Swimlanes

4 min readSep 21, 2022

Identify interdependencies between different users in a complex process.

Swimlanes is a process diagram that helps in understanding the roles, responsibilities, and interdependencies of different sets of users in any given process. They also help in identifying redundancies and inefficiencies.

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Creating a swimlane for a product/application is a collaborative session between designers, SME’s, Project managers, etc. Before starting swimlanes for a process, sort out the following:

1. Determine your goal

Think about what you want to achieve by doing the swimlane for a process.
Example: Consider a rental process.
Goal: To make the rental process easy for anybody that wants to rent a house.

2. Identify users

Identify all the users that are involved in the process that you have chosen.
Example — In a rental process, the users while searching for a rental house would be;
Renter: The user who is looking for the house.
Owner: The user who wants to put his house up for rent.
Agent: The user who acts as a mediator between renter and owner.

3. Break down the work

Separate all the activities in the process into manageable pieces by making sure that the complete process is identified.
Example — In a rental process, the activities while searching for a rental house could be;
Tenants: Checking for the rental house in certain areas, viewing all the rental houses, approaching one of the preferred houses, visiting the house.
Owner: Giving data about the address of the house and amenities to the agent, finding an agent.
Agent: Getting data about the house from the owner to get the renters to the house.

Steps to draw and use a Swimlane diagram

Step 1: List all the users in the process on the left side vertically

Step 2: Draw out the process by mapping the responsibilities across the users. Use ‘rectangles’ to represent the task and ‘rhombus’ to represent the decisions in the flow of the user.

Step 3: Identify any loopholes or redundant tasks that are being performed by the users.
Example: An online platform for a rental process can replace the activities of an agent like:

Showing houses that meet the requirements of the renter.
Scheduling a meeting with the owner.
Reducing the mediator conversations between the owner and the renter.

Bear in mind, however, that sometimes, redundancy is purposely built into a process for safety or quality purposes.

Here is another example of a student registration process:

Tips / Best Practices

Do Swimlanes at an early stage in the project during the discovery and strategy stage to get everyone on the same page.
Focus on what you are building and why you are building it.
Outline requirements for stakeholders and the working team.
Understand the users and their responsibilities in the process.
Include process experts and domain experts in the discussion.
Document the redundancies and problems that are identified in the discussion.
Ideate on the problems and redundancies identified while doing the Swimlanes.
Mention the goal and legend for the Swimlanes.
Draft new Swimlanes by eliminating the redundancies and the problems.
Make sure that all the stakeholders are aligned with the new Swimlanes.
Print out the Swimlanes to use as a visual reference for discussions regarding the scope of work and the overall system that is being designed.

Checklist

Document the high-level scenarios or the process for users.
Invite the related stakeholders to the discussion.
List the tasks performed by the user in the process.
Map interdependencies between the users.
Identify repetitive tasks and opportunities.
Anchor back to the goal.
Ensure that the process or scenario is completely dealt with.

Quick Question

You are designing an e-commerce application and are slightly confused about the interdependencies between the users. So, you decided to create a Swimlane. Select the sequence of action you will proceed with -

Identify users.
Identify the tasks of the user.
Identify the process.
Identify interdependencies.

Leave your answer in the comments section below!