I’m brand new here, and also to JD. Having read through the website, it’s resonating with me enough that I’m planning to give it a go at work.
Somewhere in the site (or on here), @johnnydecimal mentions that if you can get this working at work, then your personal life should be easy. I agree with that. I work as an IT Solution Architect, and there’s… a lot of information to manage.
I’m planning to do discovery next week, but first, I’ve had a stab at writing a scope for my system. I started by writing out a list of all the areas I could think of, and then distilled and broadened it to get a couple of sentences. Here you go:
In scope for my system is anything to do with my job, including day-to-day work, projects and planning, role-specific and colleague-specific information, our technology, my career progression, learning and development, and understanding the wider industry and technical landscape. Not included is anything that does not relate to work, and career progression / L&D which involves activity outside my employer.
I still feel this is a bit wordy and could be distilled down some more.
Welcome. I can’t speak too highly about doing the discovery using mind mapping software – I used Mindnote (which I was clued into by JD). There are are number of posts here where people have put up screen shots of their mindmaps into the area and category schema.
Thanks @PhillyChuck . I’m limited in what software I can use at work (Microsoft Office, basically) and there’s no mind mapping option. I think I’ll keep a written record of “things” (i.e. the stuff I’d put on a Post-It note) in a text file or note, and then transfer it into a Mind Mapping app on my own computer at the end of the day / week.
Could you get away with one of the free online mind-mappers? They’re not amazing but they work.
As an IT architect I know you already have Excalidraw as a pinned tab. That might do the job?
To the original question, I think more wordy is better to start, and you can refine it down to its essence. But better to include too much now than not enough. You can always drop stuff later if you realise you over-scoped.
We use Diagrams.net (AKA Draw.io) but it’s the same idea. Worth looking at, but I’m a fan of Post-It notes. Having thought about it, I don’t see much difference between:
Encountering something that needs to be discovered
Writing it down on a Post-It note
Sticking it to the wall
And
Encountering something that needs to be discovered
Writing it down in a notebook / file
Later, when I get home, writing it on a Post-It note
Sticking it to my wall at home.
…other than the additional time - and I’m willing to trade off a bit of extra work for a better outcome.
Ah of course! Draw.io was my preference over Excalidraw.
But, agreed, Post-its are a fine solution. You might find it useful later to put them in a mind-map as it makes moving things around a lot easier, but for discovery, A-OK.
I’ve settled on a nice solution - Apple Freeform (which I haven’t used much) comes with recent versions of MacOS and has a nice “virtual sticky note” option, with plenty of room to move them around a virtual canvass. It works across devices, so I can add them on my phone as I go.
(Much better than, for example, sticking a bunch of decade-old Post-It notes to a wall on the hottest day of the year. )
You end up with something like this, and the sticky notes can be moved around and grouped within an infinite canvass (ignore the redactions).
Totally unrelated and no IT skills here for input, but I did not know about this app…and this is exactly what I need so thank you for sharing. It looks like you’ve made a good start.
Glad it was useful. Having messed around with it a bit now, it’s pretty good. Certainly a better option for me than a mind map - this looks and feels like pinning sticky notes to a wall.
That might do the job?
)