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The ability to download a free .pdf version of the Project Scope Example diagram is now available. I recommend you click on the link to the post below so you have the full context of the diagram. If you want to go directly to the download page please click here.

Go to the post - Project Scope Management: How Visual Communications Can Help

Project Scope Management: How Visual Communications Can Help

Managing project scope well is vital to the success of all projects. Visual communications is an essential but often missing tool in the project manager's tool box. Before discussing how visual communications can help, let's quickly review project scope management's purpose and phases.

Context Maps: The Key For Getting To "Why?"

One of the most common challenges of facilitation is transforming a diverse group of people into a cohesive team with a shared vision. We've been talking in this series about the power of focus. One method I often suggest to my clients for overcoming this challenge by using the power of focus is the Context Map.

In this post we'll:

1. Define and describe the Context Map.
2. Give some pointers on how to use it effectively.
3. Talk about some side benefits I've realized from using it.
4. Provide a link to a great example of a context map

Focusing Your Team: The Six Thinking Hats

Helping your team to focus is one of the most effective ways for overcoming the destructive walls of opinions, positions, and political turf so common in today's workplace. In this series we're concentrating on focusing tools and methods that result in:

• building team unity
• generating momentum
• teasing out creative energy within your team

In today's post we'll briefly explore Edward De Bono's Six Thinking Hats as a way to help your team work together to create a comprehensive, 360 degree view of the area of concern. 

Let's start with a quick overview of the thinking behind this method.

Effective Facilitation: Learning to Focus Your Team's Thinking

The ability to focus your team's thinking is one of the most important facilitation skills to acquire and develop over the life of your career. This post is the first in a series and introduces some of the most important points about focus.

In this series we'll explore several effective ways to get your team focused. I'll introduce a few examples to you including:

• Dorothy Leeds' Powerful Questions
• Edward De Bono's Six Thinking Hats
• The Grove's Context Map

Let's get started!

Project Scope Statement Development: Hedging Your Bets with Stakeholders

Developing a project scope statement that sticks requires buy-in from all stakeholders of a project. But how to get agreement among such a diverse crowd? Combine a little homework, good presentation and influencing skills, with a few effective visuals and you will have a recipe for success. In this post we'll talk about how my clients get to a powerful project scope statement that sticks every time.

Prior Knowedge: The Prerequisite of One-page Diagrams

When to effectively use a one-page diagram? This is a question I hear frequently when the topic of one-page diagrams comes up. One of the most important considerations when deciding to use a one-page diagram is the prior knowledge of your viewers. Using a one-page diagram is most effective if the members of your audience have prior knowledge of the content you are conveying.

What to do if that is not the case? Break the diagram into a sequence of diagrams. You can then walk them through the sequence and help them connect the dots one by one.

As always, knowing your audience is your most important tool to effective visual communications.

Closing a Meeting: Don't Forget To Ask!

One of the most important but often overlooked steps in closing a meeting is asking for agreement and commitment. Many facilitators and presenters mistake nodding heads or statements like "I understand" and "I get it" for agreement. Usually these things simply indicate understanding. Understanding is not agreement. Understanding does not indicate a willingness or commitment to act. Unless you ask you will not know if you have agreement and commitment, the two essentials for forward progress.

And while you are at it, don't forget to leave enough time in the agenda for some discussion. I have found that discussions that follow the big question are the most productive of the entire meeting because you now have their attention. Asking moves the topic from concept to reality. Now they are ready to engage. The stakes just went up!

So the next time you are conducting a meeting or giving a presentation, don't forget to ask.

• Don't be afraid to be bold. Most participants respect and respond to this.
• Be sure to be direct, don't beat around the bush. Being direct helps to instill confidence and gain support.
• Last of all, be specific and very clear about what you need. A confusing petition will not get the support it deserves.

What about the last presentation you gave? Did you ask? Did you get the support you were looking for? Please let us know by posting a comment below.

Visualizing Project Scope

One of the most challenging tasks project managers face is creating the project scope statement. Visualization tools and techniques can make this job a lot easier. What better way to facilitate agreement among project stakeholders than a picture?

Here are some principles I find most useful when employing visual communications to create project scope statements.

Principle 1: Larger Context
The most effective scope pictures I have seen always display the project within the context of a much larger concern. For example, a department scope may be best presented in the context of a division. A division might be presented within a company or a company might be presented within its universe of suppliers and customers. Here are a few reasons why this is important:

• The best project scope statements are not only clear about what is in, but what is out. Putting the project within a larger context makes these two points very clear; "in the circle is in, outside the circle is out."
• Seeing the project as part of a larger integrated whole helps to identify other dependencies outside the project.
• Seeing the project as part of a larger integrated whole helps to identify potential risks not obvious to the project team.

