Does anyone really use flowcharts before or after writing code?

Question

If so, is it helpful and practical to the rest of them

Answer 1

Yep.

I use it a lot when working with error conditions and I need to show business users what they didn't think about.

1. Draw a vertical series of boxes showing the ideal path.
2. Between each box add one or more branch diamonds with questions such as "Do we have the user's email address in the database?"
3. Draw an arrow off each branch diamond labeled with the word "No"
4. Don't let the business analysts leave the room until every arrow is accounted for.

Once the project is done I give the flow chart to production support so they can easily see why something happened.

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I also use it for complex state machines. I've got one with two dozen states, trying to explain it in words alone is way too hard. And like the above example, it helps me find scenarios that I haven't accounted for.

Answer 2

Not exactly flowcharts, but some kind of pen and paper work always helps me to put things together before I start coding something rather complex.

If you can see the solution before you start coding, then flowcharts/diagrams won't help you, but you might need them to show to your team, or someone else working on the same project.