do you ever find yourself lost in the Maze of scattered thoughts and unclear
objectives during project planning and Analysis
if so mind maps can be just what you need for project success so stick around
hey Doc Squad Dr White here with the business analysis doctor today I'm giving you a tutorial
on building mind maps to navigate through projects and business analysis activities but before we
get started if you want more business analysis training and tips be sure to subscribe to the page
and turn on that notification Bell with that said let's dive in now let's talk about what you'll
learn first we'll discuss what my mapping is then we'll look at what my maps are used for we'll
cover the benefits of my maps for a project the main components of a mind map we'll go over my map
best practices and then we'll look at an example mind map for a project so what is a mind map a
mind map is a note taking technique that's used to organize and decompose information or ideas
in a visual manner this diagram AIDS in visual thinking to facilitate generating ideas making
connection and organizing thoughts mind mapping is also a powerful learning technique because it
captures information in a manner similar to the way the human mind processes information
this is by decomposing a central topic and then categorizing and making connections between the
various subtopics and elements so what are my maps used for my maps can be used to decompose
complex topics into smaller ideas to determine how various topics or concepts are related to
explore the various facets of an issue or problem to represent a comprehensive view of a complex
topic or to Think Through large issues with various components so how can these mind maps
specifically be used for a project there are a number of ways a business analyst or project
manager could use a mind map for a project including to identify potential stakeholders
in their relationships explore key aspects of the current state develop future State ideas
and understand dependencies support brainstorming by organizing ideas identify and explore possible
design options and also to generate a Consolidated view of the project this is a common way business
analysts and project managers use the mind maps this can be done using the 5ws and an H mind map
so throughout the lesson I'll be applying this approach to mind mapping in the examples in case
you're not familiar with the five W's and an H method it's a journalism technique used to
gather information or solve a problem using six basic questions including who what where when why
and how this approach has gained popularity in the business analysis space as a framework to initiate
requirements elicitation you can learn more about this technique for requirements elicitation via
the link in the description now let's dive into the details of the Mind map the first component
of the Mind map is the main topic this is the central concept or issue of the Mind map often
digital mind maps represent the main topic as a large node in the center of the Mind map diagram
images may also be placed in the center of the Mind map as the main topic because they can convey
large amounts of information this is most common when drawing a mind map by hand or when exploring
a more visual topic next up are topics topics are thoughts or ideas that elaborate on the main ideas
these represent high level components or categories associated with the main topic when
using the five ws and an H method to explore project these notes will be labeled who what
where when why and how next we expand out to the subtopics these are thoughts or ideas that further
elaborate on each of the topics derived from the main topic subtopics represent the lowest level
and most detailed information about the topic now each subtopic can be further decomposed or
expanded as many times as needed to get the needed information but you need to consider the spacing
and Arrangement when doing so when using the 5ws in an H method you would essentially be answering
each of the questions with nodes for example the subtopics that expand from The Who node of
a project might be the key groups impacted by the project such as stakeholders end users or vendors
now we have our branches these are the lines that connect or associate the main topic topic and
subtopic notes with one another when using a node-based mind map the branches are often
referred to as node lines branches are Illustrated in different ways based on the type of Mind map
you create for example with some of the more free-flowing formats that don't have nodes the
topic and subtopics may sit on top of the branches as you can see here now let's talk about keywords
keywords are single words used to label the main topic topics and subtopics if using images in the
mind map the keywords are used to add additional context the keywords generally facilitate the
organizing and categorizing of the concepts and encourages additional associations to be made
when using text in your mind map it's recommended to use single keywords or brief phrases instead
of link-based sentences the more words included in the mind map the less likely the information
will be committed to memory also the process of determining keywords is thought to improve the
Creator's ability to filter out what's in core important and make more relevant connections now
let's talk color color is used as a differentiator to categorize and organize topics subtopics and
their related associations a common approach is to use a color for each topic subtopic and branches
so that it's easier to see which elements are directly related to each other the last
component is images images are used to express large amounts of information that couldn't be
expressed through the textual topic headings it's common to have a large image for the main topic
smaller images for the topics and keywords for the subtopics now let's look at the best practices of
Mind mapping helicote the Mind map to group related ideas it's common for each topic that
stems from the main topic to have a specific color which will be assigned to all the subtopics and
keywords that are derived from that topic make key Concepts clearly visible print all words clearly
