Process Modeling--Tool Selection

["Montgomery, Kevin" <kmontgomery -at- LOGICON -dot- COM>]

     A previous posting was correct in saying that the technical writer
     should not decide which tools to use for process modeling. There are,
     however, some concerns you should be aware of and voice.

     I'm in the middle of a business process reengineering project using
     using IDEF0 and IDEF1X modeling tools - Knowledge Based Systems, Inc.
     (KBSI) and Erwin. Modeling tools create graphic models of business
     processes and data. The graphics are accompanied by text, e.g., an
     activity decomposition diagram will be followed by descriptions of
     individual activities. My current project has about 400 pages of
     output from the modeling tool in appendices describing the As-Is and
     To-Be business processes. Additional diagrams are scattered throughout
     the main sections of the document.

     The tools' printing capabilities are very limited, so my project
     needed to be produced in Word. Unfortunately, most modeling tools
     cannot write their graphics to files that word processing, graphics,
     or DTP software can import. They can only print hardcopy from within
     the modeling program. That leads to an enormous amount of manual
     paste-up! Also, while the text can be dumped to an ASCII file, it
     cannot be dumped in the same order that the tool would print it out.
     So, I've had to import the disordered ASCII file into Word, assign
     header styles to the activity names, and sort the text using Word's
     Outline function.

     Ask whoever is charged with selecting the tool to look for one that
     can easily export soft copies of its product to a word processing
     package. You may save many hours of labor!

     -Kevin Montgomery
     kmontgomery -at- logicon -dot- com

     --My opinions, not Logicon's!--