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Diagram use cases by profession

Technical diagrams are used throughout many different professions and industries, both for internal documentation and to help customers or provide training. Many of these fields have their own specific types of technical diagrams.

Activity diagrams are used to model workflows in various ways

All technical diagrams on this page were created in draw.io.

Technical diagrams by profession​

Business analysts​

Business analysts draw flowcharts and BPMN diagrams, system context diagrams, business models, state charts, concept models, and use case digrams. Business analysts make use of data to evaluate and improve processes and systems, visualising them in diagrams helps stakeholders sign off on projects and changes to their enterprises.
Where orchestration models show process flow in BPMN diagrams, choreography models focus on the message passing between two (or more) roles.     An example Business Analysis Core Concept Model

Data analysts​

For data analysis, these professionals draw entity relationship and schema diagrams, data flow diagrams, decision trees for sorting data, and IDEF1X graphical information models. While the analysis of large sets of data typically produces charts and graphs, setting up the data repositories, the data schemes and relational database structures requires data analysts to draw many other technical diagrams.
Use the basic entity relationship diagram template as your starting place     Data flow diagrams are simple to draw and show how data moves around in a system

IT support and cloud architects​

These professionals draw system models, deployment diagrams, rack diagrams, user flows, swimlane diagrams, data flow models, and cloud and network architectures. There is a lot of overlap between IT support and software development and business analysis, and the drawn architectures need to take into account soft business processes, user flows, and technical limitations of both the hardware and software.
A simple rack diagram, created with draw.io     Azure architecture diagrams are easy to draw with the hundreds of Azure shapes in draw.io

Education and research professionals​

Teachers, researchers and writers draw labelled technical illustrations and photos, dendrograms, mathematical diagrams, and charts and graphs. The Bioicons shape library integration lets you create diagrams for chemistry and biology courses, process flows, and presentations easily. With standard shapes and math typesetting, you can visualise scientific concepts quickly.
Bioicons can be used to create a wide range of illustrations with draw.io     Distance shapes and partial rectangles to label a focal length diagram

Electrical, chemistry, industrial and process control engineers​

These engineers draw block diagrams, event-driven process chains, catalytic cycles, process flows, IDEF0 manufacturing models, and timing diagrams.
Draw SysML internal block diagrams in draw.io with the SysML shape library     A PERT diagram template that is available in draw.io

Human relations and accounts​

HR and accounting professionals draw organisation charts, mindmaps, timelines, floorplans, responsibility diagrams, visual processes and workflows, and many other less technical diagrams for presentations and documentation.
An example BPMN diagram that details the steps involved in processing an order     Use an org chart to show incident response roles and responsibilities

Marketing and event planners​

In marketing, customer journey maps, context diagrams, storymaps, floorplans and layouts are important technical documentation. Graphics designers and marketing also need to create a wide array of not-so-technical yet informative diagrams for presentations, brochures, customer websites, whitepapers and more. You can also create these in draw.io.
A floorplan created in draw.io     Use a template to start project planning quickly in sketch.diagrams.net

Manufacturing and logistics engineers​

In manufacturing process diagrams and flows, supply chain models, Ishikawa (fishbone) diagrams, data-driven dashboard skeletons, routing diagrams, value stream and lean maps can often be life-critical diagrams, especially when incident response planning.
Enterprise business model template     An example of an manufacturing Ishikawa diagram for a defective part

Project, product and team managers​

Across all teams, workflows, activity diagrams, organisation charts, responsibility diagrams, capability diagrams, roadmaps, capability diagrams, Gantt charts and PERT charts are used to document projects and in product development.
Salesforce shapes can also be used to add useful visual reference points to all types of diagrams, including this capabilities diagram     A roles and responsibilities diagram is ideal to onboard new colleagues or customers to a complex system

Risk management and security experts​

Consultants and data security teams need to draw decision trees, data and process flow diagrams, incident response documentation, attack trees and influence diagrams. This field overlaps heavily with cloud and system architecture, software development and business analysis.
BPMN diagram for handing a software incident reported by a customer     Process flow diagram for threat modelling

Software developers​

In software develpment, gitflows, UML diagrams including activity diagrams, state charts, user flows, mockups, architecture diagrams, database models, entity relationship diagrams, dependency graphs, sequence diagrams, C4 models and many more technical diagrams are needed to plan, implement and maintain software applications and systems.
Activity diagrams are used to model workflows in various ways     You could also use a list shape to list the feature flags on each main release

User experience specialists​

UX professional draw mockups and wireframes, concept maps, use case diagrams, user stories, and experience models, to help with product development and testing, and ensure accessibility.
An example of a use case diagram     A mockup for an iOS app, available in the draw.io example diagram GitHub repository

Diagrams for presentations, documents and online content​

Of course, you can also create non-technical diagrams in draw.io, including infographics, freehand line drawings, charts, Venn diagrams, brainstorming boards, mindmaps, and many more.

With our vast shape libraries, templates and examples to suit a wide range of diagrams, and even more with the custom libraries created by our users available on GitHub, it's easy to create whatever graphics you need in draw.io for presentations, documents, and online content.
A new whitepaper to explain how feature flags DevOps works easier with diagrams     An infographic created in draw.io composed mostly of freehand shapes

Executive assistants can create attractive graphs and charts, Venn diagrams, and presentation graphics with the draw.io plugins for Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.
draw.io has many Venn diagram templates with various numbers of sets     Create a bubble chart easily in draw.io with connectors and different sizes and colours of circles

Diagrams for daily team work​

You can use any drawing app that supports real-time collaboration in several integrations with shared cursors as an online whiteboard with your team. While these diagrams are not considered technical, they are used by almost all of the teams above as they get their work done.

With draw.io, your team can co-create Kanban boards and Gantt charts for planning and tracking tasks in a project, T-charts, mindmaps, flowcharts, SWOT charts, bubble maps, layer diagrams and whatever you need for your online meetings.

With the freehand tool (via the toolbar, or Arrange > Insert > Freehand), you can draw freehand shapes, annotate or mark up your meeting notes quickly and easily.

Brainstorm and plan projects on an online whiteboard with sketch.diagrams.net

Diagrams for every day life​

Diagrams are not only useful in work situations, but in many every-day life situations where you need to communicate complex information.

In particular, diagrams help patients detail medical issues to doctors in a way they can understand quickly, and without the pressure of needing to explain on on the spot. Of course, specialists also use diagrams to explain therapies to patients - in draw.io, you can easily add labels to images inserted into the diagram.
Add your name, date of birth, and the date you updated each diagram on the three labels of a plain connector