What’s Really Happening With Mind Mapping Software

: Image via Wikipedia

It seems commonplace now to use mind mapping software in business as much as anywhere else, but that wasn’t such an obvious use at all when these programs first came to be. For one thing, creating a mind map, if anyone even thought of it by that name, seemed restricted to those meetings in the conference room where everyone was expected to produce ideas for relational diagrams on the easel at the front of the room. It would have been quite a leap to go from that idea to think of a mind mapping program that might be useful in all of the functions a company performed.

One large area of infiltration into business involves project management. Mind maps can be used at any stage of a project to store ideas, keep track of issues that arise, assess strengths and weaknesses, follow resources, and record general notes as the venture progresses. On a master mind map, each project stage can be represented as a bubble or an element on a flowchart and linked to other mind maps with further information. In a way, what this mind mapping software does is operate as a cross between sets of flow charts and spreadsheets. But everything is in a more visual, less linear form.

Mind map methods initially found their uses more in the educational world than in the realm of business. They were taught first as ways of learning and of relating concepts, which was the direction the software went as well in the early developmental stages. Eventually, the problem-solving aspects of mind map techniques moved to the fore, and business people began to recognize their potential. When mind mapping software was written for business applications, they discovered a tool that revolutionized how they ran their projects.

When mind mapping software was first introduced into businesses it had one problem, in that it was used only on single computer terminals. This didn’t help with organizing a project, nor did it allow everyone involved in the project to be kept up to speed. However, this eventually changed as the software was expanded so everyone could use it and work on the mind maps at the same time. Now this type of information management software is multiplying. And as each new company adds this type of program to its network, the methods of doing business are changing.