Setup and first steps | YaSM Support (Video)

Step 1: Download and unzip your delivery archive

In your inbox you will find an email from us with a secure download link. Just click on the link and, when prompted, choose a location for the download: It can be a local folder or a network share, it doesn't really matter. For this quick demo I save the archive on my desktop.

As a next step, we need to extract (or unzip) the archive [see fig. 1]. Again, it's not important where the files end up, you can extract the files to any folder.

Now we can see the folders that contain the different components of the YaSM® Process Map:

The Accompanying_Documents folder contains

• an introduction to the YaSM model,
• the user manual
• and some more supporting documents.

Then there are other folders where you can find the checklists or document templates, the process diagrams as Visio® files, the RACI matrix, ISO 20000 related documents, a special Visio® stencil, the setup files for the repository add-in, and the Excel repository.

Before you start working with the process map, it's always a good idea to create a backup copy. That's very simple, just create a copy of the whole folder. You can then move it to a safe place.

Step 2: Explore the YaSM® Process Map

You are now ready to explore the YaSM® Process Map and test the linking.

The best starting point is the Front Page diagram with an overview of the contents of our process model. The shapes in this diagram contain links, and one link, for example, will open the top-level process diagram with an overview of all YaSM processes.

From here, you can drill down into the processes, but please be aware that in Visio® we cannot follow links with a simple click on a shape. Instead you need to hold down the CTRL key while clicking on the shape [see fig. 2] - or you can right-click the shape and then click on the link in the context menu.

That will take us to the linked diagram - in this case, the service operation diagram with an overview of the service operation processes and their information flows. Again, we can go further from here, for example into the overview of incident management, and another click on one of the incident management sub-processes will take us to a swim lane diagram with a detailed description of the process activities.

In the top part of this diagram we find the process inputs and outputs, and here we can try if the links to the checklists work. For example, a click on the incident record should open the checklist in Word™, where we explain what information is typically included in an incident record.

So there's not much you need to set up. All you need to do is download and extract your delivery archive, and the links work out of the box.

Step 3: Install the repository add-in

Once you start adapting the processes to the needs of your organization, you may also want to install the repository add-in.

To set up the add-in, make sure that Visio® is closed, then look for the setup folder in your delivery archive. Click or double-click on "setup" to start the installation.

The setup will first check for a few prerequisites, such as .NET, and then you may be asked if you trust the add-in. It's also possible at this point that the installation will not go ahead because the add-in's certificate is not trusted [see fig. 3]. If this is the case, please check out my other video where I explain how to install the certificate.

Here, we can simply confirm that we are OK with the installation to proceed, and soon afterwards the installation is complete.

We can now check if the add-in works:

To do so, we open one of the Visio® diagrams from the diagrams folder. A message window tells us that a new configuration file has been created, where the add-in's configuration data is stored. This is just for your information, normally you will not have to worry about this file.

Next, we are prompted to select a repository file, because for the add-in to function you need to tell it where the Excel repository is located. Click on "OK" and select your repository file. If you start up the YaSM® Process Map for the first time, you can select the original Excel repository in the Repository folder of your delivery archive.

Now the setup is complete. Four new commands are now available in the Add-Ins tab in the Visio® ribbon.

To check if the add-in works, we can create a new process shape by dragging the process master shape from the document stencil onto the page.

Then, when clicking on "Select", we should get to see the list of processes from the repository. If we select a process from the list, this will set the process name, the link for the process, pointing to another Visio® diagram, and also the shape data fields with additional information about the process, such as the process description and in the next field below the process reference number.

This looks good! Everything works like it should.

And that's all it takes to set up the YaSM® Process Map

If you would like to learn more about the contents and uses of our YaSM model, then I suggest you check out my other videos. And if you need any help, please get in touch.