MIND MAPPING

CHALLENGE

The tool I used here is mind mapping to define how I made my project successful.

Our project is totally on collecting data using sensors and making them to communicate  between different systems to get the desired output. The challenge we faced is we have to  deal with lot of electronic items which are really difficult to handle 3 sensors, GSM module,  WIFI module and arduino.

Each device holds various data and each have to be programmed and checked

separately and then has to be interconnected with a single program. We used mind  mapping knowingly or unknowingly  as a tool to match the people’s knowledge, attitude  and skill for assigning people to the particular task in our project.

SELECTION

Mind mapping tool is creating meaning to the data that are collected.   It is the

ultimate stage of  “What is” and which takes to the “What if”  phase. In our project we have  clear idea on end to end process. The difficulty is to manage the work among ourselves. We  framed the concepts and processes in a structured manner virtually so that they can be  easily available. Mind mapping helped us to finish our project effectively. Here all the ideas  are linked by lines to the major and minor siblings ,thus we created meaningful content and  that could be remembered for long time.

APPLICATION

Our project is to run or shut off the electric motor based on the output from sensors.

First, the process has been sequenced from top to bottom. And also the alternate ideas  were also taken into account. We have used projective techniques to rate our ideas , where  the objective is at the centre and the various tasks that has to be performed forms the  petals of pinwheel and those tasks have been prioritized. We attempted to get the hidden  or deeper thoughts from everyone. At the same time, one of us is making note of important  and valuable thoughts. And then we discussed how much help we needed in this  perspective. We didn’t take the move with traditional ideas, we had a totally collaborative  idea generation method. This made us to eliminate HOP(highest paid opinion and loudest  voice).

Even from buying the components and to programming the logic we have scattered

the work among ourselves. Each electronic component have been assigned to each group,  so that they must gain clear knowledge about it and the technical stuffs were shared  clearly. Each component must be checked individually by programming, this is where our  hard time starts. We are very strong with the logic but we are not that much good in

programming an arduino which is totally a new platform for us. Now here we moved away  from big and moved along with small and simple prototypes. We started to develop  program for individual component and  their performance were observed. Now the team is  split up into two groups. One takes care of merging the programs and other on connecting  the devices. Both tasks had multiple error and correction strategy.

INSIGHT

It helped me to set the basis and approach points in a structured way. Application of

this tool in our project enlightened us that any concepts or any field can be understood,  remembered and retrieved easily if we are following the systematic way from end to end  process. Mind mapping helped us a lot to break our scope into detailed tasks. It helps us to  set the deadline for each small task.

APPROACH

If I had to review my approach it would be to go more in the field than I did;

confront my ideas get my hands dirty. From the insight mentioned above I would like to  engage with different fields in career by approaching the task assigned to me using mind  mapping.

