Project management

Thinking back to the various project evaluations we performed, the true causes of the problems that occurred almost always happened in the early stages and were in 95% of the cases to be attributed to communication issues.

The inability to quickly pair and identify the correct information, the structuring of the business case, linking the costings, and then to add-in the information from the mind and share that in order to arrive at a common picture of the starting point.

When mind mapping is used in the initial phase many problems are very well avoidable, not only at the start but even during the term of a project. The main reasons for this are the simplification of communication from a combined viewpoint, facilitating of decision-making, easier management of phase transitions, and the ability to focus on the critical path that leads to achieving the main business case goals.

Mind Mapping can help prevent the management of action lists as opposed to project objectives. Focusing on planning is becoming easier.  Mind mapping can be very important with follow-up and with the various elements of project management – think of risk management and the creation of dashboards. A mindmap literally creates the same picture of the situation for all involved.

There are not many software packages that are suitable for project management – including an integrated Gantt-chart view, but iMindMap is one that is. The Ultimate version makes it possible to indicate start- and end data, milestones, lead times, priorities and the completion percentage for every task.

Just as with the other packages, the topics have start- and end data and are thus tagged as tasks.

In the previous version all mind map topics appeared in Gantt view, and there was no real difference between topics with and without tasks. With the current version this can be defined by branch. The task data, except the state of readiness, are only visible in the Gantt chart portion, not in the mind map itself. That makes it hard to determine which topics contain tasks, and which do not.

It’s not possible to import tasks from Outlook. iMindMap does allow for a work-around by importing from OPML.

By using numbering with project management, the sequence in which the tasks appear in the list can be indicated. Other software does this automatically using the branch sequencing. After all data is recorded the result can then be exported to MS Project.

If some filtering options are added, iMindMap could be interesting for smaller projects.

Knowledge management

Much like other mind mapping software iMindMap is suitable for the management of knowledge. Especially Tony Buzan constantly insist on storing information in a mind map by using keywords.

On certain points the program complies with our requirements. A number of issues:

• Text import can be achieved from MS Word and through OPML,
• Multi chart feature – iMindMap has a comfortable option to create underlying mind maps (children),
• Every iMindMap branch can be supplied with multiple links to files and the Internet.

What we continue to come up against is the export option to HTML, but as previously stated iMindMap is working on this.

Besides that it is not possible to filter and to add files to the mind map file. Therefore the deployment of iMindMap in a professional environment is still limited.

Deployment in a personal or work-study atmosphere however is not a problem.

Reporting and presenting

MindManager does not have all-important features for (management-) reporting. Relevant aspects covered include the ability to insert spreadsheets and tables, add relationships, to filter out certain characteristics as priorities and critical timetables and to link to relevant websites and other documents. In particular, the option to easily add spreadsheets and tables, and to potentially actively link them to the source is not present.

iMindMap 4 has several interesting presentation features. The presenter sees two windows, one with the mind map and one with the operational features and notes. The attendees only see the mind map. The presenter also receives information about the elapsed time per slide and for the entire presentation.

In addition, the presenter has a view of underlying mind maps, and can jump back and forth. Finally the presentation mode ensures that the displayed branches “grow” organically. All in all the presentation mode of iMindMap suits us very well. Important is to properly control the speed. Before presenting the mind map it is good to check the branch sequence. By default, the presentation mode allows the branches to grow in the order of how the branches are created.

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