“Project management deals in organized chaos”. This quote immediately caught my eye when looking for a project management article to share. After seeing projects unfold both at work and in class, I could not agree more with the accuracy of this statment. This article is called “8 Ways a Mind Map Can Declutter Your Project Management” by Rob Marvin.
The article begins to describe what a mind map is and why we use them. This goes right along with our class as we have been practicing mind maps with a few different activities including the wedding plan and the employment plan. To refresh, these are the maps that have arrows pointing to the next topic or agenda item and are similar to a flow chart or matrix.
Let me first list lay out the ways a mind map can declutter your project and then I will go into a few of my favorite recommendations that I feel are most helpful.
1.) Professional Doodling
2.) A presentation Tool
3.) Brainstorming Sessions
4.) Task Delegation
5.) A Master Idea Repository
6.) Symbol Shorthand
7.) A Living Workflow
8.) Integrating Your Solutions
I believe all of these tools are very helpful and a great refresher when considering a mind map. I will describe my top 3.
First, I think #4 Task Delegation is critical to mind mapping. When organizing a projects tasks, this should be considered in all aspects of the mind map. Effectively delegating tasks on the mind map will make a project flow efficiently.
Second, I liked the idea of #7, creating the living workflow. This is something we did in our RFI’s and I think it is something that the project manager needs to keep a close eye on as the project progresses. A living workflow is described as a visual representation of a project and it lays out all the moving parts of the project in a chronological order. This allows the project manager to track progress and milestones.
Last, I believe #3 the Brainstroming Sessions are critical to the success of a project. Not only does this help in coming up with different routes to achieve a goal, but it also makes people feel as if they contributed. A project is likely to have more success if a team buys into the project tasks and isn’t just following something that a manager told them to do.
What steps do you think are important?
Are there any ways that this article didn’t mention that you thought it should have?