SUPERCHARGING YOUR DOCUMENTATION

1

VISUAL DOCUMENTATION

By Adrienne Bellehumeur

www.leadersinbusinessanalysis.com

This booklet covers Step 4 Visual Documentation of the six-step documentation process (Step 1 – Capturing, Step 2 –

Structuring, Step 3 – Presenting, Step 4 – Visual Documentation, Step 5 – Documentation for Effective Meetings,

Step 6 – Storing & Maintaining Information). This booklet provides some basic tips, techniques, approaches and

exercises for understanding and practicing how to produce high quality visuals in your documentation.

WORKBOOK SERIES

4

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CHALLENGE

Crash Course in Visual Documentation

This approach to documentation recognizes the reader’s need to be engaged through stimulating visuals.

Marketers have long understood the power of visuals.

Organizations pour huge fees into advertising agencies

and their marketing departments to capture the eye of

their target external audience. So, why do they forget

about marketing to their internal audience?

Although you have rarely used “documentation” and

“visual design” in the same sentence, challenge

yourself to do so. You don’t need to be a graphic artist,

but you do need to acknowledge and understand how

important the visual component of your

documentation is, and then work on simple techniques

to improve this.

There are no rules in business that say your

documentation can’t be fun. Having fun with it is the

first step to seeing more engagement from your

audience.

To improve your documentation immediately, replace blocks of text with

visuals to illustrate your key messages and hold your readers’ attention.

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QUICK TIPS:

Improve Your Visual Flair Immediately

Use these quick tips for effective results:

(1) Take Advantage of the Many Canned Shapes and Smart Art in Microsoft

Word to Engage Your Audience – These simple shapes will help you to break up

blocks of text to make your documents more readable for your users. The shapes in

Word are easy to add and, with practice, you will learn how to insert shapes to create a

great colour scheme quickly.

(2) Put Pictures in Your Document – If you are building training materials, be sure to

include screen shots of how the system works. If you want to add punch to your

meeting notes, take photos of your meeting such as of the whiteboard, and add them to

your documentation. Why is Facebook so popular? Because we all love pictures!

(3) Use Simple Graphs to Communicate Number Values – Strings of large numbers

are not fun to look at and will lose your reader quickly. Communicating numbers using

simple graphs will help you to communicate them faster and more effectively. Microsoft

Word 2010

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Which one of the following is easier to read? Which one can you read faster?

(4) Add Simple Process or Data Models to Break up Text – You don’t need a

complex process or data model to get your point across. Adding simple graphs to show

sequence or data flow can significantly improve your reader’s comprehension and

ability to read your document quickly.

Drawing by Hand is Not Just for Kids In our world of complex software, drawing by hand may sound out of date or even

inappropriate for “adult” audiences. Drawing using simple cartooning techniques will attract a

lot of attention to your documentation… largely because there are few others brave or creative

enough to use this. The hand-drawn quality gives a unique sense of warmth and humour that

you can’t get from sophisticated software programs. Hand drawings can significantly improve

your “user engagement”, offering communication that is lighter and yet still informative. This

applies to:

Training documentation

Meeting notes

User Manuals

Project Communications

Sales presentations

Internal Communications

(Of course, hand drawing in your documentation is limited to situations that are appropriate for

your audience. If you are a criminal lawyer or a tax accountant, cartoon documentation may be

poorly received by your clients!)

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Take a Risk and Draw by Hand You don’t need the professional drawings such as the comics you find in the newspaper. We are

talking about “documentation style” cartoons. These are simple visual representations,

including:

Direction

Goal Stakeholders

EXERCISE:

Cartoon Your Meeting Notes

This exercise will provide you with insight into your own personal style for using hand-drawn visuals to capture business concepts.

STEPS:

(1) Choose a team meeting that is informal.

(2) Instruct all team members to take meeting notes illustrating through symbols or simple

cartoons and ask team members to avoid using text.

(3) After the meeting, review and compare each other’s notes as a team.

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Cartoon Your Meeting Notes

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DISCUSS WITH YOUR TEAM…

What symbols did team members choose?

How did each team member illustrate the points differently?

Which points were easy to illustrate? Which points were difficult to illustrate?

How could team members use illustration for future meeting notes?

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Process & Data Modelling Process and data modelling is an essential part of an organization’s documentation. It adds a

visual dynamic to engage your readers and to understand your processes and data flows. This

visual component adds a new dimension to your documentation, enabling your user to grasp

and to review the content faster than lengthy write-ups.

Examples of Simple, Effective Process & Data Diagrams

Process Diagram – Swim lane

The swim lane diagram is an excellent

diagram for providing immediate clarity for

processes and roles. A swim lane diagram

categorizes the actors in their process

according to their own “section” marked by

vertical or horizontal lines.

Process Diagram – Use Case

A use case is a diagram that describes the

interactions between a user and a system.

These diagrams are excellent for

documenting details necessary for testing

or for understanding how a system works.

PROCESS MODELING: conveying a business process through a visual

representation.

