On mapping tasks during product development

Abstract

A simple icon-based flowcharting methodology for capturing concurrency of tasks and activities during product design and development is described herein. Eight shape-icons, five flow-icons, and three line-icons are used to represent the various types of activities, information flow directions, and data connections, respectively. The methodology is quite general and can be used to capture various types of relationships in most life-cycle processes, such as concurrent workflow, or during an enterprise mapping. Precedent relationships, such as relative placements of tasks, and timing (such as start, end, or looping) of tasks can also be easily addressed. If we combine re-engineering objectives with such flowcharting methodology, one could also get answers to a broad range of process improvement questions, such as what activity to curtail; when to overlap, loop, or sequence a set of tasks; how to insure their effectiveness; and how to best position them on the process map, to improve the overall operational efficiency. Strategic use of such flowcharts for designing, evaluating alternatives, reducing time-to-market, and life-cycle costs can enable and lead an enterprise to be a lean organization.