Chris Harman, Director General NEWS Regions at Mindjet describes how mind mapping software is being used by project managers to increase efficiency and save time and costs

Today project managers are faced with not only wrestling with mountains of information, but also the demand for better control, especially in these critical economic times. Throughout the course of a project, you need to track, organise and communicate about everything from finances and scheduling to risk scenarios, human resource assignments and project deliverables as well as make productive decisions.

Often, information accumulates at a punishing pace, making it difficult to adhere to best practices that optimise project scheduling, costs and quality. Powerful project management tools are vital in helping to manage all this information and execute a project. However to facilitate better productivity Mindjet’s® mind mapping software, MindManager provides an easy-to-use tool that represents complex information in an organised, easy-to-understand visual format.

Better still, information captured in MindManager can move easily into and out of other project tools (including Microsoft Project, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations) that better address other audiences or purposes.

Most project managers agree that you produce higher quality projects when you apply an appropriate range of best practices.  The ability to visualise the ways in which business needs connect to the project products makes this a more efficient, higher quality process than traditional charter creation.
 
The combination of MindManager software and Mindjet’s JCVGantt capabilities lowers the expert-only barrier to task management and project planning, giving all professionals the advantage of fundamental project management functions. It gives project managers and teams a way to visually capture information and ideas related to project requirements, identify resources, plan schedules, and manage throughout the project lifecycle. The products instantly synchronise so MindManager brainstorms automatically produce project plans.

Mindjet’s mind mapping software is being seen increasingly by the project management community as a ‘must have’ business tool as an integral part of project management technologies.