Last year I bought SmartDraw, with the intention of turning all my procedures into flowcharts. Then I got bogged down in project work, and the flowcharts didn’t happen. However, today I had another go, inspired by an email from SmartDraw describing VPM – visual process management. This is a neat idea whereby the organisation chart contains a hyperlink from each person to a job map, which summarises all the processes that person is responsible for. Each process in the job map then links to a flowchart describing the steps in that process. All the charts use consistent shapes, lines and text; fit on a single page; and are read from left to right.
So far, I’ve only created an organization chart, a couple of job maps and one process, but I can see that it will be a useful exercise. Creating my job map clarified why I’m always so busy – I had trouble fitting all my responsibilities into a single page. The many hats I wear include editor, writer, formatter, designer, manager, trainer, student, marketer and volunteer.