Lucidchart users, partners, industry experts, and team members gathered in downtown Phoenix to learn, be inspired, and network with one another. One of our guest speakers was Mark Zaborowski, Enterprise Architect at Spear Education, who shared various ways of how he and his team use Lucidchart to collaborate and work visually.

1. Lucidchart & Spear Education

2. Introduction
Mark Zaborowski
Enterprise Architect
Spear Education
● Married
● Relocated to Arizona from New Jersey seven years ago
● Bilingual (English, Polish)
● Pets: dog’s name is Kona, bird’s name is Tiki
● 14 years working in the IT industry
● 1 years working with Lucidchart

3. Why use a visualization tool?
Why?
● Pictures speak louder than words. Used to tell a story.
● Convey ideas and reasoning with drawings.
● Humans are visual creatures.
Benefits?
● Increases chances of capturing granular detail. Example: a sequence diagram.
● Simplifies the decision making process. Example: two competing software vendor
solutions.
● Quickly convey a message. Example: business sales projections.
● Brainstorm and discussion starter - Aha!, What-if..., How-about...moments.

4. How do I use Lucidchart? (1 of 3)
Use Case 1: Creating Reference Architecture
diagrams to be used by the Enterprise
○ For example - API Gateway Dev/Ops
Usage (Lucidchart)
○ Diagram posted to Confluence via
Lucidchart plugin
Benefit: Provides a framework for how the
service should be used, when it should be
used, and consistent usage/execution.
[Insert image]

5. How do I use Lucidchart? (2 of 3)
Use Case 2: Backend code developed by a
third-party vendor, part of the “Study Club”
product offering is in need of refactor
(restructuring the body of code). First step is
documenting front-end staff business
interaction and overlay the ERP and CRM
system involvement – current state.
○ For example – Start My Club
Endpoint using hotspots (Lucidchart)
Benefit: understand business process, locate
areas for improvement, determine scope, etc.
[Insert image]

6. How do I use Lucidchart? (3 of 3)
Use Case 3 (collaboration work in progress):
Build a high-level diagram showing
integrations between on-premise, cloud, and
SaaS services. Using toggle layers, drill down
into specific details for more information—for
example, Lucidchart diagram
Benefit: Show the complete, high-level,
enterprise view.
[Insert image]

7. How does my team use Lucidchart? (1 of 2)
Use Case 1: Creating high-level diagrams
outlining business services/functions and the
connected IT applications that support the
business functions. See EDW
Outbound/Inbound diagram.
Benefit: At a glance, see the high-level Inbound
& Outbound data integration points to the EDW. [Insert image]

8. How does my team use Lucidchart? (2 of 2)
Use Case 2: Visualizing the integrations and
dependencies between IT infrastructure and
different lines of business. See Enterprise
Services diagram.
Benefit: Show the business domains, its
underlying systems of record, integration
services, ETL, and EDW layers. [Insert image]

9. How does my organization use Lucidchart?
Use Case 1: HR department creating
organization charts.
Benefit: Every edit is automatically saved in real
time, allows staff to quickly look up who would
need to be included in a project, for example.
Use Case 2: Visualizing business process flows.
Benefit: Understand current state, transition,
and target state; zero in on quick wins/process
improvements.

10. Benefits of using Lucidchart at Spear
● Easy to use.
● Out-of-the-box native integrations with other business applications - Confluence,
Jira, MS Office, Slack, AWS.
● Auto-generate UML diagrams from code in Bitbucket.
● Slick UI, assists with improving IT and business processes.
● Superior sharing and collaborating features making it easier and quicker to finalize
designs. As the company is growing, this is especially helpful.
● Helpful tool used during brainstorming sessions.
● Our IT teams can check diagrams to help troubleshoot issues.
● Our IT team can look up Reference Architectures to check how a particular service
should be used and when it should be used. For example, API Gateway Dev/Ops
Usage diagram.

11. Thank you for your time
and attention.