A swim lane diagram is a type of process flow diagram that breaks down a process with “lanes” that an actor, or doer, is responsible for the work described in the lane. Lanes can be horizontal rows or vertical columns. Using swim lanes, come with some advantages such as a clean, easy-to-follow way to identify multiple phases in a system. Swim lanes are also versatile and can be applied to numerous diagrams. A swim lane is consisted of multiple symbols to represent various aspects of the diagram. These symbols include circles, rectangles, diamonds, arrows, and cylinders. A circle signifies the start and the end of an event in the process. A rectangle represents an activity in the process. A diamond represents a decision that has to be made. Arrows indicate the flow of the process. Finally, a cylinder represents stored data within the process. Actors play a vital part in a swim lane as they indicate who handles what in the process and the roles they play in completing the process as a whole. The swim lane presented as some issues with it starting with the start and end of the event being indicated with a rectangle instead of a circle. The role of “John Smith, Stock Manager”, should be instead replaced with simply just “Stock Manager”. Many of the arrows in this swim lane are also not labeled. Also, the deliver that is nested inside a cylinder should be in a rectangle instead as deliver is not stored data. Overall, swim lanes are a easy way to read how a process is handled from start to finish and helps to identify who plays what part in the process.
Swim Lanes:
https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/1868/An-Introduction-to-Swimlane-Diagrams.aspx
It’s pretty interesting with how swim lanes can identity people and objects. I can see how it hsa high relations with ERD.
I found swim lanes to be very interesting. I liked that they made the process very clear by using arrows to represent the flow of events. If I were presented a swim lane when I entered a job, I would feel more confident in how to complete tasks because I am a visual learner. Overall, I found them very useful and easy to understand.