Ah, the title sounds like a martial-arts film. This post gives you a simple, high-level view of me approaching new projects (with nunchucks in hand).
Who is my audience?
I first ask myself this question (“Self, who is this project ultimately for?”). I jot down some notes to create a reader profile. When the reader’s persona lives in my mind’s eye, I meet with at least two SMEs and my key stakeholder to make sure my profile accurately describes the reader they call their “customer”.
What is my content?
First, I create an outline (a skeleton to be fleshed out later) or a Mind Map of the project’s topics. The Outline View inside Word (documentation) or PowerPoint (e-learning) works well most of the time. I also like PowerPoint for creating subsequent thumbnails (or storyboards) of my pages from that initial outline. The Slide Sorter comes in handy as it allows me to rearrange pages if needed. I calculate four hours of development time per page (per JoAnn Hackos) to estimate the project’s time line and potential cost.
What are my questions?
As I begin to research content for the project, I start a Q&A page. I write down the questions I have, then, I try and resolve as many as I can myself, using existing documentation and any other available resources. Once I answer those initial questions, I schedule meetings with targeted SMEs. (If I’m lucky, I get them all in the same room at the same time.) I provide a Q&A list prior to the meeting to minimize the time the SMEs spend in the meeting.
What is my content (Part deux)?
After that SME meeting, I flesh out my Outline/Thumbnails/Storyboards with headers and draft content. My reader firmly in mind, I try and focus on the needs of both the reader (end user, learner, etc.) and the business. Why? Because I have two customers: the client and the end user.
This post is just one of many to come, I’m sure, on the topic of project management.
I’m “Always Learning”.
