Estimate Process Costs with Microsoft Visio 2000 Flowcharts

Add Data to a Flowchart

In Microsoft Visio, a flowchart can be much more than a picture - it can be a valuable medium for storing data. Each shape in a drawing can act as a kind of visual database field that stores data you can retrieve in a report. For example, a shape in an office-move flowchart can store data about the cost, duration, and resources involved in the step the shape represents.

You store data in property fields associated with shapes - the data doesn't display as part of your drawing, but you can report on it and automate calculations to have the drawing do the math for you.

Flowchart shapes have pre-defined Cost, Duration, and Resources property fields in which you can view or enter data. You can also add custom fields.

To add cost, duration, and resources data to flowchart shapes

1. On the File menu, point to New, then to Flowchart, and then click Basic Flowchart. Create a flowchart that represents your process.

2. Click a shape you want to add data to.

3. On the View menu, point to Windows, and then click Custom Properties.

4. In the Custom Properties window, click in a field you want to add data to, and then type. Repeat for each relevant field.

5. Leaving the Custom Properties window open, click the next shape you want to add data to and repeat step 4.

6. When you're finished adding data, close the Custom Properties window by clicking the Close button.

Add Data Fields or Types You Pick Yourself

While most flowchart shapes come with three pre-existing property fields, you may also want to track other types of data. For example, you may want to track the number of permanent employees and the number of temporary or contingent employees involved with each step in a process.

Or, you may want to add property fields to one of the types of flowcharts that doesn't come with existing fields, such as Mind Mapping, Cause and Effect, Data Flow, or IDEF0.

The shapes in this flowchart include two custom property fields: Permanent Employee and Temporary Employee.

To create custom property fields for an existing flowchart

1. On the Window menu, click Show Document Stencil.

   The Document Stencil, a stencil that contains master versions of the shapes in your flowchart, opens. By adding property fields to these masters, you simultaneously add the fields to all the corresponding shapes in your diagram.

2. Right-click a shape on the Document Stencil to which you want to add custom properties, and then click Edit Master.

   The Edit Master window opens with a large version of the shape in it. If you can't see the whole shape, choose a smaller magnification from the Zoom list on Standard toolbar.

3. Click the shape. On the Shape menu, click Custom Properties. In the Custom Properties dialog box, click Define.

4. Click New. Type or choose information about your new property field for Label, Type, and the other options. If you want to add another new property field, click New again.

5. When you're finished adding property fields, click OK. Your new property fields appear in the Custom Properties dialog box. Click OK again.

6. Click the Close button for the Master window to return to the flowchart. When asked if you want to update the master and all of its instances, click Yes. Repeat steps 2-7 for each master to which you want to add new property fields.

7. When you're finished adding property fields, right-click the title bar of the Document Stencil and click Close. Save your flowchart.

Tip You can also create custom property fields to use in every new flowchart. Open the flowchart solution for the type of flowchart you typically create. Right-click the title bar of the Flowchart Shapes stencil and click Edit. Follow steps 3-10 above. If you want to use the new property fields in every flowchart you create, right-click the stencil's title bar, and then click Save or Save As.

Make Reports from your Flowchart Data

After you add data to flowchart shapes, you can generate reports that

• Provide a list or inventory of the data so you can easily see patterns, relationships, and other information.

• Present the results of calculations, such as total, average, or median, so you can evaluate processes and make comparisons.

You can save a report as

• A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, if you want to use the data for other purposes.

• A report shape that appears in your flowchart, if you want the results readily available in your diagram.

• Both a spreadsheet and a report shape.

  

In this report shape, you can see the total cost and duration for the juice-making process using both permanent and temporary employees. By changing some data and generating another report, you could quickly compare the costs of producing juice with and without temporary employees.

To generate a report from flowchart data

1. Open the flowchart that contains data from which you want to generate a report.

2. On the Tools menu, click Property Report.

3. On the first Property Reporting Wizard screen, click Next.

4. Choose options on the wizard screens to generate the type of report you want. For help with an option, click More Info.

Tip The Property Reporting Wizard gives you the option of saving the data it uses to create the report shape in the form of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Export Flowchart Data to a Database

You can use the Database Export Wizard in Microsoft Visio 2000 to move the data you have stored in your flowchart into a database for reuse in other ways. You simply organize your data file so the wizard can use the information it contains, and then you're ready to start exporting.

