GUIDE TO MINDMANAGER FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT PAGE 10 Start managing your projects with MindManager to drive project success and inspire innovative solutions. MindManager maps have the features you need to coordinate projects and avoid roadblocks. From small projects to complex initiatives, you can create a blueprint for success with MindManager. The manual alone doesn't help much, it also needs videos to see what is possible. The manual is good for the basics. Although the videos from MM are very good but often too long with 1h. Shorter with a smaller scope would certainly be more helpful for many new users of MM.
How to write a workflow process to maximize efficiency
MindManager lets you go from inception of ideas to execution of complex plans, projects, and processes. Get a top-down view, and easily see where your time and effort would be best allocated. Evolve ideas into an executable strategy, process, or plan; Amplify tasks with resources information, deadlines, and notes. Watch this video to learn the basics of mind mapping with MindManager. We'll go over map organization, moving and ordering topics, using the built-in mind map templates, and navigating menus so you can get started mapping right away. How to Use MindManager Enterprise. In this video, you will learn how to use MindManager Enterprise to organize. Mindjet has recently enabled users with an ability to create Mindjet IDs through our website. Mindjet IDs are the initial effort to create an infrastructure that allows for a more personalized user experience.
By: Jill Huettich
Workflow processes can transform businesses—increasing efficiency, improving decision making, streamlining operations, and ultimately, saving companies money. As you might imagine, there are distinct advantages to defining and optimizing workflow processes.
Perhaps just as importantly, workflow processes don't just help businesses operate more efficiently—they can also prevent disasters. Take, for example, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion that occurred in 1986. At the time, engineers expressed concerns about a possible O-ring failure in cold weather.
These issues were well-known by the engineering team but attempts to notify management fell on deaf ears. Instead of looking into the issue, NASA's management chose to ignore the problem. Despite the deep concern expressed by those familiar with the O-ring's limitations, NASA went ahead with the launch–resulting in the death of 7 astronauts.
Looking back, it's clear that had a workflow process been in place to thoroughly examine concerns related to equipment failures—rather than sweeping them under the carpet—this disaster could probably have been avoided.
Fortunately, most businesses don't have human lives at stake if they fail to accurately define a workflow process. However, this example highlights how workflow processes can prevent problems, so companies aren't forced to react to them once they've already occurred.
Bottom line, workflow processes are extremely important. So, how exactly do you create one anyway? That's what this article intends to cover.
In it, we'll review a typical workflow process, show show you how to write a workflow process for a team or for a project, and explain how workflow management differs from business process management.
Workflow management vs. business process management
Workflow management and business process management (BPM) have the same goal—to improve organizational efficiency. However, they each approach that aim from different angles.
Workflow management defines how specific, repetitive tasks are managed within an organization—essentially, the way work is routed between people and departments.
An example of a workflow process might include what happens after a customer places an order—who verifies the item is in stock? If it isn't in stock, how is the customer notified? Which department is responsible for retrieving the order and when in the process does that occur?
By contrast, business process management is more complex. It looks at the processes of an entire organization with the aim of improving overall efficiency. The goal here is continuous improvement of each process.
Workflow management is a component of business process management which is why the terms are often confused.
How to write a workflow process
While writing a workflow process may sound intimidating, the steps are actually pretty straightforward, whether you're creating one for project workflow management or for team workflow management. In this article, we'll take a look at both.
How to write a workflow process for projects
1. Identify deliverables.
Before you can map out a project workflow process, you'll want to list out all the deliverables that the project will produce. Say, for instance, you've decided to launch a new product.
The deliverables might include some of the following:
- Product Specifications document
- Product Prototype
- Press Release
- Updated Training Manual
- New Packaging
When tackling this step, keep in mind that deliverables are the actual results from a project—for instance, things like documents, software, marketing materials, or new packaging.
Deliverables don't include the activities that need to take place to create those outputs (i.e. a press release is a deliverable, writing a press release is not). Once you've identified the project's deliverables, you're ready to move on to the next step …
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2. Create processes for your deliverables
Every deliverable is created following some type of process. A press release, for example, might be created with a process that looks something like this:
- Interview upper management to obtain quotes
- Write the press release
- Have legal department approve the press release
- Get management approval of the press release
- Distribute the press release to news agencies
During this step, you'll want to write a workflow process for each deliverable. This will help you identify everything that needs to occur before the project can be completed successfully.
You may notice while creating your workflow processes that some activities have dependencies. Say, for instance, the press release needs to include a photo of the new product. Distribution of the press release is then dependent upon creation of the product prototype. Keep note of these dependencies so you can include them on the visual workflow you'll be creating in the next step.
3. Diagram the project workflows
Once you've created processes for all the project deliverables, you'll be ready to create a visual workflow. Macgo blu ray player pro 3 3 11 13. This flowchart will make it easy for anyone to get an at-a-glance overview of your entire project—what needs to happen, when in the process it needs to occur, and which team is responsible for doing it. As mentioned earlier, any project or process dependencies should also be included on this flowchart.
We recommend using MindManager for this step. With MindManager's intuitive templates, you can easily plan projects, document processes, and optimize workflows.
How to write a workflow process for teams
1. Talk to your team.
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Although this step may seem obvious, it's often overlooked. However, its importance cannot be overstated. When documenting a team workflow process, you need to begin by getting team members' input because all too often, the stated way of doing things is different from reality.
So, say you've decided to document a team workflow process for managing payments to vendors. Your first step is to get your team members involved and ask them questions.
Who receives the invoice? Who needs to approve the invoice before it can be paid? Is that person in a different department? How does the approval process work? After approval is given, who actually pays the invoice?
