# Organisation chart

Org charts are wrong within a month of being drawn, which is why the important quality is how cheap they are to change. A text-generated chart is a one-line edit; a slide is a redraw.

Vacancies and dotted lines are the parts people actually look for, so draw them explicitly.

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## When to reach for one

* Onboarding, where the first question is always who does what.
* Reorganisations, where current and proposed sit side by side.
* Planning, where vacancies and spans of control are the subject.

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## How to draw it in Capable

| **Route** | **Use when**                                                  |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Mermaid   | A tree from text; renaming a role is one line.                |
| Graphviz  | Larger organisations, where the layout engine earns its keep. |
| draw.io   | Presentation versions with photos and styling.                |

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## A worked example

Reporting lines, a vacancy and a dotted line:

![Organisation chart](https://help.gocapable.com/images/att1418592429.svg)

The source, which you can paste into a new diagram and edit:

```
flowchart TD
  CEO[Chief Executive]
  CEO --> CTO[CTO]
  CEO --> CFO[CFO]
  CEO --> CPO[Chief Product Officer]
  CTO --> ENG1[Platform lead]
  CTO --> ENG2[Apps lead]
  CTO --> SEC[Security lead - VACANT]
  CPO --> DES[Design lead]
  CPO --> PM[Product manager]
  DES -.-> ENG2
  SEC -.-> CFO
  classDef vacant stroke-dasharray: 5 5
  class SEC vacant
```

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## A few things that catch people out

* Draw roles, not only people. Roles survive individuals leaving.
* Mark vacancies. They are usually the reason somebody opened the chart.
* Consider what belongs on an internal page. Org charts are sensitive in a way most diagrams are not.

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## Related

[Customer journey mapStages, touchpoints and how it feels.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/customer-journey-map.html)

[Wardley mapValue chain up, evolution across.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/wardley-map.html)

[ExamplesWorking diagrams you can copy.](https://help.gocapable.com/diagrams/examples.html)

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_Editable during the meeting beats pretty afterwards._