DATA MODELLING: conveying the flow of data from people or technology

through a visual representation.

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PARALLEL

This is not to say that you can

blindly copy one organization’s

processes to use for another

organization.

Processes depend on the

industry and the size of the

organization. Common sense

trumps all examples or

templates.

Data Flow Diagram – System Inputs

& Outputs

Simple input and output diagrams can be

extremely powerful for helping to bring

clarity to how data flows within your

organization.

Demystifying Process & Data Modelling As complicated as some consultants may have you believe it is, process and data modelling is

not rocket science. Kids are naturals at it, often drawing pictures of themselves walking to and

from home to school (processes) or illustrating how they interact with their family and friends

(data flows). The fundamental concepts of process and data modelling are very simple.

Looking to document your organization’s processes? There is no need to reinvent the

wheel. Modelling is standardized; there are many examples of sources, including Google, to find

them, and many people in your business circles who have looked at similar processes before.

Here are a few processes and data flows that are similar across organizations and

industries:

Finance: Accounts Payable, Accounts

Receivable, Cash Management, Budgeting, Monthly Close, Financial Statement Preparation, Authorization for Expenditure, Purchasing

IT: Change Management, System Development,

Problem & Incident Management, Access Management

HR: Onboarding New Hire, Voluntary

Termination, Involuntary Termination, Annual Appraisals, Extended Sick Leave

Sales: Request for Proposal, New Client, Monthly Sales Meetings, Leads Monitoring

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QUICK TIPS:

How to Start Process and Data Modeling

Use these quick tips for effective results:

The fact that you are acknowledging you need to model your processes or data flows is the first

big step. If you have never done it before, don’t be afraid to get started… just jump in and do it.

Remember that

modelling is a

process - Process

modelling, like all

documentation, is a

process, not an end

product. With the

rapid rate of change in

business today,

process and data flows

change continuously.

Ensure that your

organization reviews

and updates your

models annually.

(1) Understand the Purpose of Your Diagram - The

purpose of your diagram will determine the level of detail

required, and the area that you need to focus on. Remember,

you never have to focus on all aspects of the process or data

flow. If you are focusing only on financial data in a data flow,

don’t focus on interfaces with no financial impact.

(2) Learn the Conventions - There are a few conventions for

process and data shapes that may be standard for your

organization. These conventions and symbols are easy to

follow if you are using Microsoft Visio or another common

diagramming program.

(3) Talk, Talk, Talk to People - Interviewing is a great way to

understand the process and data flow and to unlock

information locked inside the heads of your organization’s

employees. Draw, or have your interviewee draw, the process

or data flow on paper or on a whiteboard during your meeting.

(4) Gather Feedback and Edit - Document the process or data

flow immediately after your meeting and pass it back to your

interviewee for feedback.

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(5) Make Your Diagrams Usable – When they are ready, get your diagrams out there

and into your organization’s operations for a test run. From there, you can test whether

your diagrams satisfy the reperformance standard. Can your stakeholders use the

diagrams effectively? Does it help them with their job? Use this feedback to make edits

and improvements.

(6) Understand the Purpose of Your Diagram - The purpose of your diagram will

determine the level of detail required, and the area that you need to focus on.

Remember, you never have to focus on all aspects of the process or data flow. If you are

focusing only on financial data in a data flow, don’t focus on interfaces with no financial

impact.

EXERCISE:

Improve Your Process Modelling Using Your Own Life

The easiest and most effective thing to do is to illustrate

the processes from your own life.

If you are looking to get more experience in process modelling, there is no need to wait until an

opportunity comes up in your organization. There is also no need to take an expensive course

or training.

STEPS:

(1) Choose a partner, if available.

(2) Choose a particular “life process” that you would like to improve.

(3) Using this process, take out your markers and a piece of white paper and draw out this

process.

(4) Build a diagram that will help you to think through each step.

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(5) Ensure that you can communicate the process to your partner.

(6) Present this diagram to your partner and ask for their feedback.

Examples can include:

Planting a garden

Planning a dinner party

Doing your taxes

Organizing your house

Buying a house

Leaving for work in the morning

Leaving for vacation

Finding a boyfriend/girlfriend

Doing this exercise and treating it seriously will show you how powerful

visualizing processes and data flows can be.

Think about:

(1) Would you create a diagram for the process of buying a new house if you

had no intention of buying it for the next three years?

(2) Would you draw detailed diagrams for brushing your teeth?

(3) Would you use a bar-reader to track every dish in your house?

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Process Work Flow Diagram Title

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DISCUSS & CONSIDER

What did you learn or discover about the process?

Was this exercise helpful in getting you to think through all of the steps?

Is it easier to look at the process now that it is presented visually?

Did you get stuck on any of the steps of the process?

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How did you choose to present the process visually?

What did you learn about process modelling?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Process and Data modeling – Get The Most From Your Data

http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/feature/Data-modeling-techniques-explained-

How-to-get-the-most-from-your-data