OrgCharts - Did you write something custom or use shrink-wrapped tool?

Question

I'm just wondering what other developers have done in this area.

What does your organization do to get a hierarchical view of your reporting structure? Did you write something custom or use shrink-wrapped tool? How have you integrated that with other internal tools?

Answer 1

I use Graphviz for things like this.

Apart from being very fast to construct the charts, it keeps them in a textual form that can be kept under version control or easily compared to previous ones.

With wiki plugins, for wiki engines such as twiki, you can have the diagrams rendered in the wiki pages.

Answer 2

I use Excel then import that into Visio.

Directors Sectaries’ have to implement so i just ask them to fill in a spreadsheet then import that into Visio - =>.

UPDATE after comment by SHS =>

IF you look at the Visio 2007 DATA menu -> Import Data Solution -> Organisation Chart -> there is a wizard (set the columns for the spreadsheet)

All I have in the Columns is

Role - Person - ReportsTo

The wizard helps with the mapping and you get to set who is at the top of the tree.

We have awsome sectaries - but often the least technology driven solution is often the best.

Answer 3

See the Organizational Chart gadget from the Google Visualization API.