Swimlane

In the accompanying example, the vertical direction represents the sequence of events in the overall process, while the horizontal divisions depict what sub-process is performing that step.

When used to diagram a business process that involves more than one department, swimlanes often serve to clarify not only the steps and who is responsible for each one, but also how delays, mistakes or cheating are most likely to occur.

Many process modeling methodologies utilize the concept of swimlanes, as a mechanism to organize activities into separate visual categories in order to illustrate different functional capabilities or responsibilities (organisational roles).

[1] They were called Swim Lane diagrams by Geary Rummler and Alan Brache in their book Improving Performance (1990).

Binner as part of his doctoral thesis on the requirements of the IT and CIM concept at the Institute for Factory Facilities at Prof. Wiendahl at TU-Har.