How To Make A Flowchart
If you’ve ever had to map out a complex process, align your team on a new system, or simply get clarity on how things should work, then you’ve probably found yourself needing a flowchart. In digital project management, where workflows can quickly become tangled webs of tasks, teams, and tools, flowcharts offer a visual lifeline.
In this article, we’ll break down how to make a flowchart from scratch, explain why they’re so valuable, list the different flowchart symbols, and walk through best practices for making them clear, useful, and scalable.
What Is A Flowchart?
A flowchart is a visual diagram that maps out a process, showing each step as a symbol connected by lines or connectors. That’s it! It’s a simple but powerful way to see how something flows from start to finish.
Flowcharts are made up of standard flowchart shapes, each representing a different action, decision, or input/output. Whether you’re mapping out an onboarding procedure, a workflow in your dev team, or even a process map for client deliverables, flowcharts make it easier to get a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening and what needs fixing.
They’re not just for engineers and analysts. Digital project managers use them every day to track complex processes, build consensus with stakeholders, and deliver better results. And if you’ve ever built your own flowchart on a whiteboard, then you know how quickly things become clear when you draw it out.
What Is The Purpose Of A Flowchart?
At its core, the purpose of a flowchart is to simplify the way we understand processes. By laying out steps visually, flowcharts help teams decode complex processes, making it easier to spot pain points, redundancies, or areas for automation.
Flowcharts also act as a shared source of truth. For example:
- A process chart for onboarding new hires ensures consistent training.
- A process flowchart helps your QA team track bug triage workflows.
- A data flow diagram maps how information moves across teams or systems.
By making the invisible visible, flowcharts help understand how a system or task actually works (not just how people think it works), streamline work and improve decision-making.
Why Are Flowcharts Important?
Flowcharts are more than just pretty diagrams. They’re essential for keeping projects on track. By offering a clear, visual structure, they enhance communication and reduce misalignment.
Here’s how they deliver value:
- Training and Onboarding: New hires can follow a basic flowchart of your internal processes to get up to speed faster.
- Process Improvement: Identifying bottlenecks becomes easier when you can literally see where workflows get stuck. Also, it helps you spot broken links or decision points that cause delays or confusion.
- Team Collaboration: When your whole team is referencing the same flowchart template, expectations are clearer and feedback is more focused. Aligning your team members and stakeholders around the same picture becomes easier.
Example: On a recent web redesign project, we created a swimlane flowchart to show who was responsible for what during each sprint. Designers, developers, and PMs each had their own lane. The result? We noticed there were fewer missed handoffs. This led to an overall faster delivery and finishing the project closer to the planned deadline.
Ultimately, a well-made flowchart removes guesswork. It replaces ambiguity with clarity and, I think, that is something every project manager can get behind.
Understanding Flowchart Symbols
Think of flowcharts as a universal language across industries and disciplines. If you build it right, you will ensure that anyone looking at your flowchart understands the flow of information by simply looking at it. Therefore, to build a useful flowchart, you’ve got to speak the language of flowchart symbols.
These standardized icons tell your reader what each step means. Let’s break down the most common flowchart shapes:
Terminator (Start/End)
Used to mark the beginning or end of a flowchart. It’s usually an oval or pill shape. Think of it as the end point or kickoff.
Example:
Process
This rectangular shape is your bread and butter. It represents a task or activity.
Example:
Decision
A diamond shape that introduces a yes/no or true/false decision point. It's crucial to distinguish a decision from a regular process because it determines different possible paths in your flowchart. Mixing them up can lead to confusion about the flow logic, making it harder for your team members or stakeholders to follow or troubleshoot the process.
Example:
Input/Output
Parallelograms show data entering or leaving the system. Therefore, they should connect directly to a process or decision symbol to show where the data is coming from or going to. Avoid floating input/output shapes without clear connectors—they should always be tied into the flow of the diagram.
Example:
Arrow (Flowline)
These connectors show direction—what flows into what. Arrows help map the journey from one flowchart shape to another. While arrows can technically point in any direction, it's best practice to keep them flowing from top to bottom or left to right. This improves readability and aligns with how most people in Western societies visually scan information.
Example:
Document
This symbol looks like a wavy rectangle and represents a document or report generated during the process. It’s useful when mapping flows that involve records, forms, or deliverables. You’ll typically see document symbols appear near the end of a process or after a decision point, where output or documentation is produced as part of the workflow.
Example:
While we’ve covered the most common flowchart symbols, there are many more that can bring additional clarity depending on your context. Here is a table you can use for future reference:
Certain industries, like software development or manufacturing, may use more specialized symbols to capture technical steps or compliance processes. Understanding which symbols your team or industry favors can help make your flowchart more intuitive and widely understood.
How To Make A Flowchart
Over the years, I’ve built hundreds of flowcharts, from simple whiteboard sketches to detailed diagrams using tools like Visio, Lucidchart, and even Excel. The following steps are meant to help you get started with a flowchart.
