Flowcharts as a Decision-Making Tool

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the importance of utilizing proper tools and techniques to offer reasonable, thought out, solutions to problems and to enhance decision-making. The paper focuses on flowcharts and their use in decision-making. It discusses when one would and when one would not use flowcharts for decision-making and then provides a personal experience to illustrate how flowcharting can be useful.

Table of Contents:
Flowcharts
Describing Flowcharts and Flowchart Usage
Team Flowcharting
My Flowcharting Endeavor
How to Draw and Read Flowcharts

From the Paper:

"For example, I once used flowcharts as a technique to solve a problem concerning receiving procedures for food items onboard a military ship. Flowcharting the entire process allowed me to pinpoint problem areas, which eventually led towards determining the problem. By breaking the different processes down into individual components, I acknowledged that personnel who were receiving food items where not matching the quantities received against the delivery invoices. Consequentially, the quantities entered into the inventory resulted in an erroneous quantity on the books compared to the actual quantity on-hand. By flowcharting the processes into a step-by-step format, I was able to focus more intently on each individual step and solve the problem without becoming overwhelmed by the entire process as a whole."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Flowchart, (2004). Retrieved Jan. 6, 2005, from Ferris State University Web site: http://www.sytsma.com/flowchart.html
• HCI Home, (n.d.). Flowcharting. Retrieved Jan. 7, 2006, from HCI Title Web site: http://www.hci.com.au/hcisite2/toolkit/flowchar.htm.
• Touchstone, (n.d.). White papers. Retrieved Jan. 8, 2006, from Touchstone Web site: http://www.touchstone.com/tr/wp/wicked.html.
• University Library Electronic Reserve Readings (ERR) (2003). Retrieved from University of Phoenix Library.

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