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Decent product, but you really need to get proficient to be productive
October 30, 2019

Decent product, but you really need to get proficient to be productive

Amy Sternin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Visio

At our company, we use this within the product development group (part of the technology team). We use Visio to produce various swimlane type diagrams, workflows and flow charts, which in turn are presented to management and business teams, as well as used to generate user stories for development. We have also used Visio for org charts.
  • Visio provides a number of templates and a good selection of symbols and shapes to use.
  • The number of features and functionality is pretty robust, so you are not restricted in your ability to create with Visio how you visualize you want the results to be.
  • It is a commonly used product, so sharing with others is easy, plus since it integrates with other Microsoft products, that is helpful as well.
  • I find it not very intuitive, and that is after using it for a number of years.
  • I have difficulty formatting to a page for printing or even viewing in a presentation.
  • The ability to switch between text and textboxes and lines seems like it could be done easier. It seems like I am always in the wrong area.
  • It would be great if there was an easier way to find the correct symbol or icon you want. Often I can never find what I am looking for and need to improvise.
  • I think the diagrams I have created have been very beneficial to visualizing the functionality and workflow for our developing products.
  • The way we associate an agile story with a 'piece' of our diagram, allows us to make sure we have all in the flow accounted for, which makes our project schedule more dependable, and we use our development resource time correctly.
  • For people skilled in this product, it can be a help toward being more efficient in product execution. However, it is not beneficial if you have someone not proficient using the product, and spending an inordinate amount of time producing a diagram.
This is not exactly the same type of thing, but for some of our applications, Balsamiq is a viable option. We use Visio because it is more accepted in our organization. However, if someone joined the group, and had a good case for using Balsamiq, we potentially would consider it. The cost, however, of Visio, allows only select people to have this software, and requires a fairly high level of approval.
I don't really use any support for this product. I don't have issues with it, so from that standpoint, it seems ok, and at this point is a very mature product. I haven't seen too many changes over the years.

Do you think Microsoft Visio delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Visio's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Visio live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Visio go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Microsoft Visio again?

Yes

We like the swimlane diagramming and the flow charts. With a bit of effort, we can make them efficient for use within our team, or add bells and whistles of formatting for executive review. They do translate well to pdf when sharing with non-Visio users. I would not recommend for people that are novices and don't have the need to create 'fancy' diagrams. For simply typing things, they can just easily use Excel. And I actually sometimes do that when I am in a hurry.