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Chapter 1. Plan the Big Picture Using Mind Maps

Think about the different characteristics of the projects that you have to manage. You need to understand the overall vision and success criteria of your project. You need to be aware of and manage the budget, scope and schedule of a project. You also need to manage project resources, risks, decisions and dependencies. Before writing a charter that includes all of this information, take the time to envision the big picture. The best way I’ve found to really see the big picture is to use a mind map or bubble map to organize your thoughts. Doing so will help you organize your project both strategically and visually.

A mind map is a simple concept. It’s a main topic surrounded by supporting subtopics. It generally looks like a spoke and wheel. A mind map provides an excellent way to hone in on a specific topic. I use mind maps daily for both business and personal projects. If you can visualize your project in its entirety, then you can focus on one area at a time and understand exactly what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and when you need to do it in relation to other tasks.

I highly recommend using Mindomo (www.mindomo.com), XMind (www.xmind.net) or even a diagramming and mind map tool such as Lucidchart (www.lucidchart.com). The mind map examples in this book were created using Mindomo, and each template in this book is available for free download on my website, www.effective-pm.com. To begin, download the template from my website. Then sign up for free at mindomo.com and use the Mindomo user interface to open the template file. I’ll walk you through how to use this tool to help you immediately improve your current project planning processes.

Mind Map – Project Planning

The following sample mind map can be used for project planning (available at www.effective-pm.com).

Here’s how it works. Begin with a template like the one shown above, and get to work organizing your thoughts. It may require a few minutes of your time to figure out how to add a subtopic, make text updates and move the subtopics around on the screen. Once you feel comfortable with the user interface, think about the vision and success criteria for your project. The most important item in this mind map is the vision. Why? Because without a clear vision that stakeholders understand and agree to, then the rest of the project doesn’t matter. What does your project depend on? What other projects within your organization depend on your project? What are the known risks? What decisions need to be made? What’s the exact scope? Who are your resources? What are their roles?

A mind map is a living, breathing document that can be used to begin a conversation with stakeholders. Executives don’t like to spend a lot of time trying to understand what’s going on with your project. Deliver this information to executives, management and your project team on a silver platter—in visual form.

The beauty of a mind map is that you don’t have to keep the project details in your head at all times. There’s a limit to how much information your brain neurons can immediately tap into, so keep these details in an easily accessible mind map. Then when you can’t recall the answer to a question about your project, open the mind map to find the answer. Free up your brain’s processing neurons for tasks that enhance your productivity and allow you to think creatively.

Try displaying a mind map on a projector during meetings, and use it as a visual aid to walk through each of your points. When a team member thinks of an important idea or shares a strong opinion, immediately add it to the mind map so it’s not lost. A mind map is a tool for collaboration. How good do you think team members feel when they see that their idea is adopted in real time?

You can also track this information in meeting minutes, but—reality check—how often do you go back to review meeting minutes? Meeting minutes are for detectives looking for a specific answer to a specific question in retrospect. Keep the most important project information in your mind map, not in meeting minutes or in the filing cabinet in your brain.

Mind maps can change every day and provide visibility and transparency for your project. Mindomo offers capabilities that allow you to share your map with team members, who can then make their own updates. I’ve had people tell me this is the best tool they’ve seen in a long time. Much to my surprise, even kindergartners are learning about mind maps, but they call them bubble maps because each idea or subtopic looks like a bubble. This skill is being taught in our schools to very young children, and I foresee a substantial adoption of the use of mind maps in education as well as in business in future years.

We are all visual on some level. Bring visualization to the forefront of your project with this tool.

Mind Map – Strategy Planning

The following sample mind map can be used for strategy planning (available at www.effective-pm.com).

In this example, I’ve outlined a mind map that is being used for creating strategies and helping to define scope. This mind map should be created prior to writing any strategy documents for your projects. For example, say you need to create a project strategy that addresses training needs for the new software system that you’re implementing. Create a mind map to define your project’s approach to training as a means of thinking through the purpose and approach for that training.

Create strategy or scope mind maps for topics that need to be fleshed out for executives and stakeholders. Instead of trying to determine if you left something out by going from section to section in a MS Word document, create a mind map first, then type the information into the document. Then if your organization requires official Word documentation as part of your project methodology, it’s much easier to write that documentation when you have the content at your fingertips in a mind map.

Mind Map – Business Functions

The following sample mind map can be used for organizing business functions (available at www.effective-pm.com).

A mind map doesn’t just have to be used for clarifying your thoughts for a project. You can also use a mind map to organize your business. What are all the business functions within your organization? Who owns each of the business functions within your organization? What are the top three business functions that need your attention this week, this month or this year?

Mindomo lets you assign a person to each business function and also lets you prioritize subtopics that need your focus. Good project management requires that each function have an owner, someone with responsibility for the function. Each owner must have the time, training, resources and authority to perform and complete the task. Assigning responsibility without authority sets you up for failure.

In the example above, the distribution business function in the mind map doesn’t have an owner. Uh-oh. It’s time to assign someone (or hire or contract with someone) to own the distribution business function.

Sometimes you just need to see all the pieces of your company divided into functional units in order to realize where you need to focus your time. Mind maps can be used anytime you need to analyze and spend time thinking strategically. My use of mind maps has changed how I view and approach work. I’ll never go back to using MS Word outlines or MS OneNote bullet points when initiating strategy work.

Mind Map – Use Case Catalog

The following sample mind map can be used for maintaining a use case catalog (available at www.effective-pm.com).

The primary function of this use case catalog template is to provide a way to track all of your use cases. In many cases it is also necessary to prioritize the use cases in order of importance. If your team determines that it’s most important for your organization to implement the Customer—Creates Order use case, simply drag and drop that subtopic to the top of the list of use cases and prioritize the use case as your number one use case. It’s a great way to identify the most important task so you and your stakeholders know what you should be working on.

Mind Map – Use Cases Details

The following sample mind map can be used for documenting the details of a use case (available at www.effective-pm.com).

The most basic use case includes an actor and a main flow. The actor is the person or thing taking the action and the main flow is the sequential steps that must take place to complete the action. It can be painstakingly slow to capture use case details in an easy-to-understand and presentable format using MS Visio or another diagramming tool. That’s one reason why this use case mind map is my favorite. During meetings where use cases are defined, you can make updates in real time to this mind map. Using a drag and drop capability, you can move subtopic details around with ease. You can list all the tasks that should take place within the main flow, then organize the tasks in the order in which you want the tasks to be completed. Doing so will save business analysts hours upon hours of time creating and refining use cases.

Using mind maps is a way to manage yourself and manage others. If your organization requires use cases to be in a MS Word or MS Visio format, I urge you to adopt a tool like Mindomo and store your use cases as Mindomo files. Replace Word templates and Visio documents with mind map files. If keeping the use cases as Mindomo file types poses a concern for your organization, simply save these mind maps as PDFs or in another format.

Technology Tool Tip

Use these tips to make the most of mind mapping tools:

•Use mind mapping tools to organize your thoughts and to visualize your strategy, scope and big picture. Also use them to manage your work and the work of others.

•Check out Mindomo (www.mindomo.com), XMind (www.xmind.net) and Lucidchart (www.lucidchart.com).