vs.
I am on to creating a "playbook" of documentation for a specific product. It's the youngest and largest product the company sells. I have been soliciting templates, plans, and examples of documentation all week from all the PMs that work with this product. I have been told about one PM in particular who developed a lot of the tools and materials for working with this product. Today I met with him and other PMs.
Everyone likes the idea of having each others best work available for reference. The funny part was when one PM got up and started taking notes on the white board. The first thing she did was draw five columns and put each stage of the PMI project management process on the board. Then she started listing documents under each one as people suggested things to add. Everyone disagreed about where each document should go! She was erasing and putting things in multiple categories, but by the end of the 3o minute meeting, the one with the marker was the only one that seemed satisfied with the arrangement.
I should have been the one with the marker. I really didn't know what I was doing until it was happening, and I didn't feel prepared to lead that meeting. On the drive to class afterwards, I thought about several exercises with post it notes that we did in usability class that would have suited that discussion. Maybe I should come up with a quick card sorting-type activity to have ready in case I have another opportunity like that one...
Just now I was looking at the most recent documentation submissions that I received from the group I met with today. I opened up a deck that the PM with the marker gave to a client. One of the slides was the timeline image above with the process broken into Plan, Implement, Evolution & Support. In my notes from the meeting, I found that the guy that everyone said had worked most with the management of this product was suggesting these as category heads. It looks like the process for this project, which everyone seems to like and want access to, has been developed with these stages and now certified PMs are trying to put it in to PMI's mold, but it doesn't fit. This is all important to me because I am structuring the wiki.
Everyone likes the idea of having each others best work available for reference. The funny part was when one PM got up and started taking notes on the white board. The first thing she did was draw five columns and put each stage of the PMI project management process on the board. Then she started listing documents under each one as people suggested things to add. Everyone disagreed about where each document should go! She was erasing and putting things in multiple categories, but by the end of the 3o minute meeting, the one with the marker was the only one that seemed satisfied with the arrangement.
I should have been the one with the marker. I really didn't know what I was doing until it was happening, and I didn't feel prepared to lead that meeting. On the drive to class afterwards, I thought about several exercises with post it notes that we did in usability class that would have suited that discussion. Maybe I should come up with a quick card sorting-type activity to have ready in case I have another opportunity like that one...
Just now I was looking at the most recent documentation submissions that I received from the group I met with today. I opened up a deck that the PM with the marker gave to a client. One of the slides was the timeline image above with the process broken into Plan, Implement, Evolution & Support. In my notes from the meeting, I found that the guy that everyone said had worked most with the management of this product was suggesting these as category heads. It looks like the process for this project, which everyone seems to like and want access to, has been developed with these stages and now certified PMs are trying to put it in to PMI's mold, but it doesn't fit. This is all important to me because I am structuring the wiki.
