#Microsoft365 #Office365 As part of a mini series for #CitizenDevelopers I’ll be sharing tips and tricks around Business Analysis, Project and Change Management. Today we’ll take a look at the Event Driven Process Chain. #EPC. Relax, it’s just a bunch of cool images to describe your process in more than just words. Also known as Flowcharts, these really help define, understand and explain a process.

For previous posts in my #Microsoft365Challenge go to the index page.

DISCLAIMER: I WRITE ARTICLES ABOUT OFFICE / MICROSOFT 365. CONTENT IS ACCURATE AT TIME OF PUBLICATION, HOWEVER UPDATES AND NEW ADDITIONS HAPPEN DAILY WHICH COULD CHANGE THE ACCURACY OR RELEVANCE. PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN USING MY BLOGS AS GUIDELINES.

Recap: The purpose of this blog is to help you become a better solution builder. As mentioned, you might have the technical skill – but I want you to rock at building great solutions. And to do so, there’s some other skills you require as well. Like Business Analysis, Project Management, Communication, Problem Solving & Creativity. I’ll be basing this on the 8 Digital Literacy Pillars that I support through training, and you’ll see that Business Analysis is supported by all 8 of the pillars, so you need to apply all those skills in your business analysis.

Event Driven Process Chain

Seeing as Microsoft gave us Visio, let’s use their description and overview of the building blocks:

EPC (Event-driven Process Chain) diagrams illustrate business process work flows and are an important component of the SAP R/3 modeling concepts for business engineering. EPC diagrams use graphical symbols to show the control-flow structure of a business process as a chain of events and functions. Using the EPC Diagram template in Microsoft Office Visio, you can quickly and easily create a high-level, visual model of your business process.

The building blocks used in EPC diagrams are:

  • Functions, which are the basic building blocks of the diagram. Each function corresponds to an executed activity.

  • Events, which occur before or after a function is executed or both. Functions are linked by events.

  • Connectors, which associate activities and events. There are three types of connectors: AND, OR, and exclusive OR (XOR). Read more here…

I got this great image from How to Draw EPC Diagram Quickly:

 

When to Use a Flowchart?

  • To develop understanding of how a process is done.
  • To study a process for improvement.
  • To communicate to others how a process is done.
  • When better communication is needed between people involved with the same process.
  • To document a process.
  • When planning a project.

This article on “Learn about Quality” really describes the purpose and considerations well for using Flowcharts.

Now that you have so many resources to help you, I want to say:  “Take it easy, start simple.” You don’t have to create fancy flowcharts from day one, use shapes to describe what needs to be done – this really helps to spot steps you might have missed in your notes. Below you’ll see a PowerPoint “flowchart” I did for my Contacts Process I wrote with Forms, Flow, SharePoint, Outlook Teams & Planner. You’ll see I didn’t really follow the “fancy pants” methodologies – but at least I documented it, which is a good start. Be better than me and try to already use the identifiable shapes which will be recognized for what they are. That’s just a good habit to start working on from day one.

And get creative, use the icons for the apps you’re using in that step to easily identify the process. If you don’t have Visio, create a template you can reuse in PowerPoint with all the pre-created shapes and product / app icons in. That will save you a lot of time.

 

See, it’s not as scary as you thought….. 🙂

Purpose of this blog challenge: I will write 365 blogs in 365 days around Microsoft 365. I did a similar challenge with Office 365, blogs can be found here. I won’t just be talking about the new Microsoft 365 subscription model. I will be sharing any news, tips and tricks around Office / Office 365 / Windows / Mobility and Security. And let’s not forget all the great new Apps & services available. A lot of what I’ll share on Office and SharePoint will also be applicable to none “Office 365” versions.

You can also find me contributing to REgarding 365. I’m a member of a group of enthusiasts, sharing their stories, thoughts and opinions about Microsoft 365. Catch us at https://regarding365.com | @regarding365 on Twitter and regarding365 on YouTube

Want to work with me? You’re welcome to CONTACT ME:

(If it’s related to a specific blog, rather comment on the actual blog please – do not send an email)