I'm working on a complex relationship chart to explain the interrelationships between my field and another, closely related subfield. What I thought would start out as a very simple and quick task has turned into a monumental mess of spaghetti lines!
Image courtesy of: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zipckr/4688416205
There are areas where one field or the other has sole responsibility, others where we have a shared responsibility, and still others where one field has responsibility for some portions while the other field has responsibility for other portions. One of the reasons that I'm doing this is to find gaps in the enabling documentation that allows both fields to operate independently, yet cooperatively.
This will be an enormous task...
Why do I use a mind map for this? There's a few reasons, the most important being that once I establish a relationship between concepts, I don't have to adjust the relationship just because I move an idea or concept. This means that I can focus on the ideas instead of the layout. Mind maps are also particularly helpful for understanding complex relationships, especially many to many relationships (where each idea/concept is connected to many other ideas/concepts and vice versa).
I'm hoping that once I get a little bit further into it, some of the gaps and areas for improvement might become more visible. If any of you have ideas for making this better, don't hesitate to let me know!
