hey Doc Squad Dr White here with the business analysis doctor today I'm giving you a tutorial on building mind maps to navigate through projects and business analysis activities but before we get started if you want more business analysis training and tips be sure to subscribe to the page and turn on that notification Bell with that said let's dive in now let's talk about what you'll learn first we'll discuss what my mapping is then we'll look at what my maps are used for we'll cover the benefits of my maps for a project the main components of a mind map we'll go over my map best practices and then we'll look at an example mind map for a project so what is a mind map a mind map is a note taking technique that's used to organize and decompose information or ideas in a visual manner this diagram AIDS in visual thinking to facilitate generating ideas making connection and organizing thoughts mind mapping is also a powerful learning technique because it captures information in a manner similar to the way the human mind processes information this is by decomposing a central topic and then categorizing and making connections between the various subtopics and elements so what are my maps used for my maps can be used to decompose complex topics into smaller ideas to determine how various topics or concepts are related to explore the various facets of an issue or problem to represent a comprehensive view of a complex topic or to Think Through large issues with various components so how can these mind maps specifically be used for a project there are a number of ways a business analyst or project manager could use a mind map for a project including to identify potential stakeholders in their relationships explore key aspects of the current state develop future State ideas and understand dependencies support brainstorming by organizing ideas identify and explore possible design options and also to generate a Consolidated view of the project this is a common way business analysts and project managers use the mind maps this can be done using the 5ws and an H mind map so throughout the lesson I'll be applying this approach to mind mapping in the examples in case you're not familiar with the five W's and an H method it's a journalism technique used to gather information or solve a problem using six basic questions including who what where when why and how this approach has gained popularity in the business analysis space as a framework to initiate requirements elicitation you can learn more about this technique for requirements elicitation via the link in the description now let's dive into the details of the Mind map the first component of the Mind map is the main topic this is the central concept or issue of the Mind map often digital mind maps represent the main topic as a large node in the center of the Mind map diagram images may also be placed in the center of the Mind map as the main topic because they can convey large amounts of information this is most common when drawing a mind map by hand or when exploring a more visual topic next up are topics topics are thoughts or ideas that elaborate on the main ideas these represent high level components or categories associated with the main topic when using the five ws and an H method to explore project these notes will be labeled who what where when why and how next we expand out to the subtopics these are thoughts or ideas that further elaborate on each of the topics derived from the main topic subtopics represent the lowest level and most detailed information about the topic now each subtopic can be further decomposed or expanded as many times as needed to get the needed information but you need to consider the spacing and Arrangement when doing so when using the 5ws in an H method you would essentially be answering each of the questions with nodes for example the subtopics that expand from The Who node of a project might be the key groups impacted by the project such as stakeholders end users or vendors now we have our branches these are the lines that connect or associate the main topic topic and subtopic notes with one another when using a node-based mind map the branches are often referred to as node lines branches are Illustrated in different ways based on the type of Mind map you create for example with some of the more free-flowing formats that don't have nodes the topic and subtopics may sit on top of the branches as you can see here now let's talk about keywords keywords are single words used to label the main topic topics and subtopics if using images in the mind map the keywords are used to add additional context the keywords generally facilitate the organizing and categorizing of the concepts and encourages additional associations to be made when using text in your mind map it's recommended to use single keywords or brief phrases instead of link-based sentences the more words included in the mind map the less likely the information will be committed to memory also the process of determining keywords is thought to improve the Creator's ability to filter out what's in core important and make more relevant connections now let's talk color color is used as a differentiator to categorize and organize topics subtopics and their related associations a common approach is to use a color for each topic subtopic and branches so that it's easier to see which elements are directly related to each other the last component is images images are used to express large amounts of information that couldn't be expressed through the textual topic headings it's common to have a large image for the main topic smaller images for the topics and keywords for the subtopics now let's look at the best practices of Mind mapping helicote the Mind map to group related ideas it's common for each topic that stems from the main topic to have a specific color which will be assigned to all the subtopics and keywords that are derived from that topic make key Concepts clearly visible print all words clearly and use images that clearly represent the topics singular keywords are ideal if a single keyword isn't