Flowchart capabilities & requirements
Last updated
Last updated
Flowcharts in Flowriter are deliberately simple. They keep the focus on the feature's content and logic rather than complex diagramming.
There are also minimum requirements for a Story's flowchart. These ensure Flowriter's AI can reliably extract information and generate accurate documentation.
Every flowchart must have one (1) and one only Start step. This represents the start of the flow logic. Start steps not have custom text, or notes.
Use Action steps to describe actions taken by users or a system, including calculations and decisions. Actions have a label that is typically a short summary of the action.
Provide more details about the action including on-screen messages, calculation methodologies, URLs and other reference material in optional free-text Notes attached to an Action.
These help guide the AI to produce more accurate and informed Acceptance Criteria and Test Scripts.
An Action step with Notes has a notes icon displayed, and you can reveal the note by hovering over the icon:
Add, modify, and remove Action step notes at any time.
For simplicity, Flowriter does not include a dedicated "decision", "question", or "diamond" type step.
To indicate a decision, just create more than one (1) outgoing connection from an Action step. Use the Action step label to describe the decision or question e.g. Number of pets? or Select pet breed:
Flowriter will automatically add default labels to each outgoing connection to ensure the logic is documented. You can modify these at any time.
Connections are the lines that connect one step to another. They are directional - they end in an arrow that indicates the direction of the connection.
Connections are made from the bottom of one step to the top of another
A step cannot be connected to itself, in a loop
Start steps only allow outgoing connections
End steps only accept incoming connection
An Action step can have multiple incoming connections
An Action step can have multiple outgoing connections. In this case, it is considered a "decision" step
Connections have optional labels:
They are not necessary if the connection is the only one between two steps. However if a step has more than one outgoing connection, Flowriter enforces labels on all outgoing connections from that step, providing default labels if necessary. This ensures clarity in the logic for later analysis.
Every flowchart must have at least one (1) End step. They indicate the end of a sequence of steps in the feature's flow / logic.
A flowchart may have more than one End step, and not every path needs to connect to the same End step:
Flowriter's AI inspects a Story's flowchart, and is guided by the logic and structure in it. There are a few important requirements to consider when building a flowchart in Flowriter:
The flowchart must have only one (1) Start step
The flowchart can have any number of Action steps and Connections, up to a maximum of:
Ten (10) Action steps if using free trial credits; or
Eighty (80) Action steps if using purchased credits
The flowchart must have at least one (1) End step
There must be at least one complete path traceable from a Start step, through Connections and Action steps, to an End step — otherwise the content generation cannot be performed.
Any Action steps that do not have any outgoing connections will be ignored, since they do not lead to an End step.
