I love mind mapping software! It’s simple, it’s visual, it’s versatile – and everybody gets it! I use mind mapping software throughout the project lifecycle for many purposes, including:
Product Breakdown Structure – the very first thing I do when I’m making sense of what a project is about is go through the documentation and try to define what the project deliverables are. I use mind mapping software to make a visual and hierarchical representation of the project products in a product breakdown structure (PBS).
Project Plan – once I’ve identified the products of the project I can then export this PBS from my mind mapping software to my Gantt chart software, which happens to be MS Project 2007 at the moment.
Project Meetings – I use mind mapping software to take notes during any project meetings and then export the notes to MS Word or a pdf document.
Project Reporting – I keep the PBS and add some progress type icons to it and use this as a key project reporting tool. Project boards and committees love it – they don’t have to wade through gantt charts or cumbersome text, they can just look at it – and get it!
So there’s just a few uses for you!
The software I use for mind mapping is Mindjet’s Mind Manager 8 – it’s commercial software that costs a little bit, but well worth it for the use I get out of it! There is a free alternative that looks quite good – though I’ve not tried it and so not sure if it has all of the cool export options, but recommend you give it a go if you want free software – it’s called XMind.
Sample Product Breakdown Structure with progress indicators
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