The Effective Project Manager. Michael Stratton

units in order to realize where you need to focus your time. Mind maps can be used anytime you need to analyze and spend time thinking strategically. My use of mind maps has changed how I view and approach work. I’ll never go back to using MS Word outlines or MS OneNote bullet points when initiating strategy work.

      Mind Map – Use Case Catalog

      The following sample mind map can be used for maintaining a use case catalog (available at www.effective-pm.com).

      The primary function of this use case catalog template is to provide a way to track all of your use cases. In many cases it is also necessary to prioritize the use cases in order of importance. If your team determines that it’s most important for your organization to implement the Customer—Creates Order use case, simply drag and drop that subtopic to the top of the list of use cases and prioritize the use case as your number one use case. It’s a great way to identify the most important task so you and your stakeholders know what you should be working on.

      Mind Map – Use Cases Details

      The following sample mind map can be used for documenting the details of a use case (available at www.effective-pm.com).

      The most basic use case includes an actor and a main flow. The actor is the person or thing taking the action and the main flow is the sequential steps that must take place to complete the action. It can be painstakingly slow to capture use case details in an easy-to-understand and presentable format using MS Visio or another diagramming tool. That’s one reason why this use case mind map is my favorite. During meetings where use cases are defined, you can make updates in real time to this mind map. Using a drag and drop capability, you can move subtopic details around with ease. You can list all the tasks that should take place within the main flow, then organize the tasks in the order in which you want the tasks to be completed. Doing so will save business analysts hours upon hours of time creating and refining use cases.

      Using mind maps is a way to manage yourself and manage others. If your organization requires use cases to be in a MS Word or MS Visio format, I urge you to adopt a tool like Mindomo and store your use cases as Mindomo files. Replace Word templates and Visio documents with mind map files. If keeping the use cases as Mindomo file types poses a concern for your organization, simply save these mind maps as PDFs or in another format.

      Technology Tool Tip

      Use these tips to make the most of mind mapping tools:

      •Use mind mapping tools to organize your thoughts and to visualize your strategy, scope and big picture. Also use them to manage your work and the work of others.

      •Check out Mindomo (www.mindomo.com), XMind (www.xmind.net) and Lucidchart (www.lucidchart.com).