Learn More About Diagramming Software
What is Diagramming Software?
Diagramming software, also known as flowchart software, provides users with a variety of tools to create organized and comprehensible flowcharts. These tools include shapes and arrows, varying colors, themes, fonts, and tools that help users arrange steps in a logical manner. Users can connect shapes and utilize drag and drop features to create an intuitive workflow. For users looking for less customizability, there are also a wide variety of premade templates users can choose from.
Key Benefits of Diagramming Software
- Create a repository of flowcharts that communicate best processes across the company
- Provide clarity to complex processes that are better explained with visual aids
- Identify roadblocks within certain processes
- Provide a reference point for new hires on how to identify best practices
Why Use Diagramming Software?
Diagramming software helps make complex concepts more comprehensible for teams. Whether it’s a workflow that requires countless steps, or an IT network infrastructure, diagramming software can make these concepts more digestible for users. Not only do flowcharts make processes more efficient for those that view them, it can also be a tool used by teams to solve their own challenges. When users find it difficult to solve a particular issue they can use diagramming software to break down the problem using visual components and mind maps—greatly enhancing team efficiency.
Improve processes — Perhaps the most valuable use case for diagramming software is to better communicate processes between teams, project managers, and stakeholders. Providing a visual aid for workflows and processes allows teams to catch inefficiencies and identify blockers to particular tasks.
Simplify organizational structure — Organizations can greatly enhance the efficiency of their employees by placing them in positions where their talents are best utilized. Creating organizational charts that highlight team structures as well as job descriptions of each employee on that team is one of the easiest ways to do this.
Who Uses Diagramming Software?
Diagramming software is a dynamic tool that can be applied across almost any department within a company. In general, diagramming software is used to document and analyze processes, standardize a process for efficiency, communicate processes for training, and identify bottlenecks and redundancies. As a result, it can be applied across a wide array of fields.
Aside from general purpose diagramming software, there are also use cases for specific fields. For example, sales and marketing teams may use diagramming software to plot out the flow of a survey, chart a sales process, plan research strategies, or show registration flows. Manufacturing teams may diagram the physical makeup of a product and illustrate the manufacturing process from start to finish. Below are some teams that use diagramming software for specific use cases.
HR teams — Creating a diagram is one of the best ways to keep track of organizational hierarchies. As teams scale and grow, HR teams must be able to make sense of organizational structure and hierarchical relationships to understand who reports to who. Diagramming software can provide a central location to organize employees by department, scrum team, job role, salaries, and other related fields.
IT teams — IT teams can use diagramming software to help them design and optimize network diagrams.This allows IT teams to display which networks connect where, which ultimately enhances the accuracy and visibility for the team.
Project managers — Project managers use diagramming software to accurately keep track of tasks, projects and ultimately create a more comprehensive view of a team’s workflow. This aids employees by simplifying their workflow management and aids project managers by simplifying workflow planning and scoping.
Operations teams— Similar to project managers communicating task workflows, it’s equally as important for operations teams to visually outline the workflows for processes. This creates a central repository for an operations team to reference, while enabling new hires to get up to speed.
Kinds of Diagramming Software
Most diagramming software provides a variety of templates that users can tailor to fit most use cases. However some software offers templates that fit the use case for a particular business function. Some diagramming software allows users to create a diagram for networks, while others are more geared towards creating a diagram for project management. Ultimately it’s up to the user to decide from the countless uses cases for flowcharts and diagrams and apply it to the business processes they desire.
As mentioned previously, the use cases for this software are endless, however some of the most common diagrams created are website wireframes, sequence diagrams, mind maps, organization charts, network structures, and venn diagrams. Additionally there is a distinct difference between on-premise and open source diagramming software.
Open source — Open source diagramming software allows users to deploy their diagramming solution online. This provides users with accessibility from any computer, and often runs on a recurring subscription model. So although users pay a monthly or yearly fee, they would get benefits such as mobile accessibility, improved collaboration, and access to more updates.
On-premise — On-premise diagramming software requires users to install the software onto a desktop. On-premise solutions generally require users to pay a one time fee in which they then retain the total cost of ownership of the software. Some benefits include total ownership and not relying on internet connectivity.
Diagramming Software Features
Drag and drop — One of the main functions of diagramming software is the drag and drop feature. This allows users to simply edit the organizational chart by dragging boxes to the correct position on the diagram.
Templates — Users can create new diagrams more efficiently when they’re using pre existing templates. Most Diagramming software provides users with a variety of flow chart templates that they can quickly pull to start creating their own diagrams.
Collaboration — Most diagramming software provides users with the ability to make comments and edits to diagrams in the process of being created. Some products even allow multiple users to edit the diagram together in real time, which is very useful for teams that have remote components.
Dashboard — Another key feature within diagramming software is the central dashboard that manages all documentation in one single place. This allows users to keep team assets organized with shared folders, and presents all diagrams in one easy to view location.
Integrations — Diagramming software provides users with a variety of integrations that can streamline the creation of most diagrams. For example, if a user wants to create an organizational diagram that displays employee hierarchy, they can integrate the diagramming software with HR systems to extract all employee names. Similarly, users can integrate the diagramming software with IT systems to create a more accurate network infrastructure.
Themes and styles — Diagramming software allows users to choose a variety of shapes, colors, and fonts to create a diagram that fits their desired vision. Whether it’s comprehensibility, or branding, users can truly customize the diagram to whatever they see fit.
Import files — Most diagramming software allows users to import files from other diagramming software vendors. So even if another user is working with a different software, they can still import diagrams. Additionally, most diagramming software allows users to export PDF files, image files, or SVG vectors.
Track changes — The track changes features allow users to access previous versions in revision history. This way, the software saves various iterations in case a previous workflow worked better than a current one.
