Tag Archives: best practices

[Book] Ministry in the Digital Age

Ministry in Digital Age cover

One of the folks that I really get exited about hearing from, talking to, or doing events with, Dave Bourgeios, is on the verge of introducing his book Ministry in the Digital Age. Here’s a snippet from his post on the announcement and subject:

Imagine a missionary training to go to Russia but not learning Russian. Imagine a pastor preparing a sermon about the Psalms and knowing nothing about King David. These examples are unthinkable; no one would do this. But yet we have many in ministry today who have not learned to understand the use of digital tools. To me, not knowing how to use the Internet or social media in today’s marketplace is just as unthinkable as any of the previous examples.

 

I understand that there are many ministry leaders out there who are intimidated by these new tools. Others have tried to use them, but have not had the level of success that made the attempt worth it and have become discouraged.  I wrote my book, Ministry in the Digital Age, to help those who know that they need to move forward with these tools but are looking for a roadmap to get there.

How critical are digital tools to ministry is what Dave asks. Are you taking the steps to understand it?

Preorder Dave’s book from InterVarsity Press

Mobile Ministry Methodology (v1)

For the years that I’ve been looking at this intersection of faith and mobile technology through the lens of MMM, one thing has honestly escaped much of the conversation around the topic: if this intersection is valid, then what do people do to get past that intersection and into some relevant demonstration of their faith. In effect, what’s the method to the madness?

Being able to devote much more time to MMM in the past two (2) years has granted my thinking and action spaces to do just that – figure out the methods and some streams of activity within them. You’ve seen this in part if you’ve followed this site for sometime and watched its evolution. In this post, I kind of want to pull all of that together into what amounts into a mobile ministry methodology. The goal of this methodology is to literally demonstrate the definition of mobile ministry in the midst of practice and application.

Mobile Ministry Sketchnote Mindmap - Share on Ovi

What is A Mobile Ministry Methodology

The Mobile Ministry Methodology is a framework designed to assist individuals, ministries, and organizations determine the value, prospects, process, and successes of mobile ministry projects. Derived from SDLC methodologies, this framework is designed to keep the a singular goal in perspective despite tendencies for scope creep.

Please note, this is a framework. Therefore, activities within each phase might differ depending on the project. That said, the phases are quite rigid in keeping the focus of the project on both ministry and mobile applications.


Phase One: Determine if you are working on a mobile ministry project

The first step of this methodology is to determine if you are indeed working on a mobile ministry project. While it might seem that any project utilizing mobile devices and services is a suitable ministry project, the determining of whether it is a mobile ministry project falls towards whether the goals and activities within the project affirm the definition of mobile ministry:

Mobile ministry is the skillful use and application of computer technology classified as mobile for the context of fulfilling the religious designation of forwarding the proclamation of the key ideals and history of the faith, following form to and innovating on top of cultural and faith traditions within applied contexts [source]

(short version of definition)

The skillful use and application of mobile computer technologies for the fulfilling religious practices [source]

If your answer to this question is that you are not working on a mobile ministry project, this methodology and process will not be helpful to you. If the goals of your project would like to line up with ministry, as well as keeping that technical component of being mobile, a good place to check the motives and goals of the project can be found using the following Biblical references:

  • Deut 6:1-9
  • Matthew 28:18-20
  • James 1:22-27
  • John 17:20-26


Phase Two: Identifying the Frame for Mobile Ministry

There are several contexts in which mobile technologies have been used, or mobile behaviors tracked and observed. However, all of these are not specific illustrations of ministry (faith-building, faith-tradition extending, faith transformations can all be used as terms here). When mobile intersects with ministry, and the resulting actions are a change in behavior towards both technology and faith, then we can say that mobile ministry has occurred. MMM’s  investigation and logging of activity in this space has identified these contexts (displayed here in their primary and secondary frames, linked to articles published here which correlate):


Phase Three: Identifying the Primary Focus for Mobile Ministry Activity

Activities within the previously mentioned frames of mobile ministry have engaged in one or a combination of three focus areas:

  • Devices
  • Services
  • Experiences

Previous discussion on these.

The focus is determined by the core and learned competencies which area needed in order to direct the mobile ministry effort. Many mobile ministry projects will involve two or all three of these at some junction, but the primary focus clarifies how in the later steps you can better identify gaps, resources, and implementation items.

