CHUNKING

How do you stir-fry an elephant? Easy. You cut it up into manageable pieces. Unfortunately, many people do not fathom that concept. Instead, they take on a topic to write about in an article or manage a project that’s so large they’re doomed from the start.

Chunking entails dividing a topic, system, or just about anything else into varying levels of components and subcomponents. Chunking improves understandability, enables better tackling of effort, furthers traceability, and allows for easier assignments.

for Chunking

• Take a big picture view of the subject.
• Determine the major components of the subject, paying close attention to natural divisions.
• Identify the relationships among the components.
• Identify what shared elements create relationships among the components (i.e., commonalties).