Where do swim lanes occur?

Swim lanes occur in process diagrams, serving as a visual method to delineate responsibilities and clarify workflows. Each swim lane represents a different actor, department, or group involved in the process, allowing stakeholders to easily identify who is responsible for specific tasks or activities at any point in the process. This arrangement enhances clarity and helps to identify potential bottlenecks or overlaps in responsibilities, making it easier to analyze and improve the process.

While use case diagrams, flowcharts, and Gantt charts are useful tools in their own right, they do not employ swim lanes in the same way. Use case diagrams primarily focus on capturing functional requirements and interactions between actors and systems. Flowcharts represent the flow of steps in a process without typically distinguishing between different stakeholders or roles. Gantt charts are project management tools that illustrate tasks over time, indicating when each task is supposed to occur, but they do not show responsibilities in swim lanes. Thus, process diagrams are the appropriate context where swim lanes are effectively implemented.