Session 15: Rewriting Phase 2, Step 3

Hello and welcome to this session of the “How to Make Guides” project where I am creating an instruction manual to walk users through the process of making their own guides. In the last few sessions, the focus was on milestones and ensuring the draft of the guide and the task list were in sync. In this session I plan on rewriting Phase 2: Step 3 as its instructions are now outdated.

Assessing the Passages

This step isn’t huge (three paragraphs) but that also might be the problem. Once I analyze it, it’s possible that I may need to add another step to the process. In fact, there are two milestones now: creating the task list and creating the project document and those are definitely two different steps.

Some of what’s written is decent but with a refocused purpose for the task list, it’s a little incongruent verses the intended use. Instead of using it as a base and editing it, I think it would be better to start from scratch.

Planning the Step(s)

So far, each step has been written differently depending on how encompassing the step title is and how complicated the step is. Some have overviews while others don’t need overviews. For the task list step, I think an overview is necessary to get buy-in and the same holds true for the project document step.

I’m just going to jump in and create drafts then analyze after.

The First Attempt

Step 3: Create a task list for the project.

Most projects are large and involve many steps – some known, some unknown. Creating a task list is crucial in providing a location for those steps. Ultimately, the task list is an outline – but one you will refer to and refine multiple times throughout your project.

As stated, the task list will be created in outline form. The breakdown will include Phases and Steps. Some of these steps will be considered “Milestones” which are loosely based on the steps in this guide. However, as you work on your project, you will most likely identify problems that need to be addressed. As you come across these problems, you will add these to the task list as steps.

Pause, Reflect, Refocus

As I’m writing this I’m waffling between how to create this and how to use this. I think for this step, it should be primarily how to create these items. How to use them should come after. So the format looks like:

1. Overview
2. How to Create
3. How to Use

The Second Attempt

Step 3: Create a task list for the project.

Most projects are large and involve many steps – some known, some unknown. Creating a task list is crucial in providing a location for those steps. Ultimately, the task list is an outline – but one you will refer to and refine multiple times throughout your project.

To create your task list, write down each of the remaining phases, like so:

1. Planning Your Product
2. Producing Your Product
3. Reviewing Your Product Content
4. Testing Your Product
5. Launching Your Product
6. Closing Your Project

Under each phase, list out the steps from the guide. Cryptiquest recommends writing these with a format that describes the noun that describes the result followed by the past tense of the verb used to produce the result (Result Produced). Examples: Test Conducted; Draft Reviewed; Prototype Planned; etc.

1. Planning Your Product
   1. Research Conducted
   2. Objectives and Scope Revisited
   3. Outline Drafted
   4. Presentation and Format Determined
2. Producing Your Product
   1. First Draft Created
   2. First Draft Reviewed Internally
   3. Self-test Conducted
3. Reviewing Your Product Content
   1. Confidant Draft Created
   2. Confidant Draft Reviewed
   3. Second Draft Created
   4. Second Draft Reviewed
4. Testing Your Product
   1. Prototype Planned
   2. Prototype Created
   3. Prototype Tested
5. Launching Your Product
   1. Final Version Created
   2. Communications Planned
   3. Communications Prepared
   4. Final Product Launched
6. Closing Your Project
   1. Retrospective Created
   2. Loose Ends Tied

The last official step for your task list is to mark which tasks are milestones. A milestone is an objective that defines work during a phase. Mark a <M> after all the milestones. Your task list should end up looking like the following:

1. Planning Your Product
   1. Research Conducted <M>
   2. Objectives and Scope Revisited
   3. Outline Drafted <M>
   4. Presentation and Format Determined<M>
2. Producing Your Product
   1. First Draft Created<M>
   2. First Draft Reviewed Internally<M>
   3. Self-test Conducted<M>
3. Reviewing Your Product Content
   1. Confidant Draft Created<M>
   2. Confidant Draft Reviewed<M>
   3. Second Draft Created<M>
   4. Second Draft Reviewed<M>
4. Testing Your Product
   1. Prototype Planned
   2. Prototype Created<M>
   3. Prototype Tested<M>
5. Launching Your Product
   1. Final Version Created<M>
   2. Communications Planned<M>
   3. Communications Prepared<M>
   4. Final Product Launched<M>
6. Closing Your Project
   1. Retrospective Created<M>
   2. Loose Ends Tied<M>

Notice how task items 1.2 and 4. 1 are not marked with <M>? Those tasks are important but completing them only supports the next step in the phase. They are more like pre-tasks but they are important enough not to skip. Feel free to use this task list as a template to build from.