and use images that clearly represent the topics singular keywords are ideal if a single keyword
isn't practical keep text short within your mind map also put only one topic or subtopic on each
branch or node consider spacing ahead of time have enough space to extend your mind map and also
leave space for unexpected topics or new thoughts use a central image for the main topic if an image
isn't practical the text for the main topic should be much larger than any other text in the mind map
now let's go through an example mind map for a project for our case study we'll use a mortgage
company that's looking to implement a CRM solution with the Mind map you should always start with the
main topic node and then expand out for my maps that Define a project such as this one you might
label the node as the project name which might be something like Implement customer relationship
management system or you can use a picture that represents the main topic like I've done here
pictures are especially common when my maps are drawn by hand now let's add our topic notes when
using the five W's and an H method we add our who what where when why and how questions as the
topics now when using this method for a project it may be helpful to use the project language so
I'd create the following topic notes the who can be represented by a keyword such as stakeholders
for the what we're interested in the problem or opportunity that we're addressing so this can be
represented by business Niche which encompasses both of these now it's typically recommended for
keywords to be singular but I prefer to use business needs instead of just needs to keep
the focus on the organizational needs instead of the stakeholder needs for the where node we are
interested in the location of our stakeholders as well as the potential solution for the when
node we'd be interested in the project timelines the Y node will focus on the project rationale
and the drivers for the project so this can be rep present it with the keywords such as goals another
common keyword for the Y is objectives but I'm choosing to use gold because it's more inclusive
since goals are broken down into objectives and finally the how node May indicate how we'll be
achieving our Solutions so that's the keyword I'm choosing here remember there's no right or
wrong keyword choices here the point here is to trigger your memory so the keywords that
resonate best with you for a particular project component is what you should use and if you find
that images are more effective at helping you make associations then you can use those to represent
the topic nodes as well when using these images it usually adds more context to have a combination of
text and images now let's decompose each of the topic notes to get our subtopics let's start with
stakeholders The Who an elicitation question you may ask regarding the stakeholders might be or
the end users for a CRM implementation this will likely be the customer and cost customer service
Representatives another question might be who are our partners or external stakeholders here
you likely have some type of vendor for the CRM application now let's look at the business needs
since the business needs to know represents the what questions you may ask something like what
problem needs to be solved or what opportunity are we trying to address in this case we'll assume the
project is driven by a business problem such as low customer satisfaction rating or high customer
churn rates now we'll look at the location node since this is our aware node you might
ask questions like where will the infrastructure be hosted after some discussion and collaboration
we'll say that the team decides to Target a public cloud-based solution to save on maintenance costs
another elicitation question might be where are the stakeholders and this type of project may
include internal and external stakeholders now let's look at the timelines node this is where
we ask our win questions so you may ask questions related to the project timelines such as when is
the project kickoff here we'll say the project kickoff is next week if you're provided with an
exact date that's what you'll use as the keyword you should also ask when is the project deadline
here we'll assume a 90-day project timeline but again if you have the exact date that's what you
want to use as the subtopic next up is the goals node since this node investigates why we're doing
the project you'll likely ask questions like why do we need this change based on the business
problem of having a low customer satisfaction rating the new CRM would help the mortgage company
become a preferred lender you may also need to know why the churn rate is important since it's
also one of the problems discussed you'll probably find that reducing customer churn rates results in
an increase in customer retention which would ultimately increase profits finally we'll look
at the solutions node so here we'll ask questions related to how to achieve the goals so you might
ask something like how to get the CRM typically these will be questions regarding whether we'll
build the solution internally or purchase a solution from a vendor let's say the team
decides that the budget and time frame allows for a commercial off-the-shelf product so we'll use
Cuts as our keyword here then you may ask how we'd go about choosing the vendor for the cots
CRM after some feedback the team may decide to First identify the customer pain points and then
perform a vendor assessment to see which of the vendor offers a cut solution that is optimal for
addressing these pain points okay so here is your project my map for implementing a CRM application
this should provide you with a high level overview of the entire project while the
Kohler coding allows you to quickly associate the topics and subtopics well folks there you
have it this is what you need to build mind maps for your projects if you learned something new
tell me about it below I'd love to hear your feedback also be sure to check out all of the
business analysis certification training and tips we have for you at the VA doc.com thank
you so much for watching have a productive and prosperous day and I'll see you next time bye now