AGILE IN ACTION

The session

This session was presented by Rachel Davies and Romilly Cocking. The newsgroup can be found at Agile Thinking Tools at Yahoo at Yahoo. It introduced mind maps as a thinking tool and communication medium. Following an introduction to mind mapping techniques, Rachel made a good suggestion which was to first brainstorm key words, write them on index cards and arrange the index cards to get a feel for the best layout. Then start mapping.

The first exercise required each person to create a mind map on a topic of their choosing. I chose to map snowboarding:

This is a first-pass mind map which should be re-organized. Specifically, I would move the Apres branch to be a sub-branch of the Holiday branch rather than have it come directly from the central image. I would also re-draw the Freeriding image so that it looks more like a tree-lined, snowy mountain pass and less like a desert oasis. I had many more associations I wanted to make but the exercise was time-boxed.

The second exercise required people to map a different topic as a team. De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats theory was employed, where colors are used to convey specific combination of qualities and characteristics:

• White - Neutral and objective
• Red - Powerful emotions
• Black - Gloomy and negative
• Yellow - Sunny and positive
• Green - Fertile and creative
• Blue - Logical and in control

One technique is to group branches with the same color together so that only six branches, one for each color, emerge from the map’s central image. Another technique branches as normal but applies a color to each branch according to the defining qualities of the associated key word. We employed the second technique to map organizing Christmas because we wanted to retain context in each branch and sub-branch.

The session concluded by using mind mapping to conduct a retrospective for the session. The resultant mind map employed the first technique for employing color described above.

How I use mind maps

Mind maps help to generate ideas, promote learning and facilitate communication. When I use mind maps to clarify my own thinking on a particular subject, I often find that the act of mapping is more valuable than the resulting map. This is similar to my use of UML, where I find more value in the modeling than in the model produced.

Mind mapping as a team can be a productive exercise that promotes interaction and teamwork. Recently we started mind mapping scrum’s sprint goal. This has helped the team retain a visual representation of our objectives in big-picture terms.

In my experience, using mind maps to communicate ideas, concepts or information between disparate groups can sometimes be tricky. Simple mind maps or mind maps that concentrate on a small or everyday topic like those created by Kent beck in XPv2 can be understood without explanation. A more complex mind map or a mind map that focuses on a specialized subject can require a domain of discourse to exist between the author and the audience for the information to be transferable without explanation. A UML model can communicate details of a design without the author’s presence but UML employs a standard nomenclature and notation that is understood by people conversant with UML. A mind map, however, employs keywords and imagery representing free associations made in the author’s mind. An audience may not easily connect with the imagery and associations for a number of reasons, e.g. unidentifiable images, unintentionally obscure associations, tortuous associations, etc.

Mind maps can communicate information effectively when the author conducts a walk-through, e.g. when using a mind map to drive a presentation. Recently I used a simple mind map to introduce scrum to a group of project managers.