From here, you should add sub-tasks. These will vary based on your project. For example, once your product outline is created, each section could be added as sub-tasks to Task 2.1 First Draft Created.

Refer to and update the task list often!

The task list is not just a thing you create and move on. It is a tool that you use often while navigating toward project completion. In addition, it is considered a “living document” – one that changes over time. As you finish tasks, cross them off the list, do not delete them.

Feel free to add and change steps as needed. This tool is designed to be flexible. Every project has problems that bubble up. As you discover problems and identify solutions, add whatever steps necessary to the task list.

For example, while working on her first draft of a story, an author discovers that a chapter just isn’t working out. After a session of analysis, she decides that she needs to conduct further research in order to become more familiar with the topic. She adds a subtask to research the topic to the task list. This may look as follows. (The green text was the added task.)

• 2. Producing Your Product
  • 1. First Draft Created <M>
    • Chapter One Drafted
    • Chapter Two Drafted
    • Chapter Three Topic Researched
    • Chapter Three Drafted

---

Step 4: Create a dossier to log your project materials.

The final step for planning your project is creating a Project Dossier. This living document will house the important aspects of your project: The goal, objectives, target audience, task list, etc.

To start, create a generic title – this will updated later. The recommended format is as follows: Project Dossier: The Name of Your Project. But replace “The Name of Your Project” with the actual name of your project.

Then you will add seven headers:

1. Goal
2. Objectives
3. Target Audience
4. Tasks
5. Design Specs
6. Draft
7. Issue Log

For the first four sections, simply add the content you already generated during the exploration and planning phases. Leave the rest of the sections blank for now.

Refer to and update the project dossier often!

This is the main document for logging the progress of your project. Your task list lives here, your goal and objectives are easily referenced here as well as a write-up of your target audience.

Using The Issue Log

As problems come up for your project, document them in the Issue Log. You need to necessarily take care of them as they are discovered, but you should write them down here so you know exactly where to look for previous problems.

The Issue Log works best as a table. There are five columns Cryptiquest recommends using though feel free to increase or decrease the amount of columns based on your project needs. The five Cryptiquest recommends are:

1. ID – This is just a serial number to help organize and refer to
2. Issue – A statement that explains the problem
3. Session Discovered – The session notes to refer to when the problem was made known
4. When to Address – Approximately when in the project plan this issue should be solved
5. Status – One or two words to identify the progress made toward settling the issue

The ID is a number. Each issue should have a unique number. Using sequential whole numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) works well.

The Issue should be written down concisely either as a phrase or sentence (e.g. “Chapter 4 needs to be split into two chapters.”, “Do not have villain’s motivation established”, etc.).

The Session Discovered is a reference to the session when you discovered the issue. This is why titling your sessions is important.

The When to Address column refers to how soon a session will be necessary to address the issue. This could range from “Immediately” to “During the current phase” to “As a new project”.

There are three recommended terms to use for the Status column:

• Done – The issue has been settled
• Slated – The issue has been “scheduled”
• Unattended – The issue is unsettled and has not be “scheduled”

After you add your issue to the log, it is best practice to attend to any that are listed as “Unattended” to slate them. The term “slate” here refers to adding them either to the project’s Task List, a calendar, or some other scheduling tool (example, Cryptiquest has a “project shelf” which is a table to schedule future projects).

Here is an example of a Issue Log:

ID	Issue	Session Discovered	When to Address	Status
1	Chapter 4 needs to be split into two chapters.	Session 18	Immediately	Done
2	Do not have villain’s motivation established	Session 20	During the “Chapter 6 drafted” task	Slated
3	Like to create a promotional cutout of the villain	Session 24	As a new project	Slated

---

Okay. I think that about covers it. I’ve added some action items below. I will add those to the Issue Log (the small updates are never ending! Heh.). I will also add the above information to the draft and update the Task List to reflect the new step. I’ll also look at the phase overview and update that to mention the step if it needs it. (So many things to update!)

Turns out those last two things were already done (such drama, so forgetful, so many parentheticals!). Okay. With all that taken care of, this session comes to an end. In the next session I plan on tackling that action item about including session titles in Appendix A and upgrading the Issue Log. After that I should be able to draft new content for the guide.

Should be fun! See you there.

---

Action Items

• Format for task list steps updated to follow “Object {optional clarifier} past-tense-verb {optional modification clarifier}” (Handled on-the-fly)
• “Conducting A Session” section of Appendix A updated to include adding titles