Microsoft Visio

Avantages

Simple et pratique d'utilisation pour faire toutes sortes de plans, de schémas et d'organigramme.
Il est possible de trouver des formes sur Internet pour de nombreux objets et ainsi avoir des rendus très professionnels.

Inconvénients

A l'heure actuelle, une fonction 3D serait très appréciée.
La compatibilité avec les documents Autocad est très très limitée et fonctionne donc rarement.

Avantages

- It can draw anything you cane think of
- There are many pre-defined symbols that can be dragged and dropped into a drawing
- Pre-defined symbols can be easily incorporated into your drawing with connectors that snap to connection points and can then be dragged to other parts of the drawing.
- It can print your drawing onto any size paper you select
- Drawings, objects, symbols, lines and connectors can be colored using the standard Windows colors.
- Objects and symbols can have data embedded into them from a database or used to create a database.
- There is an almost unlimited amount of help available from boards and users on the web.
- You can import AutoCAD drawings and change them.
- Drawings can be exported into AutoCAD format.

Inconvénients

- There is a very long learning curve.
- It uses the typical Microsoft help function which cannot find things using plain English queries. (Google is MUCH better)
- It may be difficult to find the thing you want to do as there are some many functions.
- The Microsoft "Ribbon" can be a real pain when trying to find a function. It can waste a huge amount of time.
- If you know the name of the function, you can put into the "What do you want to do" search function but if you find it there, it does not show you where, in the Ribbon, that function is, so you do not have the opportunity to learn
- It can be quite cumbersome, when working on something and then needing to do something else, which requires many moves from the drawing to the Ribbon and back.
- The Ribbon
- You use the Pointer a lot but it requires a trip to the Ribbon when you are doing anything else and need the pointer, like text.
- It is very expensive, even when subscribed to it in Office 365.

Avantages

I like that I can use Visio to easily demonstrate workflows and process improvement ideas. There is a range of understanding for software like Visio. I do not use it to automate at my place of work, but I use it extensively for visual learners when implementing or discussing new processes, procedures, and ideas. Often I have co-workers take these designs and display them for their team as a physical reminder, others are more intuitive and I work with them to develop interactive workflows (with links, actions, etc.)

Inconvénients

There are some elements to how you design that are not intuitive. I usually spend about 15 minutes with users who download the software to demonstrate how they can make their flows and diagrams. The organization chart is particularly more cumbersome than advertised, but even so, I have users who use it for this purpose. Online resources are sparse as well, and I often am troubleshooting when trying new methods.

Avantages

As a Business Analyst cum Product Manager in Software Engineering, tremendous amount of documentation including business process diagrams, and flowcharts were part of my role in my previous product organization. Before learning Visio, I have tried many free apps, and capabilities with in word and struggled a lot.

While we make enterprise solutions by offering customization in our product suite, it is quite normal to study and analysis complex business processes of every new customer. To make a case - the process to be automated, solution, estimation, and design, diagrams and flowcharts were inevitable. Making diagrams eat a lot of time before Visio. Visio helped us to streamline this particular activity. It is pretty simple to copy an old diagram, make a few modifications and use it in another document. Another advantage in using vision is scope for modifications and less time to edit the diagrams.

The beauty of Visio is stencils and drag and drop feature to build diagrams. Also it is awesome to have an excellent repository of shapes.

Couple of times, I have used the organization chart feature. The import feature is very much helpful when we have a comprehensive reporting hierarchy.

Live data overlay which enables us to visualize live data in the context of a org structure, a business process, or a manufacturing process flow to get the big picture in one glance.

Once you master Visio, it is less likely that you switch to any other tool for diagrams and process flows.

Provision to collaborate on diagrams simultaneously is a big relief when many users work on a diagram

Inconvénients

It is a fantastic tool and no doubt on its capabilities. However pricing is heavy and the solution is subscribing to online version.
If the shapes show some meaning or suggest the purpose, Visio can be a bit more intuitive.

Avantages

As someone who works in multi-functional engineering teams I find this to be a great collaboration platform. I can take my sensor idea and do some basic "hand" sketch type drawings to really highlight my thoughts and needs to my mechanical engineering colleagues. On the electrical engineering side I can create functional block diagrams describing my needs for the signal pathways and data analysis workflows. I also use this for test apparatus diagrams and mock ups for software user interfaces.

Inconvénients

If you have no drafting/drawing experience this program can take awhile to get truly comfortable with. I don't find all the menus to be as intuitive as I would like. However, I only notice this if I am away from the software for an extended time period.