Six Sigma operational approach. The discipline derives its name from the way statisticians depict the degree of deviation of a process from perfection, with Six Sigma having a failure rate of 0.00034%.
The Six Sigma method enables businesses to streamline process flows, customer interactions and experiences by using common metrics and 5 to 7 steps. Workflow diagrams can better address any area within these Six Sigma steps and methods, such as business process analysis or fine-tuning the steps in an e-commerce buyer’s journey.
Two of the most widespread Six Sigma models are DMADV (define, measure, analyze, design, verify) and DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control).
Business process reengineering (BPR) is a total overhaul of an enterprise’s business processes. It uses artificial intelligence (AI)-powered algorithms and automation to eliminate redundancies and streamline end-to-end processes. Workflow diagrams are a valuable starting point when first analyzing an organization’s business processes in preparation for strategic business transformation.
Total quality management (TQM) is the ongoing, real-time process of pinpointing and eliminating manufacturing errors via improved communication between team members and management. It seeks to spread responsibility through the entire production process. Here, workflow diagrams can pinpoint areas needing more attention or clarity.
Lean systems aid organizations in streamlining workflows by reducing overhead and eliminating “non-value add” activities: actions or processes that use more resources than they yield in benefits. Workflow diagrams are useful in identifying stages of a workflow that can be sidestepped or combined with others to improve efficiency.
The theory of constraints focuses on the removal of constraints—bottlenecks impeding a workflow—to optimize efficiency. Workflow diagrams shine in revealing these constraints where they might otherwise be more challenging to spot.
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