Does this look like a common scenario for your project
management?
Hopefully, this is not exactly how your projects turn out,
but I am sure you have experienced plenty of lapses in communication. As a
manager, you probably know that half the battle is successful communication of
what the project entails from the start. In Being a Visual Manager: The First Steps, I
discussed the importance of clarifying your ideas from the beginning. This not
only helps you define the tasks as a manager, but also helps you put your team
on the same page. However, that is often not enough. For a successful project,
it is important to track the progress of the tasks, set deadlines, and dates
for deliverables, as well as regular check-ins.
To start figuring out the timeline for your project, you can
first start with a mind map. If you used the example from my last post in the
series, you will already have a number of “action items.” These become your
tasks. What I often end up doing is making a new mind map with all of my action
items. You can link this mind map to your original project mind map in
SmartDraw with the linking feature. When you have a separate mind map for the action items, it becomes
easier to focus on your TO DO list and action items. Plus, with SmartDraw you
can easily turn a mind map into a project chart, also known as a Gantt chart.
Here is my mind map:
On the left side of the SmartDraw window, the SmartPanel has
a “View as” option. When I choose to view my mind map as a Gantt Chart, I can
then determine how long tasks will take and set deadlines for myself.
My example for how I might go about managing my blog post
schedule is very simplistic, but it is easy to scale up my own process for
larger projects. SmartDraw has features such as adding dependencies, assigning
team members to tasks, and more advanced Gantt chart capabilities. In fact, you
can find out more information about how to use Gantt charts here [link].
Let me know what you think of this post and let me know if
you have any questions. In my next post, I will be discussing the importance of
documenting your workflows.
If you missed the first part of the series check it out
here:
Being a Visual Manager: The First Steps
Here are copies of the SmartDraw file I used in this blog
post:
[Example] Mind
Map – Building a Project Timeline.sdr
In case you do not have SmartDraw, download a trial here.
