How to draw a business architecture diagram — 4. Flow chart

Flow chart can be used to describe any orderly and regular activity process.

The flowchart is the last of the three views of the business architecture, and it is also the most important architecture diagram describing the customer's business.

In the analysis and design of enterprise management, the main processes involved are business processes and approval processes. A process is a series of activities completed by different people in collaboration to achieve a specific goal. There are not only strict sequence restrictions between activities, but also the content, methods, and responsibilities of activities must also be clearly arranged and defined to make it possible for different activities to transfer between different positions and roles. The flowchart is the method used to describe and record the course of this activity.

Business process and approval process are two different concepts and functions:
□ Business process expresses "business operation process"
□ Approval process expresses "business operation management".
The business process has the greatest impact on business logic and data design. Here, a business flowchart is taken as an example to illustrate the drawing method of the flowchart.
The flow chart is a "dynamic expression" of the interaction between the elements.

1. Model interpretation

Take the processing function of the enterprise as an example to illustrate the expression method of the flow chart model below

1. Goal: Each process must have a clear task goal. This goal is often expressed by the name of the process,
   such as: reimbursement application process, material procurement process, contract payment process, etc.;
2. Direction: Use standard graphic symbols to indicate the direction in which the process will complete the goal, namely: start point (s), direction (→), end point (e)①
3. Nodes: Nodes ② in the process of achieving the goal. These nodes can also be called activities and functions (there are 6 nodes in the example figure).
4. Sequence: the sequence and context of the completion process (node ​​1 → node 2 → …)
5. Disagreement: There will be a process divergence ③
   that is: the process starts from the node "1. Contract", according to the agreement of the divergent conditions, the process can go to the node "2. Design" or to the node "4. Procurement";
6. Primary and secondary: It can be seen that there are two lines of the main process and the secondary process, the main process = contract ~ accounting; the secondary process = purchase;

2. Model drawing

1. Linear flow chart The
   linear flow chart has no background frame and is mainly used when designing the process. See Figure 1 for drawing method.
   □Determine the goal of the completion of the process;
   □Determine the starting point and end of the process;
   □Determine the activities (number of nodes) and sequence required to complete the process;
   □Determine the divergence positions, conditions and rules in the middle of the process;

The linear process model can be used to analyze and design the process in detail. Give two examples to help understand
[Application 1] The entity of each node on the process is associated and annotated to illustrate the function and output corresponding to each node on the business process. Things.

[Application 2] Analyze and design the management control method of the business process, explain that the project management control method is adopted for the business process in the figure below, and determine which project management process (target, plan, execution, Ending and supervision), which combines the execution process of the business and the control points of management and control into a single diagram. This picture clearly expresses the logic of "business, management" and can be understood by relevant stakeholders (customers, business, technology).

2. Swim lane flow chart
   Superimpose the linear flow chart with the organization background frame to form a swim lane flow chart, as shown in the figure below.
   Combining the organizational structure as a background frame with a linear flow chart is the most common method to draw a swim lane flow chart.
   The organization table can be one-dimensional (as shown in Figure 4) or two-dimensional (the horizontal axis also has organizational divisions, such as classes and groups). The horizontal axis of this question uses a number indicating the processing sequence (for system design).

3. The difference between linear flow chart and swim lane flow chart
   In the design of software system,
   □Line flow chart: easy to draw, easy to analyze and design.
   □Swimming lane flow chart: Add the background frame of the organizational structure, which is mainly used to perform regression verification on the process (the design of Figure 2 and Figure 3 cannot be carried out with the swim lane diagram)
   □The swim lane diagram is not a diagram required for design and development, but is related to Picture for customer confirmation and online preparation.

3. Applicable scenarios

The regular production activities of an enterprise are expressed in the form of business processes. Therefore, one of the standardization work carried out on enterprises is the standardization of business processes. The flow chart can be used to describe all processes with orderly operations. The flow chart can be used to describe two types of scenarios: business processing and approval processing.
□Business process (business process): material procurement process, budget preparation process, project management process, etc.;
□Management control process (approval process): reimbursement approval process, bid approval process, contract approval process, etc.;

To learn more about the design method of flowcharts, please refer to the book "Dahua Software Engineering—Requirements Analysis and Software Design".