One of the reasons I think a lot of people don’t use Visio more often is because they simply don’t know what to use it for. To help this problem, I thought it would be a good idea to share some common ways that I’ve used Visio.

Here are three common projects where using Visio has worked well for me:

• Software Design - This is a pretty obvious one, just because you can easily diagram both how the software will function and what the inputs and outputs will be using a Flowchart. For instance, if you are creating a software module that calculates the taxes for several different companies, you can use Visio to plan out how these taxes will be calculated and how the module will handle calculating them for each company. Even if you are writing a description of the design, you should include a Visio diagram as it’s easier for some people to understand a visual representation than a written one.
  
  
• Process Diagrams - If you have any kind of defined process, it can almost always be represented in Visio. An example of such a process would be how a product goes from the design phase to the production phase. While a “warehouse” type example easily comes to mind, another process could be financial in nature, such as how someone applies and gets approved for a credit card or loan. Visio offers a wide variety of tools for creating these kinds of diagrams, giving you lots of options to work with.
  
  
• Hierarchy Structures - To expand, what I’m talking about here in particular would be personnel hierarchy structures, such as how your project is laid out. For example, at the top could be your boss, then you, then the three people that work for you. This also works well for client personnel structures. These kinds of diagrams are essential for new people to your project, as well as for everybody else if you have a large or often-changing project.

These are just three of the projects that I have used Visio for in the past, and continue to use it for today. Once you have used Visio a few times, you’ll get a better feel for the best ways it can work for you.