- Define the Process: What exactly are you mapping? Is it a business process, a feature deployment, or a content pipeline? The goal here is to set clear boundaries for your flowchart. You want to define what falls inside the scope of the diagram, and just as importantly, what doesn't. This decision helps you determine the appropriate level of detail and the kinds of flowchart symbols you'll need. Once you know what you’re mapping, it becomes much easier to move into Step 2: Identify Steps. You’ll already have a focused lens, so instead of listing everything, you’re identifying relevant actions tied directly to the defined process.
- Identify Steps: Jot down every action, decision, and data handoff. Don’t worry about the sequence yet—just brainstorm.
- Sequence the Steps: Arrange your tasks and decision points in the correct order. Ask: what happens first? Then what? Asking these questions will help you find the right flow of tasks within your project.
- Choose the Right Symbols: Use the standard flowchart symbols mentioned earlier and the ones found in our flowchart symbols chart to select the ones that best suit each of the steps you identified in your sequence.
- Draw the Flowchart: Use pen and paper or a drag-and-drop tool to create your chart. You can even insert it into your project docs or presentations. Although if you are in the mood for some fun, I recommend sticky notes and string. Makes you feel like you are working on a project and solving a murder mystery at the same time.
- Review and Refine: Share it with your team members. Once you do that, review with everyone to make sure it's clear, it accurately represents what should happen, and collect any questions from stakeholders.
Tips for Clarity
- Keep it simple. Don’t cram too much onto one chart.
- Stick to one flowchart per page.
- Use consistent shapes and spacing.
- Highlight key decision-making moments (maybe with a different color).
- Use connectors or even hyperlinks to keep people oriented.
Remember, a great flowchart should be easy to understand for everyone involved and clear to whoever speaks the flowchart symbol language.
What Are The Best Types Of Flowcharts?
Different projects call for different types of flowcharts. Choosing the right one depends on your goal, whether that’s mapping data, defining roles, or improving processes.
However, here are the most common ones:
- Process Flowchart: The classic format. Great for general processes. A process flowchart visually maps out the sequence of actions or steps involved in completing a task or achieving an outcome. It typically starts with a trigger event and ends with a result or output. These are especially useful in documenting standard operating procedures and analyzing workflows for efficiency improvements.
- Workflow Diagram: Focuses on who does what. Ideal for cross-functional teams. A workflow diagram visually maps how tasks progress from one person or team to another, often emphasizing responsibility, timing, and task dependencies. These diagrams are especially useful for identifying communication breakdowns or inefficient handoffs in collaborative processes. Industries like healthcare, HR, and customer support frequently use workflow diagrams to optimize multi-step procedures involving multiple roles.
- Swimlane Flowchart: Uses lanes to group steps by role or department. Perfect for highlighting handoffs. Each lane in the diagram represents a participant, function, or team involved in the process, and the steps are organized horizontally or vertically within those lanes. This makes it easy to see not only what happens, but also who is responsible for each step. Swimlane flowcharts are especially useful in environments where tasks are frequently passed between departments, like marketing agencies, software development teams, or customer service operations.
- Data Flow Diagram (DFD): Shows how information moves within a system. In a DFD, you’d expect to see entities (such as users or systems), processes that transform data, data stores, and data flows represented by arrows. These diagrams focus more on the movement and transformation of information rather than the specific tasks performed. For example, a DFD for an online store might show data flowing from a customer to a checkout process, into a payment gateway, and then to a fulfillment system.
- Document Flowchart: Tracks how documents are created, reviewed, and shared.
- System Flowchart: Shows how data and systems interact. Useful for IT and development projects.
No matter the type, each flowchart format has its strengths and knowing what to expect helps you pick the right one. As you compare these formats, think about what information needs to be conveyed and to whom.
Best Practices On How To Make A Flowchart
Here are best practices that ensure your diagram actually works in the wild:
- Use standard symbols: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Stick with familiar flowchart shapes.
- Limit to one page: A single-page chart is easier to digest and share.
- Keep text short: Inside shapes, use short, descriptive text.
- Use color wisely: Color-code roles or statuses, but don’t go overboard.
- Use SmartArt: In Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, the SmartArt tool can help you create clean visuals.
- Add hyperlinks: Want to add context? Use hyperlinks to link to relevant resources or documentation.
- Embed in your docs: Make your flowchart part of your living project documentation.
These tips help maintain readability, especially when sharing charts across departments or in real-time updates.
Best Tool To Create Flowcharts
A great flowchart software turns your notes and scribbles into polished diagrams that your team can actually use. Plus, they let you bring others into the conversation. Here are a few options worth checking out:
When choosing your tool, think about collaboration, integrations, and ease of use. Do you need to embed your chart in a presentation? Do your team members want to comment in real-time? Are you adding it to a flowchart template?
The best tool is the one that makes it easiest for your team to stay aligned and act fast.
Join For More Workflow Management Insights
Want to connect with other digital project managers to share resources and best practices? Join our membership community and get access to 100+ templates, samples, and examples and connect with 100s of other digital project managers in Slack.
