Session 01: Kick-off

Hello and welcome to this kick-off session for the How to Make Guides project where I am making a how-to guide for making guide projects for Cryptiquest. In this session, I aim to identify the project needs, scope, potential solution, and project tasks.

Background

This project was identified as a need during Session 04: Assessing Requirements of the Vision Chart project, where the capabilities needed to reach Cryptiquest’s vision were analyzed. A need was discovered for guide standardization since creating guides is a part of Cryptiquest’s vision.

Identifying the Need

Since Cryptiquest will be creating a slew of guides in the upcoming months, there is a need to create a project management guide to standardize the process of creating guides using best practices.

Ideal Solution

What I envision the ideal solution being is a how-to guide that walks the user through the steps for creating a guide, including logistical information for formats (perhaps best letter spacing and the like), and includes one or more templates for various guide sections.

Product Scope

• Format: Text format hosted directly on the web AND print format available
• Availability: Freely available on projects.cryptiquest.com
• Breadth: This is a guide that will explain theory, provide step-by-step instructions, and contain templates for creating how-to guides.
• Subject Expertise: I’m currently looking for a SME, I might not find one in which case I will rely on this well defined guide by the University of Bath.
• Target Audience: The target audience is considered “mostly internal”.

Project Scope

• TIME
  • Deadline: Production should be complete by end-of-January.
• RESOURCES
  • People
    • Direct Stakeholders: Me, those who wish to make guides (including instruction manuals), the subject matter expert
    • Indirect Stakeholders: Reviewers
    • Invisible Stakeholders: Future consumers
  • Materials: None
• COSTS
  • Direct Expenses: Proofreading costs (<= $5)
  • Indirect Expenses: Website costs

Defined Goal

The goal of this project is to create a guide that will instruct users on how to create how-to guides.

Objectives

1. The project followed Cryptiquest Project Management guidelines
2. The Production Phase was finished by January 31st, 2020.
3. The product is available for free in digital and print form.
4. The product exemplifies the rules it teaches.
5. The product can be easily updated (where easily updated is defined less than a day to simple content update and post) based on user feedback.

Project Tasks

• Plan
  • Draft Retrospective Framework
• Production
  • Draft the solution
  • Draft the instructions
  • Conduct internal review
• Review
  • Identify target audience and needs
  • Prepare drafts for review
  • Conduct necessary reviews and edits
• Implementation
  • Conduct final edits
  • Upload content to website and update navigation
• Launch
  • Assess the target audience needs
  • Create marketing materials
  • Launch to market
• Retrospective
  • Review the life of the project
  • List issues
  • Analyze issues
  • Record action items
• Close
  • Identify loose ends
  • Tie up loose ends

Action Items

• N/A