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Re: Flow Charts

Subject: Re: Flow Charts
From: "Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:02:35 -0500

On Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:31:57 -0500, Kari Gulbrandsen <kkgulbrandsen -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

I know how to use Visio and Smart Art to actually draw them, it's
deciding what is the best way to represent the ideas that I am being given.

The key is the same as for writing -- do the charts fulfill the needs of the audience?

You must work with the actual customers or surrogates for same. They have to be critical thinkers who will tell you, "What I need to see is why those things are connected without something in between," rather than, "Yes, there are three boxes. Looks good, but I don't like the color."

Personally, I've found flowcharts useful only when used in the act of explaining, so that my motions of drawing are part of the presentation at the blackboard. "You would think that the next step would be like this [draws arrow] but instead we need an extra test here [erases arrow], and that requires getting data from the other repository, [draws extra boxes] and testing for flavour [draws decision box and more arrows]."
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References:
Flow Charts: From: Kari Gulbrandsen

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