Disk diet clean your drive 5 4 1. Once you know which teams handle each task within a given process, you're ready to move on to the next step.
2. Define responsibilities.
In some cases, you may discover there's overlap between departments. For instance, sometimes Accounting okays an invoice, other times it's the Finance department.
As you define your team workflow process, you'll want to match tasks to specific departments to avoid these types of redundancies.
3. Diagram the team workflow.
Once you've identified how the process flows and which departments handle various tasks (and when), it's time to document the process you've developed with a flowchart. Again, MindManager is perfect for this.
As you can see, it's fairly easy to document team workflows and project workflows at your organization once you have a framework for doing so. Even better, after these processes are clearly delineated, it becomes easy to notice potential pitfalls.
If you find any, don't become discouraged. That's actually part of the process (of process mapping)! Think of it not as a problem, but as an opportunity. You can always revise the workflows you've created, making tweaks to improve efficiency.
That is, in fact, one of the reason workflows are used so often—they make it easier for companies to streamline their operations which ultimately increases profitability.
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Knowledge visualization: a brief introduction
Interestingly enough, you don't often hear the term 'knowledge visualization' in the corporate world—which is unusual when you consider just how valuable knowledge visualization is to decision-making, productivity, and strategic planning. That isn't just idle speculation either–the benefits of knowledge visualization are backed by science. In fact, research shows that knowledge visualization enables meaningful learning, aids with memory retention, simplifies complex issues, ignites creativity, and even improves writing skills.
Knowledge visualization is the use of visual representation to improve the creation and transfer of knowledge.
What is knowledge visualization?
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Knowledge visualization is defined as 'the use of visual representations to improve the creation and transfer of knowledge between at least two people.' If you've ever sketched something out on a napkin to better explain a concept to a friend, you've practiced knowledge visualization.
However, visualizing knowledge encompasses more than just sketches. Knowledge can be transferred using a variety of visual formats, including: diagrams, images, objects, interactive visualizations, information visualization applications, and even imaginary visualizations, as in stories.
Additionally, knowledge visualization doesn't just refer to the transfer of facts. It's also used for transferring insights, experiences, attitudes, values, expectations, perspectives, opinions, and predictions.
What are the benefits of knowledge visualization?
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The benefits of knowledge visualization are myriad. We briefly highlighted them earlier in this article, but in this section, we'll go into greater depth. This will help you have a better understanding of why you might want to incorporate more opportunities for visualizing information into your own organization.
For instance, knowledge visualization benefits include such things as:
- Better Understanding – Visualizing knowledge is useful for identifying patterns, outliers, and trends. And of course with this information, companies can better predict where their organization, industry, or market is headed, strategically planning for the future.
- Improved Recall – You're probably familiar with the saying, 'A picture is worth a thousand words.' That definitely applies to knowledge visualization. When concepts are presented to people in a visual way, memory retention increases. As a result, knowledge visualization has been proven to facilitate learning.
- More Engaging – Imagine you've been presented with two options—either to read a manual explaining a process flow or to actually see that same process presented visually. If you're like most people, you'd probably opt for the diagram. Diagrams are usually interesting and fun to look at. Long, boring manuals, on the other hand? Not so much.
- Deeper Insights – Knowledge visualization shows details in context, as well as the relationships among various objects. Because these relationships are so clearly mapped out in graphic format, more opportunities exist for 'a-ha' moments.
- Faster Knowledge Transfer – When non-experts need to learn new information fast, diagrams can be especially useful. Say, for instance, that a marketing department manager needs to explain to the IT department exactly what tasks his team performs, because he wants marketing software to streamline their operations. Sometimes, this can be overwhelming to try to communicate orally or even in writing. With knowledge visualization, however, the marketing team's processes and workflows can be documented in such a way that the entire IT team can quickly get up-to-speed.
Now that we've defined knowledge visualization, and looked at some benefits, let's explore some examples.
Examples of knowledge visualization
There are a number of different ways that knowledge visualization can be used in the workplace. For instance, many companies rely on knowledge visualization for such things as:
- Project Management – Projects have a lot of moving pieces. Who's going to do what? When does it need to be done by? Which objectives need to be accomplished for a project to be completed on time and under budget? For complex projects, it's much easier to track this information visually, rather than to write out every single detail. This allows stakeholders to see the project's status at a glance, without having to sift through piles of papers.
- Brainstorming – Some of the most important ideas emerge from brainstorming sessions. By documenting brainstorming sessions visually, teams have an easy way to track ideas, so they can reference them again in the future.
- Process Mapping – Business process mapping is a way of visually defining what a business does, who in an organization is responsible for doing it, to what standard the process should be completed, and how to evaluate whether the process was performed successfully. For instance, an organization might choose to map out from start-to-finish what occurs when a customer places an order i.e. which department processes the order, when does the order get sent to the warehouse, what occurs if the desired product isn't in stock, and so on.
- Budgeting – Most people don't enjoy the thought of reading through long columns of numbers. Fortunately, when companies take advantage of knowledge visualization, they don't have to. Budgets can be represented by pie charts (i.e. using percentages to show how revenue is spent), bar charts (i.e. illustrating differences between the current and previous years), or as line graphs (i.e. showing the increase of a budget over time). In each of these instances, budgeting information is presented in such a way that business executives can quickly see how money is being spent or allocated– enabling faster decision making.
These are just some of the ways an organization might use knowledge visualization to improve performance. Of course, to get the best results with knowledge visualization, you'll want to make sure you have the right software.
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