How have you documented a state machine for non-techincal business user audience?

Question

We have a state machine that we use to implement a workflow. A state machine diagram fits our needs for a technical audience but I looking for the best way to present the state machine to the business units in either diagram of written format. What have you done in the past that has communicated the business process yet did not confuse people with a complicated diagram?

Answer 1

I've used a Visio flowchart. Flowcharts are similar enough to state machines to translate. If your state machine is complex, though, it's still going to look pretty ugly.

Answer 2

It depends how complicated your state machine is. If it's a state machine to implement a workflow then describe the workflow as a simple flowchart. If your state machine is complex then show multiple workflows that describe use cases your state machine is trying to implement. In short, describe the problem that the state machine tries to solve rather than trying to explain how you solve it.

Answer 3

I hate to say it but the UML2 state diagrams

shown here

Look pretty sensible. If you did this in a presentation, you could mask and highlight different transition elements and talk about them, only presenting the big diagram last to show the entire machine.

Answer 4

I have also used Visio. Can you abstract portions of your state machine into blocks that would reduce the complexity of the diagram? For example, if you have a routine that reads from an SD Card you could replace all of the states associated with that operation (initialize, read/write, etc) with just "Read/Write SD Card." You could then provide a separate diagram for those states elsewhere.

Answer 5

You could try BPMN.

Answer 6

There's one way to deal with ugly flow-charts. Go big. Lot's of paper real estate. Variable font size with the most important states in huge letters and details in somewhat smaller. This way the reader can either focus on the big picture, or on details in one area.