Who has not been struggling to find the quickest and most effective
way to have a project under control or to be able to see "the big
picture".
A powerful tool, not only in the project management environment, is the Mind Mapping, a way to represent things (from the high level project phase to the smallest deliverables and work package for instance), to gather and organize ideas around a central - main - topic.
From this central topic (or idea), a lot of arms and branches, like in a spiderweb (they are actually called also spider-diagrams) develop the idea. Every branch goes in a certain direction or develops a particular aspect of the same idea.
There are some rules, which have actually been written down by Tony Buzan, "The Expert" of mind mapping:
Does this remind you of anything?
- Yes, correct, something very similar to the WBS, which can be actually seen itself as a Mind Map.
Two questions now:
1. Why does Mind Mapping work?
- It is visual and our brain works better (mine at least) with images and signs, rather than words, chapters and paragraphs.
2. What has Mind Mapping to do with Project Management?
- Besides the WBS, the whole Project can be seen and organized as a Mind Map. Not saying that a GANTT Chart or any other "classical" Project Management tools are useless, however if you are able to think of your project and put it, describe it, with a mind map, well it is so much easier to have the overview of what is going on, yet going in small detail.
I have been here investigating myself and struggling to find the right tool to do the job. Freeware tools (Freemind, Xmind) are a great starting point and have a lot of interesting features.
Xmind especially allows you to add pictures, attach file to a branch and add tags and symbols as you wish.
However, it lacks of many important features that maybe a project manager would need.
I work in a quite structured company, we use a lot of extremely good templates, all in Word, Excel and MS Project. So, I actually do not want to reinvent the wheel. A good mind mapping tool has to be able to import and export files from and to MS Office and MS Project applications.
The Mind Map of the project will become then the Project "Directory", the place where you can have the overview of what is going on or what it has to be done, still being able to jump - drill in - to the single work package.
So far in my investigations, three softwares have become the most interesting ones.
Happy Mind Mapping!
A powerful tool, not only in the project management environment, is the Mind Mapping, a way to represent things (from the high level project phase to the smallest deliverables and work package for instance), to gather and organize ideas around a central - main - topic.
From this central topic (or idea), a lot of arms and branches, like in a spiderweb (they are actually called also spider-diagrams) develop the idea. Every branch goes in a certain direction or develops a particular aspect of the same idea.
There are some rules, which have actually been written down by Tony Buzan, "The Expert" of mind mapping:
- Start in the center with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colors.
- Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your mind map.
- Select key words and print using upper or lower case letters.
- Each word/image is best alone and sitting on its own line.
- The lines should be connected, starting from the central image. The central lines are thicker, organic and thinner as they radiate out from the centre.
- Make the lines the same length as the word/image they support.
- Use multiple colors throughout the mind map, for visual stimulation and also to encode or group.
- Develop your own personal style of mind mapping.
- Use emphasis and show associations in your mind map.
- Keep the mind map clear by using radial hierarchy, numerical order or outlines to embrace your branches.
Does this remind you of anything?
- Yes, correct, something very similar to the WBS, which can be actually seen itself as a Mind Map.
Two questions now:
1. Why does Mind Mapping work?
- It is visual and our brain works better (mine at least) with images and signs, rather than words, chapters and paragraphs.
2. What has Mind Mapping to do with Project Management?
- Besides the WBS, the whole Project can be seen and organized as a Mind Map. Not saying that a GANTT Chart or any other "classical" Project Management tools are useless, however if you are able to think of your project and put it, describe it, with a mind map, well it is so much easier to have the overview of what is going on, yet going in small detail.
I have been here investigating myself and struggling to find the right tool to do the job. Freeware tools (Freemind, Xmind) are a great starting point and have a lot of interesting features.
Xmind especially allows you to add pictures, attach file to a branch and add tags and symbols as you wish.
However, it lacks of many important features that maybe a project manager would need.
I work in a quite structured company, we use a lot of extremely good templates, all in Word, Excel and MS Project. So, I actually do not want to reinvent the wheel. A good mind mapping tool has to be able to import and export files from and to MS Office and MS Project applications.
The Mind Map of the project will become then the Project "Directory", the place where you can have the overview of what is going on or what it has to be done, still being able to jump - drill in - to the single work package.
So far in my investigations, three softwares have become the most interesting ones.
- MindView 4 Business: relatively expensive -$379 a license- but very powerful. Besides the mind mapping functionalities, it integrates lot of Project Management features. It can export your mind map to a Gannt Chart - and the other way around, or to a word or powerpoint presentation. It also export the main milestones and tasks from a project to MS Outlook tasks in a click. Do not tell anymore that you have missed that milestone!
- iMindMap from Tony Buzan's company an awesome and colorful graphical interface. The resulting maps are really awesome, they are great for most general purpose mind mapping. Functionalities of Project Management are not that developed. $256 is the price for the "Ultimate" package.
- Finally, the "Ferrari" of Mind Mapping and Project Management is MindManager from MindJet, for $399, brings you lots of Project Management and Mind mapping functions together including - if you purchase to other tools kits to complete the set - team collaboration facilities
Happy Mind Mapping!
