Flowchart

History

The flowchart was first applied to describe computer algorithms by Herman Goldstine and John von Neumann in 1947. The idea quickly moved from programming into business analysis. By the 1960s flowcharts were standardized by ASME, and in 1985 ISO adopted standard 5807.

Basic symbols

• Rectangle — an operation or action
• Diamond — a condition, a branch
• Oval / parallelogram — start, end, input/output
• Arrow — control flow
• Connector (a circle with a letter/number) — a jump between fragments

Advantages

Flowcharts remain the most universal language for describing processes:

• Almost anyone understands the basic semantics after a school computing class
• Drawing tools are everywhere — from Visio to online services
• Suitable for any process: business, engineering, organizational

When to choose it

A flowchart is the best choice for:

• Quickly describing a simple algorithm
• Communicating with a non-professional audience
• Teaching and presentations
• One-off documentation

Limitations

• No support for parallelism
• Does not describe roles and areas of responsibility
• Complex processes become unreadable
• No executable semantics