Ingenious Jargon: Flowcharting

Flowcharting Terms

	Flowchart	A visual map that illustrates the flow of work by labeling specific activities as simple geometric figures connected by arrows. See also Flowcharting Tools in our Tools section.
	Top-down flowchart	A linear flowchart with the major sequence of activities across the top and sequences of sub-activities mapped down from each activity. An excellent tool for illustrating the layered nature of activities and sub-activities within a process.
	Layered flowchart	A technique for breaking down the complicated flowchart of a large project into smaller views. The 'top' layer shows the flow of major activities. Secondary charts so sub-activities within each activity within each of those actvities. Tertiary charts may lay out those sub-activities in even greater detail, and so on. Modern computer-based flowcharting programs typically enable the nesting of these layered flowcharts with clickable links.
	Functional flowchart	A process flowchart that emphasizes ownership of activities by placing the work of each functional group in parallel bands. This style is often used in cycle time and theory of constraints because delays most of ten occur in the handoffs between functions.
	PERT Chart	A project flowchart that emphasizes not only the flow of activities but scheduling and ownership for those activities.
	Critical Path	A project flowchart that emphasizes those sequences of activities which currently define the overall timeline of the project. This sequence of activities is then said to be 'the critical path'. See also "Theory of Constraints".
	Current Reality Tree	A flowchart of cause and effect relationships that works backward from truly undesirable effects to 'root causes', emphasizing opportunities within the chain of causes that are ripe for effective intervention.
	Future Reality Tree	A flowchart, modified from the Current reality Tree, which highlights the processes changes that are intended.
	Feedback	Response that informs the practitioners of a process on how the output of that process or the process itself might be improved.
	Feedback loop	A deliberate path in the flow activities for introducing information about results back into earlier stages of the process.
	Positive feedback	Typically taken to be customer response that the product is "good". The term was originally used in electrical engineering, where the connotation was usually not favorable!
	Negative feedback	Typically refers to customer feedback that the prototype is not what they wanted. The term was originally used in electrical engineering - negative feedback keeps an electronic circuit in balance, which is usually desirable!
	Cycle Time Management	A portfolio management mindset that emphasizes optimizing cycle time required for the whole cycle of product innovation. See also Tools for Cycle Time Management.

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