Principle 2: Language Neutral
One of the strengths of visual communications is that it transcends the barriers of language. This makes it a great fit when working with mixed stakeholders and diverse project teams.

• Most project teams are a mixture of business and technical people, both with their own jargon.
• It is not uncommon to be working with a project team working in at least two different continents and cultures.
• Pictures tend to accelerate communication and understanding in these circumstances in ways that words and text do not.

Principle 3: Focusing Tool
Pictures are a great way to get instant focus on a topic.

• Pictures naturally command attention from the group.
• A good picture is engaging: one that invites the viewers with a strong urge to move things around and refine the picture in some way. This invites discussion and collaboration among the stakeholders.

Principle 4: Unfinished Business
This brings me to my final principle for this post: put just enough detail on the draft picture to get the discussion going. Do not attempt to present a final product. This leaves some work for the group to do. Remember, you are either part of the problem or part of the solution. If you do all the work before hand by providing the solution this only leaves your group with one thing to do...

Yes, creating a project scope statement is challenging, but you can overcome this challenge by adding visual communications to your quiver of tools to get the job done.

How about you? What principles would you add to my list? Please post your ideas via the comment box below.

It's All Focus: Overcoming the Jitters Before A Presentation

One of the most common fears or concerns I hear from my clients is nervousness before giving presentations. The best advice I give to overcome the jitters is focus on your audience, not on yourself.

As simple as that may sound, it really works. At the same time it is also the key to giving presentations that are effective, meaningful, and memorable.

Curiosity is perhaps one of the best "jitter repellents" and helps me to focus on those I will be presenting. I like to ask myself questions like:

• What brought them to this conference?
• What might they be struggling with and how can I help?
• What will they be facing with they get back to the office?
• How can I make sure I give them something tangible to take back with them?
• Is my presentation easy to read and follow?

When I answer these questions I begin to see real individuals instead of an "audience." It also helps me make sure what I present is practical, relevant, and actionable. Focusing on their immediate needs helps me overcome the feeling that I have to share everything there is to know about this topic. Sometimes we treat our presentations as if they will be the only time the attendee will be exposed to the material.

I recently gave a presentation on a unique way to do business modeling in an organization. Given the needs of my audience I realized that they are faced with a lot of pressure to get things done as quickly as possible. I also realized they were expected to help their stakeholders interpret the results of their modeling and identify and prioritize their next actions steps. This resulted in a focused presentation entitled: "Rapid Business Modeling: Getting to What Matters."

Focusing on the audience helped me in all phases of the presentation cycle: research, creation, delivery, and follow-up. This gave me great peace before, during, and after my presentation. It helped me look into the faces of those attendees and see individuals who were people just like me. I was so focused on them that I did not have the time or desire to worry about how it was going to go, "would I remember everything?", "what about hard questions?", or even "I wonder if my zipper is up all the way?"

Focusing on the audience, not on yourself has helped me to create and delivery better presentations without those "jitters" that seem to go along with putting yourself in front of a large group of people. Try  it. Let me know how it worked for you.

Do you have other things you like to do to eliminate the jitters? Please share with us by using the comment form below.

Successful Search Strategies Begin with Storage

As we go about creating and delivering effective diagrams and presentations let's not forget another very important step: storage. There are two ways to store something: saving with no thought for later retrieval, or saving with retrieval in mind.

How many times have you wasted valuable time looking for that diagram or presentation? How many times were you successful?

The admonition to "seek and ye shall find" may be good advice for many things but is not a good strategy when it comes to storing artifacts. This fact is illuminated in an IDC study done back in 2005. The numbers are shocking, but ring true for me personally and with my clients:

Typical knowledge workers spend a significant amount of time (37%) dealing directly with documents (creating, revising, accessing, etc.). They spend 54% of this time looking for information, and 50% of that time they do not find what they need. This means that knowledge workers (the economy’s highest paid workers) spend 27% of the time they work with documents being ineffective (not finding the information they are looking for).

The next time you create that diagram or presentation be sure to take a few minutes to create a meaningful file name, add some descriptive key words, and store it in a well thought out file system that gets backed up on a regular basis. Failure to do so may mean you join that frustrated band of seekers who do not find but just know they have the perfect artifact out there somewhere.

How about you? Do you spend most of you time seeking or finding? Please add your comments and observations below. We'd love to hear from you.