Define App Specification with a Swimlane Diagram

Before building your App it is important to map out the Process that you are capturing to ensure that all the key events in the process are incorporated. A Swimlane Diagram is a good method to use. Each lane can represent a Group of Users and then each of the events in the process can be tracked against those Users with the flow of handing over to the next User Group identified.

This diagram outlines the process for Risk Register App tracking the Risk from initial creation all the way through to mitigation.

Each of the Events that make up the process will provide us with a guide to the Fields that we need to capture data on the Risk. These events will then naturally fall into logical blocks of activity that can become our Templates and then in this case the entire process will sit into one form.

Lets look at the first few events in more detail to see how we can define App structure from this diagram.

The first step is to classify the Risk. Classification requires strict validation to ensure that data such as Risk Source and Risk Type are entered as recognisable values across the Organisation. This tells us as App Builders that we should use Selection Fields to give Users drop downs to choose the values.

We can see that after the Risk Owners are agreed there is a handover from the Operating Board to the Functional Heads to ID Critical Risks. As App Builders we need to identify were data will pass to another set of Users and how they know that the Risk is now waiting for their input. The solution here would be to name the Function Head for the Risk in the Classification data and then use workflow to send a notification to the Functional Head selected that the Risk is waiting for their input.

All of this contributes to us knowing that we are building a fully functional App that meets all of the Business Needs.