We’ve gathered the most useful flowchart templates to help you visualize your processes in Microsoft Word.
Included in this article, you’ll find the following:
When to Use This Template: Use this basic flowchart template to streamline or document any process within your organization. It works well for projects that require a clear, step-by-step process visualization.
Notable Template Features: This template allows you to outline and communicate processes efficiently, and it includes various shapes and connectors for you to map out activities and decision points. This template enables you to visually represent every step in the process, whether you are documenting a new hire orientation process or an intricate manufacturing workflow.
When to Use This Template: Use this template when your team needs to capture and analyze complex procedures in your organization. This template is ideal for in-depth operational reviews or when integrating new systems, so you can dissect each component of a process and ensure that everyone understands it.
Notable Template Features: This template supports detailed process mapping. It includes a variety of shapes and lines to illustrate the flow of multiple steps and the interactions between them. This template allows users to pinpoint inefficiencies, dependencies, and bottlenecks in the process for greater optimization.
When to Use This Template: Opt for this template when your project involves multiple teams or departments, and you need to visualize how their processes intersect and flow together. It's particularly effective for cross-departmental projects when you need to understand each team’s role in the overall process. Use this template to identify potential delays or conflicts between departments so that you can streamline the entire process.
Notable Template Features: This template organizes process steps into distinct lanes, each of which represents a different department or team. This layout helps clarify responsibilities so that you can visualize the sequence of tasks across different parts of the organization.
When to Use This Template: Use this template whenever your team needs to make a critical decision. It’s particularly useful in strategic planning sessions, risk management meetings, or any situation where you need to evaluate the consequences of different choices, so you can guide stakeholders toward informed decisions.
Notable Template Features: This template includes decision points and branching paths so that you can explore various scenarios. The layout helps you visualize and analyze the impact of each potential choice.
When to Use This Template: Utilize the cross-functional flowchart template when you need a detailed analysis of how different departments interact and contribute to the overall project workflow. This template is essential for complex projects that involve multiple teams or stakeholders, when you need clarity about how their functions integrate.
Notable Template Features: This template includes horizontal or vertical lanes for each department or function. This feature allows you to clearly visualize how individual tasks move through different parts of the organization, so you can effectively map out the roles in each department. This template also allows you to highlight interactions and dependencies between each role and task.
When to Use This Template: Choose this template when you need to meticulously track and manage how data moves through various systems or processes within your organization. This template excels for projects that involve data integration, migration, or system analyses, where you need to understand the flow of information to ensure data integrity and security.
Notable Template Features: This template is specifically designed to represent how data moves — from input to storage and output — across different systems. It also allows you to pinpoint where and how you capture, process, store, and distribute your data. You can also customize each element in the flowchart to represent different types of data interactions and transformations.
When to Use This Template: Use this template to visualize the interactions and operations in a computer system or network. This template details the role of each component in a system, making it particularly useful when setting up new systems, troubleshooting existing systems, or conducting system audits.
Notable Template Features: This template illustrates the logical flow between different software, hardware, and user interfaces that make up a system. It shows how information is processed and how you accomplish tasks from start to finish. The template also includes symbols that represent different system components and data flows. These features facilitate a deep understanding of how system elements interact and operate together.
When to Use This Template: Use this template — also known as the fishbone or Ishikawa diagram — when you need to thoroughly investigate the root causes of a specific problem or quality defect. This template is especially valuable in quality assurance processes, project management, and product design, where you need to identify underlying issues to resolve problems.
Notable Template Features: This template organizes potential causes into major categories to systematically explore and visualize the sources of variability in a process. After identifying each “bone,” the template prompts you to explore the factors that might contribute to the problem. This helps teams pinpoint specific areas for improvement.
When to Use This Template: Use this template when you need to establish or refine the feedback mechanisms within your projects or operations. This template is particularly useful for iterative development cycles, continuous improvement programs, or customer feedback systems, where continuous feedback is crucial for success.
Notable Template Features: This template includes customizable flowchart shapes to represent different feedback stages, as well as pre-designed connectors to illustrate the sequence and flow of activities. It also features color-coding options to differentiate between various types of actions or departments involved.
There are many types of flowchart templates, including those for documenting complex processes, making pivotal decisions, or mapping out data flow. You can find basic flowchart templates and more specialized formats, such as swimlane or cross-functional templates.
Below, learn how to navigate the options and select the perfect template to streamline your work and enhance your organizational efforts.
General process mapping templates are essential for visually organizing and understanding simple to complex workflows. These templates assist users in documenting sequential steps in a process, which will help you identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement.
General process mapping templates include the following:
Decision-making templates are designed to help visualize the paths and outcomes associated with different potential choices. By laying out potential decisions in a structured format, these templates enable users to foresee the consequences of each option to facilitate informed decision-making.
Templates in this category include:
Team and department coordination flowchart templates are tailored to manage and clarify the interactions between multiple groups or divisions within an organization. Often formatted as swimlane diagrams, these templates delineate responsibilities and illustrate how separate processes integrate and overlap.
Below are a few templates in this category:
Technical and data management flowchart templates focus on the flow of information and technical processes within systems. These templates are indispensable in IT and data-heavy projects, as they help map out data inputs, storage, and outputs, as well as the relationships between different technological components.
Templates in this category include the following:
Problem-solving flowchart templates, such as the fishbone or root cause analysis diagrams, are specifically developed to break down and diagnose the causes of issues within a process or system. These templates guide users in tracing a problem back to its source, facilitating a thorough analysis that goes beyond treating surface-level symptoms.
Below is a template in this category:
Process optimization flowchart templates are designed to enhance and refine existing processes. These templates provide a framework to assess and improve workflow efficiency, as well as help identify bottlenecks and eliminate unnecessary steps.
Here is a template in this category:
Download a flowchart template from this page to help you map out your processes, identify inefficiencies, and optimize, or to make decisions by visualizing the consequences of potential choices. See the following how-to guide to download and use a template.
2. Open the downloaded template file.
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3. Click on the placeholder text at the top of the flowchart to enter the name of the process or procedure as the flowchart title.
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4. Define the process steps. First, click on each shape in the flowchart and add a description of the step in the process. Ensure each step is clearly described to guide the user through the process accurately.
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5. Select and organize new steps and decision points. Identify decision points within the process, and add diamond shapes to represent them. Use rectangle shapes to represent process steps.
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6. Adjust the directional arrows to show different paths depending on the decision outcomes.
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7. Review and adjust the flow of steps. Check the logical progression of the flowchart to ensure that all steps and decision points are correctly aligned and lead to appropriate outcomes. Make adjustments to the layout or step descriptions to enhance clarity and flow.
8. Finalize and save your flowchart. Review the completed flowchart for any typos or errors. To save the document, click File and then Save As, and select the desired location and file format. Consider creating a backup copy for future reference or updates
Use the following templates to further map out data, ideas, processes, and strategies. In conjunction with flowchart templates, these templates can enhance your understanding of the workflow in a wide variety of applications.
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