{"id":571,"date":"2019-09-14T17:45:33","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T15:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/?p=571"},"modified":"2023-04-10T00:07:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T22:07:06","slug":"gap-mapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/gap-mapping\/","title":{"rendered":"Gap Mapping: Transparency and Structure of Product Developments"},"content":{"rendered":"

In discussing what product development actually is, I like to argue that product development is the “management of uncertainty.”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, many believe that it will only be possible to reach their goal with a detailled plan, that will only be executed. Such plans are often requested by management, so that only then a project may start. However, such activity-based plans have several disadvantages:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They are very detailed and therefore usually consist of several hundred individual steps,<\/li>\n
  2. They are subject to a high change rate because planned activities can change very quickly as new things are learned<\/li>\n
  3. The administrative and maintanance costs are very high,<\/li>\n
  4. The substantive uncertainties and risks are not visible.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In reality, it is much more about getting an overview of what is already known and even more, what is still unknown<\/span> and therefore still needs to be worked out<\/span> in order to derive activities that can generate insights and sustainable decisions<\/span>. For a clear presentation of these so-called Knowledge Gaps<\/strong> I have designed a graphical diagram, which I call Gap Map.<\/p>\n

    The Gap Map<\/h2>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    On the background of a suitable representation of the “system-under-development” and its context, the gap map shows the associated knowledge gaps as red post-its. Green post-its visualize elements and interfaces that are not changed or have already been decided by learnings in the course of the product development.<\/p>\n

    The following things can be seen and done with the Gap Map:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Areas with an accumulation of Knowledge Gaps require more attention<\/li>\n
    2. The sum of all weighted Knowledge Gaps results in the (residual) effort of product development! The weighting or effort estimation is performed by the interdisciplinary team, e.g. using Planning Poker<\/a>.<\/li>\n
    3. Knowledge Gaps are backlog items at high level and are broken down into smaller, executable elements by refinement. Thus, knowledge gaps represent the content-related plan of the product development.<\/li>\n
    4. Knowledge gaps enable simple Risk Management because they represent product-related uncertainties. (Attention: Organizational risk management is necessary in addition)<\/li>\n
    5. When all the red post-its have been turned into green post-its, product development is done.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Due to the simplicity and clarity, a Gap Map is an excellent communication tool with the management.<\/p>\n

      Gap Maps have proven their worth in agile product development. The Gap Map is also suitable for “project rescue actions” in order to provide all involved parties with a quick and complete overview of the current situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In discussing what product development actually is, I like to argue that product development is the “management of uncertainty.” Unfortunately, many believe that it will only be possible to reach their goal with a detailled plan, that will only be executed. Such plans are often requested by management, so that only then a project may…","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,37],"tags":[102,219,232],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.10.10","language":"en","enabled_languages":["de","en"],"languages":{"de":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1050,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions\/1050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hardscrum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}