practical keep text short within your mind map also put only one topic or subtopic on each branch or node consider spacing ahead of time have enough space to extend your mind map and also leave space for unexpected topics or new thoughts use a central image for the main topic if an image isn't practical the text for the main topic should be much larger than any other text in the mind map now let's go through an example mind map for a project for our case study we'll use a mortgage company that's looking to implement a CRM solution with the Mind map you should always start with the main topic node and then expand out for my maps that Define a project such as this one you might label the node as the project name which might be something like Implement customer relationship management system or you can use a picture that represents the main topic like I've done here pictures are especially common when my maps are drawn by hand now let's add our topic notes when using the five W's and an H method we add our who what where when why and how questions as the topics now when using this method for a project it may be helpful to use the project language so I'd create the following topic notes the who can be represented by a keyword such as stakeholders for the what we're interested in the problem or opportunity that we're addressing so this can be represented by business Niche which encompasses both of these now it's typically recommended for keywords to be singular but I prefer to use business needs instead of just needs to keep the focus on the organizational needs instead of the stakeholder needs for the where node we are interested in the location of our stakeholders as well as the potential solution for the when node we'd be interested in the project timelines the Y node will focus on the project rationale and the drivers for the project so this can be rep present it with the keywords such as goals another common keyword for the Y is objectives but I'm choosing to use gold because it's more inclusive since goals are broken down into objectives and finally the how node May indicate how we'll be achieving our Solutions so that's the keyword I'm choosing here remember there's no right or wrong keyword choices here the point here is to trigger your memory so the keywords that resonate best with you for a particular project component is what you should use and if you find that images are more effective at helping you make associations then you can use those to represent the topic nodes as well when using these images it usually adds more context to have a combination of text and images now let's decompose each of the topic notes to get our subtopics let's start with stakeholders The Who an elicitation question you may ask regarding the stakeholders might be or the end users for a CRM implementation this will likely be the customer and cost customer service Representatives another question might be who are our partners or external stakeholders here you likely have some type of vendor for the CRM application now let's look at the business needs since the business needs to know represents the what questions you may ask something like what problem needs to be solved or what opportunity are we trying to address in this case we'll assume the project is driven by a business problem such as low customer satisfaction rating or high customer churn rates now we'll look at the location node since this is our aware node you might ask questions like where will the infrastructure be hosted after some discussion and collaboration we'll say that the team decides to Target a public cloud-based solution to save on maintenance costs another elicitation question might be where are the stakeholders and this type of project may include internal and external stakeholders now let's look at the timelines node this is where we ask our win questions so you may ask questions related to the project timelines such as when is the project kickoff here we'll say the project kickoff is next week if you're provided with an exact date that's what you'll use as the keyword you should also ask when is the project deadline here we'll assume a 90-day project timeline but again if you have the exact date that's what you want to use as the subtopic next up is the goals node since this node investigates why we're doing the project you'll likely ask questions like why do we need this change based on the business problem of having a low customer satisfaction rating the new CRM would help the mortgage company become a preferred lender you may also need to know why the churn rate is important since it's also one of the problems discussed you'll probably find that reducing customer churn rates results in an increase in customer retention which would ultimately increase profits finally we'll look at the solutions node so here we'll ask questions related to how to achieve the goals so you might ask something like how to get the CRM typically these will be questions regarding whether we'll build the solution internally or purchase a solution from a vendor let's say the team decides that the budget and time frame allows for a commercial off-the-shelf product so we'll use Cuts as our keyword here then you may ask how we'd go about choosing the vendor for the cots CRM after some feedback the team may decide to First identify the customer pain points and then perform a vendor assessment to see which of the vendor offers a cut solution that is optimal for addressing these pain points okay so here is your project my map for implementing a CRM application this should provide you with a high level overview of the entire project while the Kohler coding allows you to quickly associate the topics and subtopics well folks there you have it this is what you need to build mind maps for your projects if you learned something new tell me about it below I'd love to hear your feedback also be sure to check out all of the business analysis certification training and tips we have for you at the VA doc.com thank you so much for watching have a productive and prosperous day and I'll see you next time bye now