How they discovered Information Mapping

For Macadamian Technologies Inc., it all started when an employee attended an Information Mapping Canada (IMC) Breakfast Briefing. The employee came back to enlighten Macadamian colleagues with the potential benefits of improving their organization's communication and documentation.

Sylvain St.-Germain, Director of Process Improvement, then enrolled in a 2-day Mapping Business Communications seminar to learn the nuts and bolts of the Information Mapping® Method.

Sylvain commented that, "after the training I was blown away by how powerful and easy LAFI (Language Art for Information) communications would be in reality and by the benefits that this process would bring to our company."

Background

Macadamian Technologies Inc. is a global software consultancy that helps companies create successful products through

• strategy & research
• usability
• user interface design, and
• software development services.

What did Macadamian do?

Macadamian then did two things:

• They invited IMC's Master Trainer and Consultant, Kim Hale, to deliver a 1/2-day seminar focusing on email communications to compliment the e-learning program called "Making E-mail Work™" already taken by the key customer-facing team members. All attendees appreciated the skills learned and quickly started to apply the techniques.

• They also started to introduce the Information Mapping principles and concepts in the "Macadamian Way" software development methodology. Since then, everyone joining Macadamian is trained in the Method.

Benefits

The benefits to the organization soon started to surface.

• When they started applying the InfoMapping techniques to weekly project status emails, customers started to congratulate the company on the quality of these communications. Sylvain even had a client say, "I'm better informed of what's going on in my projects done by Macadamian than on the projects done internally!"
  

• As client relationships are vital to Macadamian's success, the Method has helped improve responsiveness to clients by assuring that email and other written communication is easy to use and easy to understand by both clients and internal staff.

Conclusion

Bottom line, Macadamian recognizes that clear communication has a direct impact on the smooth completion and overall success of their software development projects.

Sylvain comments:

"Since we learned Information Mapping, we know that the Method plays a significant role in our success as we more effectively communicate both internally and externally, with our partners and most importantly our customers."

"I do not hesitate to recommend anyone that relies on written communication for business to embrace the Information Mapping Method. A lot of it is common sense and learning the techniques is simple."