PM Response

Create part of or an entire project in a mind map

Using a Mind Map structure makes it easy to assess, discuss, and troubleshoot a project quickly. The Mind Map displays a list of milestones, phases, tasks, and other important project data in a visual format that is easy to work with. Having the whole project's structure in front of you, the project teams are able to assess quickly the project conditions and adapt the strategy to respond to current situations. The project data can be modified in a Mind Map view and then equally simply folded back into the project plan, making the project iterations easy, timely, and accurate.

Use the ConceptDraw MINDMAP software to create the part or entire project in a mind map, to brainstorm and formulate the list of milestones, phases, and tasks with your team. To start the brainstorming session, navigate to the Home tab and click on the Brainstorm button. When returning to the ConceptDraw MINDMAP program's main window you can set the data for your topics, to designate the milestones, phases and tasks. To do so, press the Shift+F10 combination on the keyboard, click on the topic and choose the appropriate topic type in a pop-up Topic Types dialog.

At this stage, when you have a ready-made Mind Map in the ConceptDraw MINDMAP application, you can convert it to the project or to the part of your project. Select all map's topics using the Ctrl+A combination or some of them you need to convert by selecting with a mouse cursor and press Ctrl+C to copy selected topics. Now, you can go to the ConceptDraw PROJECT application, position the mouse cursor where you want to place the selected material and press Ctrl+V combination on the keyboard to paste it.

Create a mind map to describe part of the project

Creating a Mind Map to describe the part of your project is a convenient way to isolate a project’s part and to resolve any issues related to that part. It is also great for meetings and collaborating with teams on problem-solving.

ConceptDraw PROJECT provides an ability to create a map for your project or even multiproject directly from the program, and automatically opens it in ConceptDraw MINDMAP For this, select the phases and tasks that you want to see on your map and use the Create Mind Map command from the Gantt Chart’s context menu or Multiproject’s context menu, opened by the right mouse click on the project area on Gantt Chart or in Multiproject view correspondingly. In Mac version, this command is also available in the Communication top menu. Another way is to press Ctrl+C on the keyboard to copy the selected project's phases and tasks from ConceptDraw PROJECT, then open the ConceptDraw MINDMAP and use Ctrl+V combination to paste them in a form of a map.

To represent at once the whole project made in ConceptDraw PROJECT as a Mind Map, you can use the listed commands or shortcuts after selecting all phases and tasks at your project or simply applying the Open in ConceptDraw MINDMAP command from the program's Menu File -> Send.

Analyze pros and cons of the current situation and make decisions

Create Fishbone diagrams and other meaningful Visual project diagrams to better understand and analyze problems, to explore pros and cons of the current situation. This process helps the project managers and team leaders to make better decisions related to their projects. To create the Fishbone diagram for effective decision-making, use the Output tab in ConceptDraw MINDMAP and double-click on the Fishbone button in the Project Management -> PM Response section or Cause and Effect (Fishbone) button at the Business Productivity -> PM Response section. The Fishbone diagram will be generated from your map's data and automatically opened in the ConceptDraw DIAGRAM application.

Visually plan resource allocation and usage

The use of Radial Tasks diagrams helps to plan resources allocation and usage, and visually identify the most resource-heavy tasks and phases. Click the DIAGRAM button on the Share tab in Windows version of ConceptDraw PROJECT and choose the Radial Tasks Structure command from the pop-up menu to generate the Radial Task diagram based on your project’s data, in particular on the base of project's tasks with assigned human resources. On Mac, you can find and use this feature from the toolbar.

Example: Project — Customer Billing System

This example represents the project of building a Customer Billing System, which is an application software providing support of billing’s business processes. The billing is actively used in telecommunications allowing operators to collect information on the use of telecommunications services, to bill subscribers, to charge, and to process the payments. This project includes the phases of analysis the needs and requirements, and development the overall product functionality, documentation of procedures, references, capture screens and output examples, making technical reviews, then actual production, assembly and release of a product, its obligatory testing, and also training users how to efficiently use this product. The last stage includes creation supporting training materials and providing training courses.