Cross-functional with both Horizontal and Vertical

[Firebott]

Hi all,

Is there a way to have both horizontal and vertical swimlanes in a cross-functional flowchart.  I have spent hours trying to find either a template or a way to do this in vision.  If it helps to understand my end goal, I need a flow chart that lists the entity at the top (vertical swimlanes) and the product on the side (horizontal swimlanes).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[wapperdude]

Wouldn't this defy the definition of a swimlane?  Sounds more like a description for an Excel worksheet....which allows labels down the side and across the top.  Don't believe this is possible with Visio built-in shapes.

[Yacine]

Wouldn't this defy the definition of a swimlane?  Sounds more like a description for an Excel worksheet....which allows labels down the side and across the top.  Don't believe this is possible with Visio built-in shapes.

Right, this intrigued me too.
I googled a little bit and here's a neat example, that does just that.

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As I'm not familiar with this type of flowcharts, I played a little with it.
The template "Shared process cross-functional flowchart" seems to work well.
There is trick though, adding swimlanes with labels works only for the main direction. For the secondary direction you best duplicate an existing swimlane and edit it to your needs.

[Yacine]

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[wapperdude]

Wow.  Great find. 

That's a bit obscure discovery, as it didn't initially show in the displayed templates.  I had to select "Flowcharts" from the list of "Suggested searches".  Didn't realize there would then be more available options.

[Nikolay]

Maybe I am missing the point, but isn't it "add separator" button? Here:


If you are looking for hierarchical swimlanes/phases (like pivot in Excel), they do not exist in Visio
(this is actually a frequently asked question, so maybe that is what you actually mean)