Session 05: Assessing Capabilities

Hey hey! Welcome to this session of the Vision Chart project where I am creating a chart to measure Cryptiquest’s progress toward completing its vision. The last session focused on breaking objectives down into the elements required to make those objectives viable. This session will focus on analyzing the requirements and identifying the capabilities required to meet them.

Before I begin, I need to note that I scrapped the large list of requirements created in the last session. There is a mix of processes and capabilities and other nonsense that isn’t necessary for the project at hand. Instead, I will look at the previously created list (created in the same session). This list was what was generated when I reduced the objectives down to their requirements:

REQUIREMENT	OBJECTIVES	CAPABILITY
More than one tool	1	Create tool(s)
Tool User Feedback collection method	1 – 6	Create feedback collection method
Tool survey	1 – 6	Create survey
Tool users	1 – 6	Have users
At least one tool	2 – 10, 18	Create tool
Conceptualization functionality	2	Create tool
Design functionality	2	Create tool
Production functionality	2	Create tool
Publication functionality	2	Create tool
Sharing functionality	3	Create CMS
Collaboration functionality	3	Create Social Media platform
Game engine	5 – 6	Create Game engine
Data Map of population, info access demographics (internet, mobile, etc.)	7 – 10, 22	Create Data map; Obtain data
Map data about languages spoken	7	Obtain data
Map data about access to information	8	Obtain data
Map data about cultural/legal restrictions	9	Obtain data
Map data about disenfranchised groups	10	Obtain data
Media review process	11 – 12	Create media review process; Create feedback collection method
Media survey	11 – 12	Create survey
Media users	11 – 12	Have users
Guide to writing inclusive	11	Create guide; Obtain Data
Project management guide	17 – 20	Create guide; Obtain Data
Project success checklist	17 – 20	Create guide; Obtain Data
Draft and versioning protocols	19	Create guide; Obtain Data
Branding guidelines	20	Create guide; Obtain Data
Legal guidelines	20	Create guide; Obtain Data
More than four brands	21	Create brand
System for calculating brand profitability	21	Create profit calculating system
At least two brands	22 – 23	Create brand
Map data about brand popularity	22	Obtain data
Products of more than three types of media	23	Create media
System for reputation feedback collection	24 – 28	Create feedback collection method
Registered users	24 – 28, 32	Have users; Create system for registration
Users	24 – 28, 30, 32	Have users
At least two employees	25 – 26	Hire employees
At least two products	27	Have products
At least two partners	28	Contract partners
Guide for determining reviewer reputability	29	Create guide; Obtain Data
Reviews	29	Have reviews
System for checking online presence	30	Create system for checking onilne presence
Guide for SEO	30	Create guide; Obtain Data
List of targeted keywords	30	Create list; Obtain Data
List of industry events	31 – 32	Create list; Obtain Data
System for collecting feedback from our users who attended event	32	Create feedback collection method

For each of the capabilities, I created a new list of sub-capabilities (kind of like last time but looser). Here is the resulting table:

OBJECTIVE REQUIREMENTS	TYPE	CAPABILITIES REQUIRED
Create tool	Project Type	Reference Writing | Project Planning | Tool Development | Tool Testing | Tool Publication | Project Close
Create feedback collection method	Unique Tool Project	Feedback Collection Method Implementation
Create survey	Project Type	Reference Writing | Project Planning | Survey Development | Survey Review Protocol | Survey Implementation | Project Close
Have users	Resource	Have Products | Marketing Protocol
Create CMS	Unique Tool Project	App Development | Have Users | Have Suite of Tools
Create Social Media platform	Unique Tool Project	App Development | Have Users | Have Suite of Tools
Create Game engine	Unique Tool Project	Engine Development
Create Data map	Unique Tool Project	App Development | Have Users
Obtain data	Research	Research Guidelines
Create media review process	Unique Guide Project	Have Reviews
Create guide	Project Type	Reference Writing | Project Planning | Guide Development | Guide Review Protocol | Guide Implementation | Guide Publication | Project Close
Create brand	Project Type	Copy Writing | Project Planning | Brand Development | Brand Review Protocol | Brand Implementation | Project Close
Create profit calculating system	Unique Tool Project	App Development | Means to Make Income
Create media	Project Type	Story Writing | Project Planning | Story Development | Story Review Protocol | Media Development | Media Review Protocol | Publication | Project Close
Create system for registration	Unique Tool Project	Have Products
Hire employees	Business Need	Business Restructure | Business Administration | Means to Make Income
Have products	Resource	N/A
Contract partners	Business Need	N/A
Have reviews	Resource	Have Products | Outreach Protocol
Create system for checking onilne presence	Unique Tool Project	Have Users

