Flow, process and networks
Journey sequence diagram
Shows actions and interactions in sequence, optionally across actors or systems.
- Diagram
- Sequence
- Journey exploration
What it answers
What happens first and who interacts next?
- Shape
- Ordered events or actor lifelines
- What it shows
- Action order and hand-offs.
Example
The question
What happens, step by step, when a customer pays online?
Online payment, messages between customer and systems (sequence diagram)
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Explaining a sequence or interaction.
Avoid it when
When measured durations are implied by an undated ordering.
How to read it
Read events in order and trace messages between actors.
Note
May use qualitative descriptions or recorded events.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Sequence: integer; Actor: text; Action: text
- One row is
- One ordered action or interaction. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Order actions explicitly. Identify sender and receiver if showing messages between lifelines.
- Optional
- Timestamp,Receiver,Duration,Stage.
- Preparation
- Resolve user/session/case identities; sort within each trace and define ties, repeated events, windows and start/completion semantics before deriving links.
- Units
- Counts may mean users, sessions, cases or events; state which. Conversion uses eligible entities, and durations require explicit time units.
Worked example
Step 1 Customer submits; step 2 Support confirms. Connect in order; no elapsed response time can be calculated without timestamps.
| Sequence | Actor | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Customer | Submit request |
| 2 | Support | Confirm receipt |