How to visualize business processes? The 10 best tools

Visualize business processes is crucial for understanding, improving, and communicating how different elements of your business work together. Here are several effective methods to help you visualize business processes:

10 established tools to visualize business processes:

1. Flowcharts: Flowcharts are a popular way to represent processes using shapes and arrows. Start with a clear start point and follow the process through its various steps, decision points, and outcomes. Use different shapes for different actions, decisions, or processes, and connect them with arrows to show the flow.
2. Swimlane Diagrams: Swimlane diagrams are useful for showing how different departments or individuals are involved in a process. Each “lane” represents a different role or department, and the process flow is represented horizontally across the lanes.
3. Process Maps: Process maps provide a high-level overview of a process. They use symbols and lines to show inputs, outputs, decision points, and steps in a linear fashion. Process maps are particularly useful for identifying bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
4. Value Stream Mapping: Value stream maps focus on identifying value-added and non-value-added activities within a process. They help to streamline processes by eliminating waste and inefficiencies.
5. Gantt Charts: Gantt charts are often used for project management, but they can also be used to visualize the timeline and dependencies of various tasks within a business process. This is especially helpful when processes have multiple stages or activities that need to be coordinated.
6. Mind Maps: Mind maps can be used to brainstorm and visualize the relationships between different elements of a business process. They are particularly helpful when you’re exploring different options or looking for new ideas.
7. Data Flow Diagrams: Data flow diagrams (DFDs) is a great tool to visualize business processes. You can illustrate how data moves through a system or process. They use circles to represent processes, arrows to represent data flow, and rectangles to represent data stores.
8. Storyboarding: Storyboarding is effective for illustrating the user experience or customer journey within a process. This method is often used in design and user-centered projects.
9. Pictorial Charts: Sometimes, a simple visual representation or pictorial chart can help convey the essence of a process, especially when communicating with a non-technical audience.
10. Digital Tools: Utilize various digital tools such as diagramming software (e.g., Lucidchart, Microsoft Visio, draw.io), project management software (e.g., Asana, Trello), or even presentation tools (e.g., PowerPoint, Google Slides) to create visual representations of your processes.

Summary: Visualize business processes

When creating visualizations, remember to keep them clear, concise, and easy to understand. Use consistent icons, colors, and labels to enhance clarity. Whether you’re using pen and paper or digital tools, the goal is to provide a visual snapshot that helps others quickly grasp the key components and flow of the business process.

Visualize business processes with Icons

It is especially helpful when you work with graphics to improve communication. get visually consistent icons for your business presentations with the iconuncle free icon library. All icons are based on a consistent design grid and can be accessed directly in PowerPoint using the PowerPoint add-in. If you use another presentation software you can also access the icons via any web browser. IconUncle offers you a first-class icon collection if you want to visualize your business processes.