Over the next two weeks or so, I plan to release some cuts of the material in the PMBOK in mind map form. Firstly, because I have nothing better to do than draw lines between 20 bazillion points, but also, because I’ve always been of the view that the PMIs material comes down too hard on the analytical side and not enough on the human. Readers of this blog are likely very familiar with my position on this.
What prompted my thinking along these lines was a post Derek Huether wrote some time back regarding the utility of having many people using the same vocabulary by getting their PMP certificates. I connected that with a post Lindsay Scott wrote about the roles people play during the hiring process, and decided that perhaps the two views could be combined into one. Describe the people aspects of projects using the vocabulary of the PMP.
That’s very difficult to do without some kind of visual tool, but mind mapping is a nice little trick that might help that along.
For starters, I’ve combined all Activities, Artifacts, Knowledge Areas, Process Groups and Tools / Techniques from the latest edition of the PMBOK into a single mind map. The result is below.
Switch to outline view (
) and then start clicking around. You can move the map around by clicking and dragging anywhere on the field.