Whether you are using one or all three of these layers, it is helpful to have within your project person(s) which have specific knowledge of the devices and their capabilities, the programmable and political natures of the services to be implemented, and/.or then a definition of the experience for users, administrators, operators, developers, and any other stakeholders. Within these layers of mobility are a wealth of forks which will determine the success or failure of your project if they are not accounted for at this junction.

Engaging the Project Activities

Once you have identified the framing and focus, the methodology begins to take place. While this might look different for specific outfits, the software development lifecycle (SDLC) methodology actually grounds the following phases of the methodology/process:

  • Establish the Three Pillars
  • Design and Test
  • Implement
  • Support, Report, and Reinitialize


Phase Four: Establish the Three Pillars

The first phase for the mobile ministry methodology involves what we call the three pillars: goals, issues, and resources.

  • Goals: setting a specific project goal for the project (multiple goals introduce variables harder to solve down the line); the goal should fit within a single mobile ministry frame, and have its mobile ministry focus clear upon statement
  • Issues: assessing the gaps (problem statements) of which if not solved, will cause the project (not simply expectations of the stakeholders) to fail. Issues might include the expectations of stakeholders, however, I would caution to making sure issues relate to the goal, and why implementation of the project will not perform as expected.
  • Resources: your people, processes, and tools which are readily available, or available with little extra effort or expense, that will assist you in completing your project. If you lack the resources (people, processes, or tools), then your primary issue is that of a lack of resources, not costs, time, or reach.

This would be similar to the project initialization and analysis phases of an SDLC/Agile methodology. It is within your dissection of the issues and and resources in which an analysis of the feasibility of your project will come to light.


Phase Five: Design and Test

Design and Testing should happen in concert with one another. It will be clear after the identification of the goals and issues what exactly needs to be focused on. Design should therefore take place in two phases – staging prototypes/examples and test-ready prototypes/examples. I am personally of the opinion that you spend more time refining the design than testing multiple iterations, but I know of many people having different philosophies here. I’d also recommend that any design and testing (especially if we are talking applications, software, and workflows) should take place with live data, and not dummy data.

Testing is about whether you are making realistic steps towards your goal, and have you developed an experience with your product to match the expectations after that goal is met. Anything that you are testing that does not have direct correlation to solving the issues which prevent your goals from happening should be dismissed (or in some cases, lowered in priority). Testing should also be designed to correspond to the availability of your resources in concert with how the results of the testing knock off all or some of the issues raised in the previous phase. There is potential for projects to spoke into additional requirements or opportunities as a result of the testing/testing data, so I would recommend that anything learned that does not positively effect your specific goals, be dropped for another project or future iteration of the current project.

The testing scripts should be designed so that they can be used in the Post-Implementation phase for reporting and support needs.


Phase Six: Implement

Implementing a mobile ministry project can be a difficult proposition. If this is an application, implementation might look like a slow-beta period, or a larger “let’s see what happens” kind of release. When it is a business process, implementation cannot afford such slow releases, and usually includes additional time and resources towards addressing items that could not show up in testing, implementing training, and finishing the reporting queue.

Your public feedback queue and media channels should be established and utilized at this point. Mechanisms such as Twitter, Facebook, Get Satisfaction, etc. are excellent for acquiring and monitoring specific feedback, while also lending a (hopefully) positive light on your ability to manage the roll-out of your product.


Phase Seven: Support, Report, and Reinitialize

Supporting your product includes having the appropriate documentation (text, video, etc.), publicity support, and consistent presence (support forums, email channels, etc.) which allow you to take in and categorize compliments and issues related to the implemented iteration of your project. Support does not necessarily include fixing all of those items which are brought to your attention – some items need to be input into the queue for re-initialization into another project.

As with your testing queue, the reporting structure that you use to watch usage, trends, and spot potential problems down the line should be in place here. Your report data might come from server logs, emails, or a combination of several streams of data, to which are collected in a regular report by which project managers an stakeholders can have a concise view of the project as it related to the specific goal.

Reinitialize means that you’ve met enough the goals of your project, and due to the data gained within the design, testing, implementation, or support/report streams, that you have an update to the project that you can do. Again here, the goal needs to be specific, but also not deviate greatly from the original product’s goal. It is not uncommon to go back to the drawing board and rebuild at this point.

Review of the Mobile Ministry Methodology Phases
Mobile Ministry Methodology Process Map

  1. Is this a mobile ministry project?
  2. Frame the mobile ministry project (six areas)
  3. Identify the primary mobile ministry activity’s focus
  4. Establish the Three Pillars (Goals, Issues, Resources)
  5. Design and Test
  6. Implement
  7. Support, Report, Reinitialize

View these phases in a graphical process map:

This process map was created in Google Docs for collaborative purposes. The Google Docs version will always be the latest iteration of this.

