From list to diagram: modeling workflow

This week's lesson in the managing content projects class was on modeling workflows. Quite timely too, since I had offered to diagram a process for writing chapters that I hadn't gotten around to doing.

It was a fun exercise. We started by writing out a list of the steps in a process. I began scribbling...

1. Create skeleton
2. Put meat on the bones
3. Scrub
4. Incorporate
5. Iterate
6. Clean up
7. Review

(I wasn't too worried about slang or jargon, obviously.)

Next stage, we took our lists and turned them into simple flowcharts. Basically, each step in its own box, little arrows indicating direction. I'd already identified step 5 as a loop opportunity, but I decided to hold off until the final stage, in which we applied swimlanes to flowcharts: (click image to view larger graphic)

In the pretty version, I selected more appropriate verbs. I also took a merry-go-round approach rather than a proper loop, because it felt more realistic to me.