Visio 2003 Redraws Roadmap

Visio 2003, the latest version of Microsoft’s desktop product for line drawings, includes new templates for business process design and additional features to help developers embed Visio in applications. Both business-process design and improved features for developers are important future directions for the product, whose next major release could be two to three years away.

Integration, New Templates for Business Users

Visio 2003, which will be released as part of Microsoft’s Office System launch in Oct. 2003, provides substantially similar drawing functions to previous versions but has several noticeable new features. Like the Office 2003 suite, it supports new Microsoft server offerings (particularly the Windows SharePoint Services document management and Web site hosting service), Tablet PCs, and online research services. (See the illustration “Office System Integration in Visio 2003“.)

In addition, Visio 2003 delivers several new drawing templates, which provide standard shapes for specific types of diagrams and tools for tasks such as importing data from databases. Several templates relate to business-process analysis and documentation; for example, a new Fault Trees template enables organizations to document potential causes of quality or safety problems. Fault Trees are often used in business process–engineering efforts, such as those mandated by the Six Sigma philosophy. Visio also includes a template for event-driven process chain (EPC) diagrams, a standard type of diagram used in analyzing systems for SAP business applications.