Swimlanes

Pattern
Examples

What is it?

Swimlanes are used to show how roles, rights, tasks, responsibilities, obligations, liabilities or remedies are distributed between different parties. Each party’s area of responsibility is represented by a column, or lane, where the items are assigned. Shared responsibility items are placed in-between lanes.

What problems does it solve?

Contract users may struggle to keep track of all their rights, obligations, and responsibilities – and how they were allocated – because the information needs to be retrieved from many different clauses, or even from different documents. This is particularly a challenge with long and complex contracts.

When to use it?

Swimlanes are helpful in planning and presenting contractual situations where both parties have separate and joint responsibilities (e.g. intellectual property rights allocation; outsourcing; personal data processing; quality monitoring).

During the contract creation stage, swimlanes work as a checklist and help the parties to keep track of all responsibilities and tasks that need to be assigned, so that nothing is forgotten. During the contract implementation stage, swimlanes allow the parties to check more easily on their share of responsibilities, so they are in a better position to deliver on them.

Why use it?

A major part of any contract is about assigning rights, obligations, and responsibilities to the parties. Swimlanes provide a concise summary to help people to understand their roles and responsibilities, align expectations, and to monitor the contract.

Swimlanes can also promote collaboration between the parties, because they clarify who needs to do what, and whether a responsibility is shared. During contract planning, they allow the parties to spot whether the contract is balanced and collaborative, or whether most of the responsibilities weigh on just one party. They can also be used to make the parties aware of areas where the contract remains silent.

Where to use it?

Contract documents and several contract clauses
Contract appendices
Contract guides and playbooks
Training materials
Contract planning and negotiation
Meetings
Policies

Pattern families

Visuals Layering Explainers Reviewing

Example 1

Using swimlanes in visual contract guides

This swimlane, used in a visual guide explaining the Finnish public procurement terms (JYSE 2009 SERVICES), illustrates how intellectual property rights are allocated between the parties. Different lcoors and icons are used to clearly distinguish between the parties' areas of responsibility. Shared responsibilities are placed in the middle. Excerpts from clauses are placed verbatim in the swimlane, so as to avoid discrepancies between the original terms and the visual guide.

Source: https://stefaniapassera.com/portfolio/jyse-visual-guide/

© 2013 Aalto University & Suomen Kuntaliitto ry (The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities).
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-ND 3.0 Unported License
Designer: Stefania Passera

Example 2

Coffin Mew's Terms of Business: "swimlane layout"

A side-by-side layout inspired by swimlanes juxtaposes the equivalent rights of the customer and the firm. This makes them easy to compare, and it also accords equivalent respect to the two parties in the relationship.

Example 3

Using swimlanes to strategize IP rights allocation

In this example, swimlanes are used to explain the strategy to allocate background and foreground IP rights in a co-creation case.

Source: The Innovation Matrix and BIS Publishers

Example 4

500-Words Construction Contract

This swimlane, used in a short form construction contract (intended for use with smaller projects, but both B2B and B2C) illustrates the parties' respective obligations. Each party has one side of the contract, and a different colour. Shared or mutual obligations are full width and in a third colour.

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Skimmable headings

Term sheet