PMP Mind Maps Can Accelerate Your ITTO Learning

PMP Mind Maps are an amazing tool to learn about the PMBOK Guide ITTO (Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs). You just have to look at a picture for understanding the connections between a process, its constituent ITTO, and associated terms. Mind maps (or idea maps) can accelerate your learning and help you in passing the PMI (Project Management Institute) certification exams (CAPM and PMP).

I have compiled an eBook containing learning oriented mind maps from PMBOK Guide 6th edition. The eBook contains 66 ITTO maps from 10 KA, 5 PG and 49 processes. You can buy the eBook by clicking on the button below.

These minds are different from data flow diagrams or flow charts that are available in the PMBOK Guide.You can look at few sample mind maps on my Pinterest page.

You can also download free PMP ITTO Process Chart for learning ITTO. It is 16 pages long and lists all the processes and ITTO in a tabular format It too will help you in your studies.

Table of Contents

PMP Mind Maps and PMBOK Guide ITTO Learning

What Is Idea/ Mind Mapping Technique?

Consider this. You are working in your office and your boss asks you to go to Antarctica.

What will be your immediate thoughts?

You will have a slew of What, Why, Where, and How type of questions.

Human brain is very powerful. It is capable of thinking about infinite and divergent possibilities in a fraction of second. Drawing all these possibilities on a piece of paper will help you to organize and streamline your thoughts.

Such a drawing is nothing but a mind map for you. It is a colorful diagram that visually captures your ideas in a non-linear format.

The map starts with a central idea in the middle. It has branches to represent sub-ideas. If required, the branches can be forked out into sub-branches.

You can create as many branches and sub-branches (as needed) to support your central idea. You can use word, images, sketches, and lines to represent your ideas. The topics and sub-topics can be distinguished by using different colors, images, and sketches.

To understand more, you can look at step by step instructions for creating a mind map.

Note: Mind maps (or idea maps) are very useful for managing projects. They are often used for brainstorming and gathering project requirements. Mind mapping is also described as a technique in the PMBOK Guide 6th edition under Planning Process Group (PG) and Scope Management Knowledge Area (KA) in the ‘Collect Requirements’ process.

Theory of Idea Mapping

Idea mapping is a whole-brained visual think approach. It engages and exploits both hemispheres of your brain.

Many researches prove the power and utility of mind mapping. It is a very potent technique that helps in many different situations.

Among many other things, this technique can be used for brainstorming, organizing note-taking, problem-solving, planning, creativity, and presentations. It improves productivity, saves time, and enhances learning.

You can also look at this article for a deeper understanding of the benefits of the mind maps.

How Can Mind Mapping Help in CAPM/PMP Exam Prep?

The mind maps are helpful for PMP exam prep in the following two ways:

I. Making notes

Do you get overwhelmed when you have to learn tons of information? Do you get bogged down when you have to memorize thousands of terms? Do you get frustrated when you have to understand and remember several seemingly unrelated concepts?

Well! Mind maps help you overcome such problems.

Mind maps are a great way to organize and note down large amount of important information in a succinct manner. You can make visual connections between main ideas and keywords on a single sheet of paper.

Which one do think is more useful – a long list of unrelated ideas or a diagram of logical connections?Would you rather make linear notes or mimic the way your brain thinks?

A mind-mapping approach to making notes is simpler and easier. And it reduces the number of pages.

As per Wikipedia, Mind mapping can improve learning efficiency up to 15% over conventional note taking.

II. Making Connections and Associations

How would you feel if you had to study thick books or voluminous notes to prepare for the exam?

I am sure you will feel scared but it does not have to be that way.

You can simply study from the mind maps and finish your studies quickly. And to revise, you can create the maps from your memory. This way you will retain and remember much more than the traditional methods.

A mind-mapping exam prep approach is lot faster and far more reliable.

Benefits For the CAPM/PMP Students

Mind maps are extremely useful for exam prep and studies. Pictures are 6x superior than words for retaining information.

Some of the main benefits of mind mapping for PMP students are:

Notes can be easily assimilated.
Notes making is much faster.

Large volume of information can be compressed into a single page.
Information can be organized visually in a brain friendly manner.
Relevant and important knowledge is at one place.

Recall is easy and quick.
Brain is liberated from the linear thinking.
A map helps you to make logical connections between different concepts.

The complete study is broken into small parts. It is easier to plan and schedule your studies.

Disadvantage of Mind-Mapping

There is one small disadvantage of using mind maps.

It is very easy to make logical relationships within a single mind map. But it is not easy to make connections across different mind maps. The idea mapping techniques falls a little short When you have multiple maps.

This disadvantage is applicable for the PMBOK Guide process mapping as well. You can make several maps to describe PMBOK Guide processes. Each one can be created on a separate sheet.

The maps could be split across 5 Process Groups (PG) and 10 Knowledge Areas (KA), and 49 processes. You can have a different map for each PG, KA, individual processes, and a few other things.

The terms and concepts across PG, KA, and processes are related to each other. But these relationships cannot be depicted on the individual maps.

To overcome this problem, I have created a PMP ITTO Strategies Guide. It provides logical relationships between PMBOK Guide processes across different PG and KA.

The strategies guide is complementary to the PMP Idea Mapping eBook described in this article. You can use them together for your PMP studies.

Other Tools For Learning PMP ITTO

You can save significant amount of time and improve your learning by using PMP mind maps.

Approximately 65% of population is visual learners. Idea mapping is especially useful for these type of learners.

Having said that, the technique can be employed by anyone for learning purposes as it is one the few techniques that uses both parts of the brain together.

I have created two other tools for learning ITTO. You can also look at the following articles for more information on these tools:

These tools are useful for both PMP and CAPM aspirants. If you want, you can buy these tools by investing a small amount.

You can also buy these tools as a bundle at 10% discount.

PMP Mind Maps Can Accelerate Your ITTO Learning