Analyze

Deployment Flowchart

Process chain across role lanes — makes hand-offs visible

Structure

The Deployment Flowchart (also swimlane or cross-functional flowchart) shows a process as a chain of steps distributed across horizontal bands — the lanes. Each lane stands for a role or department. Steps run left to right through the chain; moving from one lane to another is a hand-off. Those hand-offs are the whole point of the view: they are where waiting time, misunderstandings, and ownership gaps appear.

When to use

The Deployment Flowchart fits the Analyze phase when a process spans several roles or departments and the question is "who does what — and where is it handed over?". Many lane switches across few steps is a strong signal for friction. Unlike the Activity Flowchart it shows no branching, and unlike the Opportunity Flowchart no value classification — only ownership.

How to use

"Add role" creates a new lane; type its name directly in the sidebar. "Add step" appends the new step at the end of the chain — always in the "Unassigned" lane, and the view jumps straight there. Who owns the step is a deliberate second decision, made by dragging its card onto a role band. Cards are grabbed by their blue number. Drag one into another band to change ownership — its place in the chain is kept. Drop it on an arrow between two cards instead and its place in the chain changes while the role is kept — even when that arrow sits in another role's band. "Detail steps" expands any card into sub-steps. "Import from …" pulls steps in from a Process Map or SIPOC.

The "Unassigned" lane

Alongside your own roles there is a reserved "Unassigned" lane. It appears automatically as soon as a step has no role — for example after importing from a Process Map or SIPOC, neither of which carries role information. This lane can neither be renamed nor deleted: it is the catch-all that guarantees no step exists without a visible row. Deleting a role moves its steps there — they are never lost with the role.

Examples

This module ships with the following example datasets — load any of them in the app with a single click.

Deployment Flowchart Order Flow — Project template

5 steps from order to goods receipt across three lanes — customer, sales, and production — with four hand-offs made visible as lane switches.

Available in the following cycles

DMAIC: Analyze
DMADV: Analyze
8D: D4 — Root Cause Analysis