Standard Flowchart Symbols and Their Usage

This page povides a visual representation of basic flowchart symbols and their proposed use in showing the sequence of process steps.

Five Basic Flowchart Symbols

Flowcharts are the ideal diagrams for visually representing business processes. For example, if you need to show the flow of a custom-order process through various departments within your organization, you can use a flowchart. This paper provides a visual representation of basic flowchart symbols and their proposed use in communicating the structure of a well-developed web site, as well as their correlation in developing online instructional projects. A typical flowchart from older Computer Science textbooks may have the following kinds of symbols: Start and And, Process, Decision, Document and Sub Process.

Flowcharts may contain other symbols, such as connectors, usually represented by circles, to represent converging paths in the flowchart. Circles will have more than one arrow coming into them but only one going out. Some flowcharts may just have an arrow pointing to another arrow instead. These are used to represent an iterative process (in Computer Science this is called a loop). A loop may, for example, consists of a connector where control first enters, processing steps, a conditional with one arrow exiting in the loop, and one going back to the connector. Off-page connectors are often used to signify a connection to a (part of a) process held on another sheet or screen.

A flowchart is described as "cross-functional" when the page is divided into different "lanes" describing the control of different organizational units. A unit appearing in a particular "lane" is within the control of that organizational unit. This technique allows the analyst to locate the responsibility for performing an action or making a decision correctly, allowing the relationship between different organizational units with responsibility for a single process.

Standard Flowchart Symbols

Flowcharts use special shapes to represent different types of actions or steps in a process. Lines and arrows show the sequence of these steps, and the relationships between them.

See how to use these basic flowchart symbols instantly.

Workflow Shapes

Workflow relationships are where work is done by different departments in a fixed sequence. This means that one department needs to finish its job before work can continue in another department. The development and maintenance of these work flow relationships is very important for managers because they depend on the preceding areas for his or her own work, and responsible for managers and workers at different stages further down the chain.

Audit Flowchart Shapes

The following shapes are similar to the basic flowchart symbols but are specially used in the audit flowchart.

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