Understanding Swim Lanes

In a discussion the other day I used the term 'Swim Lane' casually and it brought the conversation to a halt, as the other person had not encountered this term before. Strangely enough it was after a session about knowledge bias, assuming everyone is working from the same background data as you, which is what happened in that dialog. Understanding Swim Lanes to me is a fundamental component of understanding Process Management, so let's dig in on that term today. 

If we ask Wikipedia, we can read "A swim lane (or swim lane diagram) is used in process flow diagrams, or flowcharts, that visually distinguishes job sharing and responsibilities for sub-processes of a business process. Swim lanes may be arranged either horizontally or vertically." While accurate, that is kind of a dense definition. Let's examine this piece by piece.  

"Used In Process Flow Diagrams"

When we do anything at all, we are following a process. Be it how we brush our teeth or cook spaghetti, there is an ordered set of steps we follow to make it happen. If we have a list of things we do and a set way of moving through those steps, we can draw out a diagram. I have been using the work 'map' a lot in my writing since I see the two things as interchangeable, both meaning a drawing of the steps of a process.  

The value of a process flow diagram is that you can easily communicate steps in bite size chunks to other participants who might not be there when the diagram was created. Seeing a box that contains all the things needed for a particular step to be considered finished gives us easier cues than reading alone. The more complex the process the better this works.  

The other main benefit is that once you visualize the steps, moving those boxes around is an easy was to think through optimizations. The way most folk's brains work is visually and moving items conceptually left or right, or up or down, takes less mental efforts in most cases than sorting through lists of steps. It also helps us visualize dependencies of tasks a little simpler as well.  

"Visually Distinguishes Job Sharing And Responsibilities"

If only one person would be responsible for a set of tasks, there would only be one swim lane. Useful for sure, but the real value of having a workflow diagram for processes is the ability to see who is responsible for what in a larger team or between departments. Each party responsible for a unit of work gets their own swim lane and the steps of the process encapsulated in a flow chart box can easily be dragged into the appropriate lane.  

When done correctly, from one single process document we can easily and quickly see who is responsible for what task. If we combine this with modern reporting tooling we can also see progress of each set of steps. We can drag these boxes around or subdivide them as needed when improving the processes over time. Visualization of bottlenecks makes understanding process optimization process a lot simpler and digestible for any size team.  

"Sub-processes Of A Business Process"

Unlike my examples of teeth brushing and cooking, business processes can be very complex and last a very long time. If we think of the customer journey as one giant repeatable set of steps, it becomes clear that Marketing, Sales, Finance (billing), and Customer Service departments are all involved at some level. Unless the organization is very small, each department will have it's own team. Understanding who on each team will do what part of the process is key, so what can we do to further break down the responsibilities visually? Thats right, more swim lanes! 

Since swim lanes can be assigned per department, team, or person, or any other logical unit that can produce work, we can break down any task into as many sub processes as needed. The more complex the set of tasks, the more useful it becomes to spend the time creating these charts to make sure everyone is crystal clear on duties and how the job needs to happen.

"Swim Lanes May Be Arranged Either Horizontally Or Vertically." 

This might seem a little arbitrary to toss into the formal definition but I like it there. There is no 100% right way to do a flow chart with swim lanes. The best version is the one that is the clearest and easiest for your team to understand. If you do a left to right diagram, you can always fork up and down, and the inverse is true. Sometimes it is advantageous to start with one approach and turn the whole thing on it's side or 180 degrees to get a better sense of perspective. We are not talking about the actual execution of the work at this point, just the visualization of the work. If we can figure out a better path by looking at the map upside down, let's find that path. Beware anyone that tells you there is only one true way to do this.  

"Mapping Everything?"

I am not advocating for spending all of your days and all your energy on creating flow charts and diagrams for all the work you do, that would be a bit absurd. However, when you are figuring out how to improve, a diagram of what is being done and by who is a great tool to have in hand. Once you draw that first set of swim lanes on a board and see how easily a set of processes fit into those lanes it becomes a lot clearer why this is a good idea. And furthermore, the first time you see an obvious bottleneck you and the team had not been able to visualize another way it will seem like some form of magic that you didn't know you could do. You can do it. Anyone with a whiteboard or a flow charting tool can. Next time you want to improve any processes your company does, start drawing those swim lanes!