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If you were asked to deliver a project with the bare minimum set of software project management tools, what would be your answer? I would confidently reply “Microsoft Project and a project log to capture issues, risks, action items and change requests.” Depending on the formal PM requirements of the organization, I’d probably drop the project log and track those items in Microsoft Project as well. However, after delivering projects with Mind Jet’s Mind Manager, I’ve added a third tool to my must-have list of project management tools. Mind Jet’s Mind Manager simply saves me time in my day-to-day project management activities. Considering project managers spend up to 90 percent of their time communicating across project teams, it definitely helps when a tool is used to improve project management efficiency. Mind Manager helps facilitate a variety of project management processes ranging from communication plans to detailed project schedules. This article provides an overview on how project managers can apply the Project Time Management process to quickly develop a skeleton project schedule using Mind Manager and integrate it with Microsoft Project. Mind Manager has a powerful integration feature that exports data to MS-Project for further decomposition and schedule development. For small, low-complexity projects, you may even find Mind Manager to be a satisfactory alternative to Microsoft Project. According to the PMBOK, the Project Time Management process consists of six key processes including: - Define Activities
- Sequence Activities
- Estimate Activity Resources
- Estimate Activity Durations
- Develop Schedule
- Control Schedule
Mind Jet’s Mind Manager easily supports these processes and this article will demonstrate how Define Activities, Sequence Activities, Estimate Activity Resources and Estimate Activity Durations are supported in the tool. Schedule Development and Control are typically facilitated in Microsoft Project, and Mind Manager quickly exports with a click of a button. Step 1: Define Activities The definition of activities for a project is typically the result of a brainstorming session. Project team members meet to discuss the scope of a project and then identify the major activities that comprise the work breakdown structure. Since these conversations are non-linear and often lead into tangents, mind mapping can be used to capture the flow of the conversation as project team members identify key activities. Figure 1 depicts the results of a sample activity definition session using a Mind Map:  Figure 1: Activity Definition Step 2: Sequence Activities Mind Jet has an easy-to-use feature to link tasks and dependencies within the mind map. Relationships are easily created by drawing a graphic relationship between activities. Figure 2 depicts the sequenced activities:  Figure 2: Activity Sequencing Step 3: Estimate Activity Resources During activity resource estimation, the project manager estimates the types and amount of resources required to execute the project. During a planning session, team names can be quickly identified and assigned against the activities in the mind map using Mind Jet’s Task Information window pane. Figure 3 depicts the resources assigned to the project schedule mind map: Figure 3: Activity Resources Step 4: Estimate Activity Durations The next step in building the project schedule is to estimate the activity duration and target dates for the project. By adding dependencies in Step 2, a dynamic schedule can be developed by specifying a start date with the first task and assigning durations across the remaining activities. Each task end date is be dynamically generated once a duration is assigned. Figure 4 depicts the project schedule with start, finish and duration:  Figure 4: Estimate Activity Duration Step 5 and 6: Develop and Control Schedule At this point, the mind map contains the major structure elements for the work breakdown structure. By collapsing the different nodes, the mind map can display the rolled-up start and finish dates by phases or individual task. The next steps in building the project schedule include analyzing the dependencies, constraints, resource assignments and task durations. This is usually best facilitated in Microsoft Project. Fortunately, exporting to Microsoft Project from Mind Jet Mind Manager is done with a simple click on the Export tab (Figure 5): Figure 5: Export to Microsoft Project Figure 6 depicts the project schedule in a Microsoft Project format. The project manager can then continue to tweak and adjust the project schedule as necessary prior to saving the project baseline: Figure 6: Microsoft Project Schedule The key benefit that Mind Jet Mind Manager provides is the speed and efficiency translating an activity definition session into an actual Microsoft Project schedule. By defining the major levels of a WBS in a mind map, the project team can better collaborate and communicate key tasks easier than in a standard Microsoft Project schedule. Once the initial work plan skeleton is established, the lower levels of the WBS can be further defined in Microsoft Project. The last activity in the Project Time Management process is Control Schedule. Controlling the project schedule is an ongoing activity that can be done in both Microsoft Project and Mind Jet Mind Manager. In the next article, I’ll review how you can use both tools to jointly control the project schedule. |
