The Effective Project Manager. Michael Stratton
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skills. Now it’s time to get to work. We’ll start with managing yourself. We’ll start with you.
Noise bombards you every day at home, at work, on the train, at the coffee shop, at the shopping mall, on the street and in nearly every place you go. Noise is part of our modern world. However, this noise doesn’t have to control you. Not unless you let it. The first three chapters will help you separate yourself from the noise so you can see the big picture, focus on the right tasks at the right time and recognize the importance of really, truly believing in yourself.
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