A solution to this problem alone will make Office worth the price for us.
We have a workflow in place. An Analyst will supply the QA group with a
visio diagram of the workflow, and the database developer with an excel file
of each status (decision box on the diagram) and each status available from
it.
For example, I can move work from a status of Open, to either Filed or
Pending. From Open, I need to have 3 statuses available, Open, Filed and
Pending. The spreadsheet woudl look something like this
Column 1 Column 2
Open Open
Open Filed
Open Pending

The Diagram is something like this:

Open ----Pending
|
|
V
Filed

Is there a way, some privately developed piece of code even, to take this
excel file and generate the diagram?

Because the analyst has to create the same work twice, they often miss a
status or two when updating a workflow with 8 or 9 steps.

Thanks, Sean

Sean,

I don't quite follow what you want to do. Did you want to update the
Excel file and have it propagate changes to the Visio diagram? I have a
product that generates flowcharts within Excel based upon the text
entered, but I'm not sure that it would be a good fit since the
flowchart generated would be created with MS Office AutoShapes.


Regards,

Nick Hebb
BreezeTree Software
http://www.breezetree.com

nhebb,

Here's the way it works now:
An analyst builds a workflow, or modifies an existing one. They will create
a requirement for the developer saying "A case will move from Open to either
Filed or Pending. From Filed it can go to Quality Passed, or Quality Failed.
From Pending it can go to Reopen or Filed."
That's 7 total routes for this case.

The analyst will create a visio workflow tree, showing the case going from
Open, branching to Filed and Pending, and branches coming off Filed and
Pending.

Then the analyst will create a table for the database that will show each
status, and each status available from it.

So, that would look like:
Column 1 Column 2
Open Open (We HAVE to have a status available from itself)
Open Filed
Open Pending
Filed Filed
Filed Quality pass
Filed Quality Failed
Pending Pending
Pending Filed
Pending Reopen

That's 3 stages where the analyst can make a mistake.

Is there a way for one of the following: The analyst draws the flowchart
and somehow the data gets transferred into excel? They draw a tree that
branches from open to Filed to Quality pass. That translates to a excel
sheet that shows in 3 columns : Open Filed Quality pass.
Or, can we take the excel file and import it into Visio? This would be very
similar to creating a Org chart from an excel file, butwe need to have each
item 'report to' itself, and have circular routing (Like Open to Pending to
Filed, and Open to Filed, filed has to 'report to' both Pending and Open in
this case.)

Does that help?

Thanks, Sean
"nhebb" wrote:

Sean,

I don't quite follow what you want to do. Did you want to update the
Excel file and have it propagate changes to the Visio diagram? I have a
product that generates flowcharts within Excel based upon the text
entered, but I'm not sure that it would be a good fit since the
flowchart generated would be created with MS Office AutoShapes.


Regards,

Nick Hebb
BreezeTree Software
http://www.breezetree.com

Hmmm ... sounds like you need a custom programming solution, or better
yet, find an easier way to track the workflow.

- Nick