10.21.13
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Visual Thinking – The foundation of Visual Project Management


I hope you would have enjoyed my last post on ‘Visual Project Management – The Future of Project Management’. Today, I would like to talk about ‘Visual Thinking’!

An immediate question you would have is what Visual Thinking is …. I would define,

“Visual thinking as a process of thinking in Images or Pictures! “

You can use images and pictures to see overall problem, to identify solution to the problem, to communicate any complex message in easy to understand form, and even to convert any information into knowledge.

Seems very simple right? Yes, it is….

Before we go further, hold on and look at your current approach of thinking / planning and communicating any message to others (e.g. project stakeholders).

Ask below questions to yourself;

1)      As a Project Manager, Do I see a ‘Bigger Picture’ of assigned project?

2)      Do I use pictorial way to communicate any message / information to project stakeholders?

3)      Do I know different visualization techniques to deliver different types of Data / information?

If your answers to above questions are ‘YES’ then you are on the track of ‘Visual Thinking’ otherwise, you need to change your thought process through M2IT Framework given below!

Before you go further, make sure, you are ready for the change!  The change which will have very huge positive impact on rest of your life… The change which will help you to move from traditional project management approach to Visual Project Management approach.

In order to think in images and pictures, you need, to,

1)      Start believing that you can do it!

2)      Create ‘Visual Think Space’ – a comfortable and convenient place where you can use your brain to see the world in pictures and motions.

3)      M2IT Framework

M2IT Framework, consist of, following key components to enhance your ability to think in images / pictures.

a)      Model

b)      Tools

c)       Method

d)      Information

M2IT Framework

Model:

Model helps you to change your thought process to see world as pictures / images.

Tools:

Tools help you to kick start your journey in the world of Visual Thinking & Visual Project Management.

Methods:

Methods help you to enhance your ability to present your idea, solution, message etc.

Information:

Information helps you to identify different type of communication to be made to project stakeholders and for each type of communication, appropriate Method should be used.

I hope you would have enjoyed this post as well. In next few post, I will elaborate M2IT Framework and its usage in day to day life.

09.16.13
by

Visual Project Management – The Future of Project Management


Visual Project Management – The Future of Project Management

Being a Project Manager, How many of you like long – text based project management documents to manage your project? How often do you use and update those lengthy textual documents?

If you do like, Please IGNORE this post! Otherwise, continue reading this post on Visual Project Management – The Future of Project Management.

Project Manager is accountable for delivering desired UNIQUE product, result or services for which the project was undertaken which is known as “Product Scope”, however, in order to manage product scope, schedule, cost and quality, Project Manager need to prepare and/or update Project Management Plan which contains various planning documents and status reports to communicate right information to stakeholders which is known as “Project Scope”.

This traditional project management approach should be altered in current dynamic, frequently changing business environment where various factors like market demand, competition, regulatory compliance and technology advancement forces project manager to frequently update project management documents to accommodate revised business need.  This leads to many pain points for Project Managers, for example,

–          Difficulty in updating and using lengthy textual project management documents

–          Difficultly in communicating right information to right stakeholder at right time

–          Global work environment, frequent travel impact peoples’ interest in reading lengthy time consuming documents

–          Difficulty in getting ‘Bigger Picture’ of project, dependencies and intended outcome.

.

Visual Project Management addresses above pain points and makes life easier for Project Managers!

I would define Visual Project Management as,

                “Use of Visualization techniques in Project Management! “, where Visualization means a technique / method to create an image/picture, animation to capture large and complex data into single page!

A well-known phrase says “A Picture is worth a thousand words”!

Visual Project Management follows this well-known saying and help Project Managers in achieving following key benefits,

  •  Ease of Communication – via Visual Communication, a most effective communication method to communicate idea / message to stakeholders by registering an image in their mind.

Now-a-days, an Interactive Information Design through animation enables Project Manager to communicate any complex message into quick, simple and easy way.

  • Productivity improvement – via better, efficient and effective planning documents which mostly fits in single page.
  • Ability to quickly modify project management documents to accommodate frequently changing business needs because of visual nature of documents and that too in single page!

To start with, I would like to share following Visual Project Charter sample for your further reference;

Project Charter Sample

Project Charter Sample

I hope, this post will help you shifting Project Management paradigm from Traditional project Management to Visual Project Management track.

The journey has begun… wait and watch for my future posts on Visual Project Management.