Swimlane (Deployment Flowchart)
Spreads process steps across one lane per role — makes responsibilities and handovers visible.
Also known as: deployment flowchart, cross-functional flowchart, lane
A swimlane diagram — also deployment or cross-functional flowchart — spreads the steps of a flowchart across horizontal bands. Each lane stands for a role, department or system; the order of steps is preserved while their vertical position additionally answers: who does this?
The real insight lies in the handovers: every change of lane is an interface — and interfaces are the classic places for waiting, lost information and follow-up queries. A process whose chain keeps jumping between lanes is error-prone regardless of its individual steps.
- Many handovers — a candidate for consolidating responsibilities
- One crowded lane — a bottleneck; matches the column check of the RACI matrix
- Backward arrows across lanes — correction loops with high waiting time
See also
Used in
Sources
- Damelio, R. — The Basics of Process Mapping, 2nd Edition, Productivity Press, 2011
- Pyzdek, T. & Keller, P. — The Six Sigma Handbook, 5th Edition
- George, M. L. — Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma Quality with Lean Speed, McGraw-Hill, 2002