Workflow diagrams are used in many industries, such as development, management, e-commerce, education, medicine, and much more. Let's look at what these diagrams are, their benefits, and what makes them multifunctional.

What is a workflow diagram?

A workflow diagram is the visual representation of a business-related process. It helps to visualize tasks and their flow between multiple people, teams, or software.

What does the workflow diagram look like?

Diagrams are often confused with flowcharts. While both lead the reader through distinct steps and are used to portray a process, they still have their differences. A flowchart visually breaks a problem or task into a sequential order or step-by-step approach to simplify decision-making. Workflow diagrams are a visual overview of business processes that show the movement of functions, activities, or resources between individuals or teams.

Diagrams often use flowchart symbols like ovals to represent start or end points, rectangles for single tasks or activities, parallelograms for inputs or outputs, diamonds for decisions, and lines illustrating relationships between shapes. Some businesses may use other figures or icons of objects or products. The one thing diagrams have in common is a linear structure. They must be sequential and ordered – each step must have a unique predecessor and successor. Any disconnected actions or tasks reveal you have problems to solve without any delays.

Reasons to create a workflow diagram

At a high level, diagrams lead to transparent and trackable work processes. Teams can streamline processes when they understand what, when, and by whom tasks must be done. As a result, organizations reduce errors and boost efficiency.

However, there are some other benefits of workflow diagrams that include:

• Improved workflows. Creating charts provides insight into your processes. You can identify and eliminate bottlenecks in your everyday routines and strengthen your company's productivity.
• Enhanced collaboration. When tasks and processes are transparent, team members know who is responsible for each task or role and can communicate and collaborate with greater clarity and ease.
• Increased profits. Efficient workflows save time, money, and resources. And streamlined processes boost ROI for teams and companies.
• Comprehensible codification. Codified processes help employees deliver sustainable work and results. For example, you can speed up onboarding for new employees and create scalable processes for growing teams.
• Delight clients. Easily provide customers with features, services, or goods. When the sales process is smooth and streamlined, the higher their customer satisfaction level is.

How to create a workflow diagram

Follow the guidelines below to create a business process workflow diagram:

1. Analyze one of your workflows. Take a look at how your employees complete tasks, which order they follow, and who is responsible for decision-making. Consider drawing your first scheme to visualize the current process. Mark all the steps that may be redundant, unnecessary, or overly complicated.
2. Indicate terminal points. Be sure to understand and note where your process begins and ends.
3. Draw a new process. Add tasks, steps, and simple activities to your chart. You’ll find the right balance between too many small actions or details and critical tasks or big decisions to include in your diagram.
4. Identify inputs and outputs. Every step requires resources for processing, from information to third-party services or materials. Make sure to represent key players and stakeholders for each stage.
5. Review for issues. Try to anticipate possible mistakes or errors and what to do in those situations.
6. Test your draft. Ask a skilled employee to check the diagram or have a small team test the workflow. Implement any feedback and work the new scheme into the business.

How to make a workflow chart work

Now that you've drawn a diagram, how do you use it to transform work processes? What if we told you there's a service that empowers you to quickly create a chart with any number of steps and leverage specialized robots to execute and bring it to life? With airSlate, you can easily automate and streamline business processes!

Enroll in the airSlate Academy courses and learn how to build automated business processes, discover efficient workflow diagram examples, generate interactive documents, and use software robots – all without writing a single line of code or hiring programmers. Start improving your business today with the airSlate Academy!