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draw.io for Business Analysts

draw.io (also called diagrams.net) is a free diagram tool you can use in the browser or as a desktop app. It has shape libraries for flowcharts, BPMN, UML, entity relationship diagrams and more, which makes it a good free alternative to Visio for a business analyst. These tutorials cover the diagrams BAs are asked for most, each built step by step.

What you will learn

The lessons cover process diagrams (flowcharts, swimlanes, BPMN basics, BPMN pools and lanes, value stream maps and as-is to to-be comparisons), system and data diagrams (context diagrams, level 1 data flow diagrams, ER diagrams, class diagrams and system architecture), behaviour diagrams (use case, state and activity diagrams) and quick screen wireframes. There are also lessons on the small skills that make a diagram look finished: aligning and distributing shapes, and exporting to PDF or PNG for a document or slide.

Where to start

Start with the draw.io for business analysts overview, then the swimlane diagram. A swimlane is the process map you will draw most often, and it teaches the basics: finding shapes, connecting them and keeping everything lined up. Then pick the diagram your project needs right now. If your team uses Confluence or Google Drive, it is worth checking whether draw.io is available inside them, so diagrams live next to the documents that use them.

Tips

Turn on the shape libraries you need (More Shapes at the bottom of the shape panel) instead of searching for every shape. Save your files where your team can find them, since draw.io can save to your computer or to a cloud drive. And export a PNG for slides, but keep the editable .drawio file too; a picture can't be changed when the process does.