Quick start guide

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Revision as of 17:14, 27 October 2017 by Peterl (talk | contribs) (How do I avoid messing something up and embarrassing myself?)
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Welcome new member!

Thanks for joining early. I assume you joined because you want to help create, so this page is designed to help you get a quick start. Here is what I think you want to know first:

  1. How do I avoid messing something up and embarrassing myself?
  2. How do I create a new page?
  3. What can I / should I be contributing?

How do I avoid messing something up and embarrassing myself?

There is almost nothing you can do to hurt the site or the project. Seriously. The most important principle of the wiki is to be bold. Create a new page. Edit an existing page. Move text to a new page. We have great version control, so it is really easy to roll anything back, if necessary, but even that is hardly ever necessary.

  • If you see a typo on a page, just click the edit button, and fix it. Don’t ask for permission first. Don’t explain after (except a very short note in the change summary - “fixed typo” is fine).
  • If you search for a page and cannot find it, just add it. The search tool gives you a button for this, and you should use it. Create the page, write as much or as little as you know in the subject, and hit save. Thank-you for your contribution.
  • Try to add a category tag to your new page. This will make it easier for other people to find you contribution. Feel free to make up a new category tag; it won’t hurt anything. You can also look at the existing category hierarchy (start with the ‘’’Special Pages’’’ link to the left) for existing categories to use.
  • If you think reorganizing the text on an existing page will make it better, go ahead. Every page has a Discussion tab where you can leave notes for other authors to explain your thinking or strategy.
  • If you are really worried about stepping on toes with your changes, use the Discussions tab to suggest a change. Don’t expect someone else to make your change for you - just see if there is any debate, and if not, make your change.

For the wiki to be valuable, it needs quantity and quality of content. If your edit will increase either of those factors even a little bit, it is a benefit to everyone involved. Please, be bold.

How do I create a new page?

Two primary ways to create a new page:

  1. Search for a page title, and if it isn’t found, click the link to create it.
  2. Add an internal link to a page (like this: [[Page name]])

I suggest that you go create a new page right now. Seriously - make a page about your dog, or favorite flavor of ice cream, or whatever. It doesn’t matter. There is plenty of space, it won’t interfere with the other work, no one will get mad. Long-term, if it is off-topic for the site, it might get deleted. Or you might delete it yourself. The most important thing is for you to create a page right now, so you know you can.

Use the Help link on the left, and look for page formatting instructions, or just experiment with the buttons on the top of the editing screen.

What can I / should I be contributing?

Anything that helps people understand and use Wardley Mapping is welcome.

Right now (subject to evolution), I am envisioning 4 high level perspectives:

Reference Guide
A resource for looking up details about an specific aspect of mapping, for people already familiar with the process. For example, there are a number of forms of Inertia. The Reference Guide will list them all, with explanations and other details of each. A lot of this detail has been covered in Simon Wardley’s writing, but rarely all in one place. The Reference Guide reorganizes this material by topic for easy lookup.
Example Maps
Users can load sample maps they have created, with explanations. This can be for companies in the news, or new business ideas, or industry analysis.
Component Maturity
This should be a collection of pages, with one per component. Each component page will describe the component, its current maturity location in the map (probably with evidence or discussion about why we believe it is at that particular level), and probably other relevant information.
Cookbook
These pages provide procedures for accomplishing a mapping task. E.g. how to build a value chain, or how to determine a component’s maturity level, or how to run a mapping session with your team. They should be very step-by-step process oriented, and designed to help the reader accomplish a particular task or outcome.

As I read various writing by Mr. Wardley, I find myself wanting to take notes, often in one of these four categories. If you do too, please create pages here, with the correct category tag. I believe we can create many of the pages for the sections above, just by organizing Mr. Wardley’s existing writing.

If you are pulling notes from a blog post, please note that original source. If you know how to make an external link, please do that, but if you don’t, just include the link so someone else can fix the formatting. (How about using the category tag [[Category:Fix Wardley Links]])