Up to now I have been avoiding the ITTO's at all costs, completely refusing to even consider the 600+ inputs. But yesterday I was doing a Conrnelius Fitchner quiz - just 15 questions but the answers revealed 3 incorrect ITTO answers and so where I could have scored 90% I in fact scored 73%. So I finally caved in and decided to do something with the ITTO's.

I found a very interesting technique called the 'loci' technique - it's a memory device vaguely similar to a mnemonic but much more powerful and based on visualization. The idea does seem pretty ridiculous at first and it does indeed encourage to you make memorable associations. But it works - I started out yesterday not knowing the inputs to 'Develop project charter' and now I know them cold due to this method.

So here is how I did it using this loci technique.

I visualized a pig in a boat with a briefcase full of gold in order to finance the saving of the environment. Your question - WHAT THE HECK IS THIS GUY TALKING ABOUT.

Well I can associate a boat as a charter boat, another word for a pig is a SOW, a brief case represents a business case and the gold is an assed an OPA and the Environment is the EEF.

Now I know that the inputs to develop Charter Are:

Statement of work (SOW)

Business Case

Organizational Process Assets

Environmet Variables.

The key here is to make ridiculous stories that have some meaning to you and stick in your mind. The other point is once you have picked an image for something e.g. a boat representing a charter then always in your images keep the boat as the representation of the charter.

I then moved on to Identify Stakeholders - Here I visualized a guy holding a steak, also in a boat, with a shopping list, he too was an environmentalist carrying gold.

Suddenly I know the inputs to ID Stakeholders.

The Charter (Boat)

Procurement Documents (the shopping list)

OPA (the gold)

EEF (the environment)