How many lanes should you draw?
Start with the teams that touch the work this week. Adding every department in the company makes a poster. A refund that moves from the customer to support to finance is three lanes. A fourth lane is justified only when that team does a step.
The swimlane template already has those three headers. Rename them. Do not add a lane for a team that only wants to be informed. Tell them with the share link.
Where does a decision sit?
The diamond sits in the lane of the person who answers it. Within policy? belongs to Support in the sample, because Support makes that call. Finance issues the refund after the answer is yes.
Do not put the diamond on the border. A question without an owner becomes a meeting. The point of the lane is to show the owner.
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How do you check the handoffs?
Read across. Every arrow that leaves a lane must land on a step in another lane, or on a decision that team owns. An arrow that ends in empty space is a missing step.
Then read down one lane. If a team has two steps and nothing between them, they might be one step. If a team has no steps, delete the lane.
What are the steps?
- Name the columns. Write the real teams. Three columns is enough for a first chart. Customer, Support, and Finance is the refund sample.
- Place one step per action. The step sits in the column of the person who does it. Do not put a step on the line between columns.
- Draw the handoff. An arrow that crosses a column is a handoff. If nobody receives it, the arrow is wrong.
- Read it by team. Cover one column and ask whether that team can do their steps with what the arrow brought them.