They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in the case of swim lanes they could be worth an infinite amount of words because the diagram shows the procedure and rules of a system for a company or anything you could think of that needs a system. The swim lane is used by many to summarize a procedure and its rules in the simplest way possible, but with that swim lane comes rules for how to properly draw one. The swim lane has 5 symbols, which are a circle, rectangle, diamond, arrow and cylinder. The circle means start/end of the process, a rectangle means an activity in progress, a diamond means a decision must be made, an arrow means the flow of a process, and the cylinder represents data is being stored. Lastly there are also those characters who are involved in a system called actors. An actor could be a manager, delivery driver or whoever is needed to help complete the process and make decisions.
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Hello Ryan,
I like the statement you included at the beginning of your post about swim lane diagrams being worth an infinite amount of words. I agree with this statement and believe that it is a great way to think of these diagrams. These diagrams are a great way as you said to “summarize a procedure” by breaking it down into steps and placing it under the actor that completes that specific step. This allows businesses to identify problems within the process. Once the problem is identified they can then figure out how to fix it or eliminate it. I think you did a great job explaining the importance of the diagrams as a whole and what they are used for in the business realm.
Hi Ryan,
You made an interesting point about swim lanes. It’s pretty cool how businesses can use a swim lane’s capabilities to increase efficiency. As weird as it may sound, I think my experience as a barista applies to this. When I’m working, there’s normally one person on bar (making drinks), another at the register, and another making food. If I’m supposed to be on bar, I don’t walk over to the register or the oven in the middle of making a drink. My task is to make drinks, so that’s what I’m doing. The same goes for my coworkers and their tasks. Speaking from experience, there have been times when supervisors were unclear on who was on bar/at the register/etc. and it created a lot of confusion for myself and my coworkers. Things like that happening long-term could definitely affect our productivity and impact our ability to serve customers.