To export flowchart data to a database

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macros, point to Visio Extras, and then click Database Export.

2. On the first wizard screen, click Next.

3. Follow the instructions on the remaining wizard screens. Click More Info for help on a particular screen.

Tips for exporting flowchart data

• When the Database Export Wizard asks you to select the data you want to export, you see a long list of properties. To quickly locate the data fields you want to export, scroll to the properties that begin with Prop, such as Prop.Cost.

• If you make changes to the data in your flowchart after you have already exported it to a database, it's easy to re-export the data and update the database. Simply right-click the drawing page and click Data Export Table. When you're prompted to replace the database table, click Yes.

Make a Flowchart from Data

If you have collected data for a particular process, such as how long each step takes and how much it costs, and stored the data in Microsoft Excel (.xls) or text (.txt) format, you can automatically generate a flowchart from the data file using the Import Flowchart Data Wizard.

How to set up your flowchart data file

You need to add some information to your data file before the Import Flowchart Data Wizard can use it to generate a flowchart. The wizard must know

• The exact names of the shapes and stencils you want to use to create your flowchart.

• Which shapes in the flowchart you want to connect to one another.

As you set up the data file, keep in mind that

• Each step in the process corresponds to a shape in the flowchart.

• Each step, or shape, is represented by a row in the data file.

• Each type of data you are tracking (such as cost or duration) is represented by a column and will appear as a data field associated with the shapes in your flowchart.

To find the exact names of flowchart shapes and stencils

1. In Windows Explorer, open Program Files\Visio\Solutions\Flowchart to locate the flowchart stencils. Files with a .vss extension are stencil files.

2. Record the name of the flowchart stencil (for example, Basic Flowchart Shapes.vss or Audit Diagram Shapes.vss) that contains the shapes you want to use in your flowchart.

3. Double-click the stencil to open it so you can see the names of the shapes the stencil contains. Keep the open stencil handy as you set up your data file.

To set up a data file the wizard can read

1. In Windows Explorer, locate the Microsoft Excel template file at Program Files\Visio\Solutions\Flowchart Data Template.xlt. Double-click the file to open it. When prompted, click Enable Macros.

2. On the Shapes Worksheet tab, in the Shape ID column, type a unique ID number (such as 100001, 100002, etc.) for each shape (that is, process step) that your flowchart will contain.

3. In the Master Name column, type the name of the flowchart master shape you want to use to represent each process step. You can find the master shape names on the stencil you opened in the previous procedure.

4. In the Stencil Name column, type the name of the stencil each shape is stored on. If all the shapes come from the same stencil, then the same name will appear in each row of this column.

5. In the Shape Text column, type the text you want to appear on each shape in the flowchart.

6. If necessary, rename the Cost, Duration, and Resources columns to correspond to the names of the columns from your original data file. Add more columns if you have more than three data fields you want to associate with each shape.

7. Copy your data values into the columns so that each process step (shape) is associated with a value.

8. Click the Connectors Worksheet tab. In the Connector ID column, type a unique ID number (such as 200001, 200002, etc.) for each connection you want to create between process steps in the flowchart.

9. In the Connector Text column, type the text you want to appear on a connector. For example, connectors from a Decision shape might say No and Yes.

10. In the From Shape and To Shape columns, type numbers from the Shape ID column on the Shapes Worksheet Tab that correspond to the process steps, or shapes, you want to connect.

11. Save the Microsoft Excel file in spreadsheet (.xls) format.

Tip If you want to create your data file in text rather than Microsoft Excel format, in step 1, open the text template, Flowchart Data Template.txt and follow the instructions.

How to generate a flowchart from the data file

After you have set up your data file so the Import Flowchart Data Wizard can read it, you are ready to generate a flowchart.

To generate a flowchart from a data file

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macros, then to Flowchart, and then click Import Flowchart Data Wizard.

2. On the first wizard screen, click Next. On the second wizard screen, choose Read Data From Existing File, and then click Browse to locate the text (.txt) or Microsoft Excel (.xls) data file from which you want to create a flowchart. Click Next.

3. Click Finish. If your file is in text (.txt) format, you are asked to indicate what characters you used to indicate separation between fields, delimiters, and comments. Choose the separators, and then click OK.

   A flowchart is created based on the data in the file.