As you are working through brainstorming in Mindjet, the ideas have to turn to action at some point. Project planning in Mindjet has a different process that can be managed with a new map.
Within the same Mindjet folder, have your brainstorm maps and your project planning maps. It will help to reference as you move to clarify requirements and actions.
Here are a few tips to help drive the project planning in Mindjet:
- Define phases. Identify the natural milestones and segment them as subsets of the overall projects. Use parent nodes to identify the phases. This will keep everything identified in context. As your team accomplishes a phase, the focus can shift to the next phase.
- Create a schedule. Use actions and due dates to identify child nodes that have actions related to milestones. If there are dependencies, use the relationship tool to connect actions to other aspects of the mindmap. Make a comment within a node to clarify what the dependencies are. The goal is to emphasize the order of what needs to be done and showing the natural relationships visually.
- Identify contingencies. Knowing what the risks are within the project will be important. Use map markers to capture the thresholds, schedules and budgets that can affect specific nodes in the mindmap. Be sure to address these. I like to use flags – green, yellow and red to signify the status of a contingency. If they are all green, then there should not be any obstacles.
- Define project tracking. There needs to be a frequency and accountability over the tasks. Define the process for how communication about the project status will happen. This will also require teammates to collaborate. Set up a system in Mindjet as well as a process for updating your mind maps.
- Training. As projects come to completion, what is the launch and hand-off. Identify any training that needs to occur and set dates and venues for ensuring that people are trained on any new implementations.
Building your project plans in Mindjet helps to structure the sequence while leaving room for expansion as new requirements occur. Using the mind map as a collaboration center will help to ensure everyone stays on task.
At the end of your project, all the tasks should be complete and your project planning will have turned into a record of successful execution.
How can you use this approach for project planning?
