Storyboard Development

STORYBOARD DEVELOPMENT

Introduction

Storyboards are a method of capturing proposal material in shorthand before a first draft is written.  They are tools to help capture management evaluate the strategies, approaches and substantiating data for approaches in a clean, easily editable format.  For once the draft is written it is much harder to see this armature, or framework of baseline ideas.  It is also a good place to begin envisioning or conceptualizing graphics which will support your approaches.

This phase, begun by the great Jim Beveridge "the Anatomy of a Win," is often adhered to, but given lip service by many organizations.  It is a hard discipline that it calls for engineers and management personnel to do original work.  Everyone can't do everything well.  A brilliant engineer may need help to articulate this level of communication even though they have a solution in mind.  That's where Datawrite personnel step in and work with your team to ensure that this step is meaningful.

Once storyboards are complete there is a wall walking review by management.  It is the one time that they will get to review a snapshot of the entire proposal before it goes into hundreds of pages of text.  The reviewers can move ideas back and forth between the boards until they have achieved a convincing and responsive solution for the evaluator.  At that point the authors will have a signed off  roadmap on how to assemble and write the first draft.  Although this draft will not be polished, all of the right information will be in the right places.

TIPS& TRICKS

Give a short training seminar after every Monday morning status meeting to prepare the team for the exercises of the week.  Since they will need to achieve the milestone you are teaching them to prepare for that week, they will all be more likely to listen and to take notes. 

Here is a simple storyboard format.  Anything more complicated will be hard to review and revise.  Simple is better.

 

WIDGET PROPOSAL STORYBOARD          Storyboard No._____
Vol No./Name: II Technical	Section/Paragraph No.: 2.3.1	Sect/Par Title: Widget Assembly	Author/ Vol Lead: Henry Clay /George Burns	Page Count: 6
Section L & M References: L.3.2.3, M.3.3
Specification and Statement of Work References: Spec 3.2.3, SOW 3.4.2.1
Thematic Statement (Strategy):  The Widget used in this assembly is commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
Features and Benefits:  This COTS Widget has a high mean time between failure MTBF and dimensions that allow it to be placed into the current Lowest Replaceable Unit (LRU).  This allows increased flight time and lower maintenance cost.
Substantiation/ Proof: The Widget has been used on the Star Spectrum Aircraft for fifteen years with a proven 400 hours MTBF.  Over the last five years its cost has decreased 20% due to higher manufacturing
Graphic Concept: We have a photo of the widget.  We will have a graphic pointing to each subsection describing its function and showing the reader why it is beneficial to their overall design.

 

Figure 5-1.  A Straight Forward Storyboard Is More Productive

 

SUMMARY

 

The Storyboard allows the development of a thematic sentence, substantiating material and a graphic all tied to the requirements in the proposal outline.  In just a few pages you've captured a roadmap that will lead the team through the development of a solid first draft. 

--
Chet Shinaman
President - Datawrite, Inc.
2162 Long Bow Lane
Clearwater, FL 33764
Cell: 727-215-6688
Blackberry: 727-215-3728
Email: cxxxx@xxxcom
www.datawrite.com