document flow diagram

This content is an extract from GetAhead in Business Analysis - the FULL course is in eBook and multimedia CD-Rom format.

Beginning the document flow diagram.
With reference to the 'Roadhire Case Study', create a paper based list of the major documents and other major information flows - such as telephone and computer communications. Your list should look something like the one shown. Don't worry if your list does not match this one exactly, as long as you have identified most of the major information flows. If not, refer back to the case study and try to produce as complete a list as possible.

Identify Sources & Recipients.
The following extract from the case study shows how the source and recipient of 'Invoice' and 'Payment' are identified.
'The accounts section is based at HO and uses micro-computer accounts package to produce invoices and to hold customer records'.
'When payment is received by Head Office the remittance is recorded and reconciled against the invoice in the Invoice File'.
Analyze the case study and use this to add the sources and recipients of each of the remaining documents. Be aware that some of them will have more than one source and/or recipient. Try to complete this list for all information flows described in the case study before proceeding.

Drawing the completed document flow diagram.
You should now have a list of the main documents in the system and the sources and recipients of each. On a document flow diagram each source and recipient is represented as an oval and the documents are represented as flows between them. Using your own list, draw a document flow diagram.
Only when you have completed this should you go to the next page, to see the suggested solution. This is the suggested solution for the Roadhire document flow diagram. Don't worry if your diagram does not match this one exactly. If there are any areas where your diagram differs radically from the suggested solution then you should re-read the case study and try to resolve these issues. Finally the document flow diagram requires a system boundary. This is used to ring-fence the investigation, as those areas of the system that lie outside of the boundary will not be analyzed further. The system boundary is determined by discussion with others involved in the investigation.

The following information indicates the position of the system boundary for the current investigation:
Customers and driver agencies have been identified as being external to the system.
Driver admin. is to be included, but not the activities of the drivers themselves.
Vehicle fleet maintenance - a large but self contained section of the organization is to be excluded.
Add the system boundary to your diagram.
Only when you have drawn this in should you go to the next page, to see the suggested solution.
The system boundary should make it clear that Customers, Drivers, Agencies and Vehicle Fleet Maintenance are all outside the scope of the current investigation.

Identifying the Essential Components.
Once the document flow diagram has been drawn and agreed it will hold the information necessary in order to start converting it into a business process diagram.
1) The activities relating to the sending or receiving of the major documents within the system boundary can be identified as processes.
2) Where these documents are held within files or other storage media, data stores are added to the diagram.
3) Sources or recipients outside of the system boundary become external entities.
Convert the Diagram in Stages.
It is easier to convert the document flow diagram into a business process diagram by analyzing small areas of it, rather than tackling the whole diagram at once.

First, we will isolate one area of the original document flow diagram and work through the steps required.
This exercise illustrates the sort of interpretation of the case study text that is required in order to convert the document flow diagram.
Firstly, the customer has already been highlighted as being outside the system boundary and can therefore be redrawn as an external entity.

The three extracts that follow are quotes taken from the case study and each one indicates a process and the location of that process:
"Customers may make telephone or written bookings of vehicles to reception staff in local offices."
"If a vehicle is available then a booking sheet (BS) is partially filled . . ."
"The activities concerned with the departure and return of vehicles are performed by the local depot staff."

These give rise to the following processes:
Both 'Booking Requests' & the 'Booking Sheets File' are identified as stored information in the case study. This information is conveyed in the following quotes: "Customers may make telephone or written bookings of vehicles to reception staff in local offices. These are passed to the local booking staff . . . "
"The remaining copies (of the booking sheets) are passed to the local depot staff."

This content is an extract from GetAhead in Business Analysis - the FULL course is in eBook and multimedia CD-Rom format. TOP