Now I will take the capabilities required from table two and replace the capabilities in table one… the result is a large table. I added a column for New Capability and Requirement to address what the objective offers once it is completed and what it requires before completion. This table was too large so here is a screenshot:

We’re not done with tables yet! The most important column in the previous table is “Objectives”. Now what I will do is create a table with every row representing a capability and every column representing an objective. My hunch is that this table will be too big for the CMS I am using on this site. But let’s try it out.

Nope. That did not work. Here is a picture of what I did:

There ended up being about 80 requirements. Now that I created this table, I will sort all 32 of my objectives by priority in a separate table. This will help determine which required capabilities should be obtained in which order. For instance, I picked objective 17 to have the highest priority. Objective 17 states: Objective 3.A.1 Tools and media production follow project management standards.

After sorting the objectives, I started to re-sequence the capabilities in Table 4 in order to get objective 17 cleared first, then objective 19, and then 20, etc. so that the most important objectives were activated first. After that, there was a lot of resorting and moving small things around and finally, I ended up with a list of all 80 capabilities that sort of made sense.

I then analyzed the list of capabilities for common groupings and luckily discovered that the requirements fell into pairings nicely. For example, the first requirements were:

1. Have Project Management Guide
2. Have Project Success Checklist
3. Have Draft and Versioning Protocol
4. Project Planning
5. Project Close

…which could all be grouped as “Project Management Package”. I did this for all 80 requirements. Some anomalies moved from their spot later in the stack to join similar items earlier in the stack until I came up with the following list:

FINAL TABLE:

ID	PACKAGE	NOTES	OBJECTIVES ACTIVATED
1	Project Management Package	(PM Guide, Checklist, Retrospective Guide, Draft and Versioning Guide)	17 – 19
2	Guide Extension	(PM Guide to Guides, Guide Review Protocol, Guide Publication Protocol)
3	Guide Creation	Research, Marketing, Branding, Legal Guides	20
4	Tool Extension	(PM Guide to Tools, Tool Testing Protocol, Tool Publication Protocol)
5	Feedback Extension	(Feedback Collection Method, PM Guide to Surveys, Survey Review Protocol, Survey Publication Protocol)	4
6	Tool Creation	One to two tools
7	Concept-to-Publish Suite	(Tools for conceptualizing, designing, production, publication)	1 – 2
8	Game Engine	Tool for testing and using content	5 – 6
9	Media Extension	(PM Guide to Media, Inclusive Writing Guide, Media Review Protocol, Media Publication Protocol)
10	Media Creation	Imbue, Copperwealth, etc.	11 – 16, 23
11	Pubic Outreach Extension	SEO, Outreach, Reviewer Credibility Guides	24, 29 – 30
12	Event Attendence	Industry event and trade show presence	31 – 32
13	Digitial Extension	Translate tools to web service /apps	21
14	Community Bridge	Share and Collaborate functionality	3
15	Global Outreach	Internal Smart Map Functionality	7 – 10, 22
X	Humanistic Reputation	How well company treates employees/partners	25 – 28

Note that the last one has the ID of “X” as it won’t actually become viable until / unless Cryptiquest has employees or partners, so it is outside the sequence of events.

This table is the list of capabilities that will serve as milestones to activate Cryptiquest’s objectives. This may be all that’s needed to complete the vision chart. I picture it split into the seven segments (instead of the proposed nine) with capabilities on the side, and objectives highlighted at the crossroad of the capability and the segment. An arrow can simply explain where Cryptiquest currently is in the timeline. And in the next session, that may be what I do. See you there.

Action Items

• None