Flow Charts (contd...)

The following are some guidelines in flowcharting:

1. In drawing a proper flowchart, all necessary requirements should be listed out in logical order.
2. The flowchart should be clear, neat and easy to follow. There should not be any room for ambiguity in understanding the flowchart.
3. The usual direction of the flow of a procedure or system is from left to right or top to bottom.
4. Only one flow line should come out from a process symbol.

or

5. Only one flow line should enter a decision symbol, but two or three flow lines, one for each possible answer, should leave the decision symbol.

6. Only one flow line is used in conjunction with terminal symbol.

7. Write within standard symbols briefly. As necessary, you can use the annotation symbol to describe data or computational steps more clearly.

8. If the flowchart becomes complex, it is better to use connector symbols to reduce the number of flow lines. Avoid the intersection of flow lines if you want to make it more effective and better way of communication.
9. Ensure that the flowchart has a logical start and finish.
10. It is useful to test the validity of the flowchart by passing through it with a simple test data.