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| changeDate="2008-11-17T21:42:57.296-0800" version="7.1.0"> |
| <mainDescription><p>
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| Sketching a method is all about brainstorming about what the method should contain and how it should be
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| organized.&nbsp;
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| Sketching is usually performed in a team environment in the context of a series of brainstorming sessions involving
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| method SMEs.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| When sketching a method, it is important to identify the key method elements and their relationships, as well as an
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| early draft of a brief description. The key method elements may include any or all of the following:
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| </p>
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| <ul>
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| <li>
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| <strong>Key content areas</strong>, especially if the method&nbsp;is large&nbsp;(these may evolve into domains and
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| disciplines)
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| </li>
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| <li>
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| <strong>Key method content elements and their relationships</strong>: what work products are produced and what
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| roles are responsible for them?&nbsp; What work products are consumed by the process (e.g., what are the input work
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| products)?
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| </li>
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| <li>
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| <strong>Key activities</strong>: What activities are performed to produce the work products, what work products do
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| those activities produce and consume?
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| </li>
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| <li>
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| <strong>Overall lifecycle and milestones</strong>.&nbsp;What is the overall lifecycle that you are trying to
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| represent, organized by key milestones and milestone criteria?
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| </li>
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| </ul>
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| <p>
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| When sketching a method, it is important to leverage as much existing content as you can, both from the current
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| context, as well as from existing methods.&nbsp;This is especially important if the ultimate objective is to customize
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| an existing method for the current context.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| The following describes an approach for&nbsp;sketching a method:
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| </p>
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| <ol>
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| <li>
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| <strong>Identify key work products</strong>. Sometimes starting with the key work products can be easiest, as this
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| gives you a set of terms to start working with. What are the key work products that are produced? Provide a brief
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| description that indicates their purpose and key contents. If the work products have significant state, it is a
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| good idea to capture that, as well. In addition to the work products that are produce by the method, it is
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| important to identify work products that are consumed by the method. What are the inputs to the method? What is
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| their expected contents? Can they be refined in any way, or should they be treated as input only?
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| </li>
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| <li>
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| <strong>Identify key activities</strong>. Once you have an initial list of work products, you can turn your
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| attention to the key activities that are performed and how those activities produce/consume the work products. If
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| they produce or refine a work product, what is the work product's resulting state after the activity is complete?
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| </li>
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| <li>
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| <strong>Identify key roles</strong>. You can also start thinking about what key roles that participate in the
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| process, what work products they are responsible for and any key activities they participate in.
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| </li>
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| <li>
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| <strong>Outline overall lifecycle, including key milestones</strong>. Once you have an idea of the key activities,
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| you can start to organize them into an overall lifecycle. First identify the key milestones and describe the
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| milestone criteria in terms of the work products produced and their state. You can then map the identified
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| activities to the milestones they support (i.e., the activities that support the reaching of the goal of the
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| milestone). This may result in additional activities. At this point, don't worry too much about individual tasks,
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| just capture the overall lifecycle in terms of milestones, key activities and their affect on key work products.
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| </li>
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| </ol>
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| <p>
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| Applying the above approach results in a high-level definition of an end-to-end process, including work products,
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| roles, activities,&nbsp;milestones and overall lifecycle.
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| </p></mainDescription> |
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