Items Not Seen In this Methodology

This methodology has been designed to be very generic. How you or your team manages their tasks, template documents, or other assets is not the point of this methodology. It is a framework to assist you/your team to understand from the outset of the project how to focus your efforts without losing focus of the faith and technological implications of your product. If at the end of your project, you have clearly demonstrated that you have forwarded some/all of the key ideals or behaviors of your faith tradition, then you can successfully say that you have engaged within mobile ministry.

If you have any comments or questions towards this methodology, please do not hesitate to email or send a message via Twitter. Its my expectation that this methodology will enable groups, such as those involved within the Mobile Ministry Forum, better identify successes, challenges, best practices, and other aspects of mobile ministry that have been hard to define and implement.


Associated Resources

Continuing on Resolution #4: Raising the Bar on Mobile UX Standards

MMM on the N8 - Share on OviA few articles ago, we went a bit on a extended talk about the All Books Bible Reader that I’m developing for personal use. After talking through the technical features and goals, we wrapped up with a statement talking about clarifying the goals and features for your mobile(-first) endeavors, and being mindful of the specific UX needs mobile presents:

Mobile-Friendly and Personalization As Core to User Experience
The takeaway from this project is that there have been several methods to engaging Bible/document reading, social/offline networking, funddraising, and other initiatives in mobile ministry. However, even if you nail the features, at some point in the maturing of that person using the service or the company offering it, doing something that fits the mobile context and that’s personalized will come forth. It might not be the aims of your projects initially, but do know that eventually, they all point to these goals needing to be met.

With that starting point, we want to highlight a bit more about Mobile (UX) Standards and in referencing that All Books Project, and some of the items to keep in mind whiile moving forward in your mobile initiatives this year and beyond.

Mobile UX Standards
It is assumed that the idea of what makes for a great mobile user experience is pretty easy – just grab yourself an Apple iPhone and use it for a week or two, then switch to another platform for the same amount of time and note how often you frown, toss the device, or find yourself limited in some fashion. And while we can agree that Apple’s iOS platform does make for some suitable claims towards what makes a good mobile experience (consistency, quality, variety of applications, etc.), its not the only mobile experience, nor does it answer every question anyone developing, selling, or using mobility will ask towards.

Over at UX Mag, an excellent article talking about mobile standards beyond the styleguides, frameworks, and guidelines that would usually reference as we develop apps makes an excellent point:

…Apple, Android, and Blackberry all do a great job of sharing standards with their developer communities. They share detailed guidelines on standard UI elements, the associated terminology, and their behaviors, and give usage examples for the UI. However, what they don’t do is string them all together into patterns.

  • What happens after you click this button?
  • How should these messages change in context of the task?
  • If you’re opening a document online, should it open in a new window or in the current window?
  • When and where do error messages appear in a form?
  • Is that different or the same in a wizard or series of forms?

These are the questions that designers and developers spend most of their time toiling over—the little things that pull UI elements together into a full interaction. And these are also the questions that the OS standards do not cover. This is a key gap in standards for designers and developers that can be filled by a new custom set of guidelines, which further save money and time in development efforts and add value to the existing, basic OS standards.

*List formattting added

Beyond simply saying “we want to go mobile” or “let’s use this or that to go mobile,” you really have to ask core questions about the interaction and steer adamantly towards those goals. What happens when you don’t steer specifically towards the goal, understanding these kinds of questions throughout, is that you end up with a glut of features, conflicting brand messages, dis-engaged users, and missed opportunities to deliever the depth of the Gospel that you/your group intends that application or service to portray.

Start With A Picture, Ask Until the Ink Dries
With the All Books Project, I started with an idea in my head (more efficient Bible reading on my personal mobile device that wasn’t limited to closed-licensed texts), and started scraping together what was needed and what wasn’t in order to make that happen. I boiled things down to two features: reading and searching. And then I took to one of my favorite apps on my iPad (Tactilis) to sketch some reasonable ideas towards how I would get there.

UX Flow for All Books Personal Bible Reader - Share on Ovi

This UX flow document is my gage of whether I’m meeting my goals. If I am, then the lines here continue to make sense. If not, then I go back to this document towards what I (originally or later modified) thought and ask whether my thinking should continue down the path I’m or, or get back on course to what was drawn.

One of the pieces of interaction that I’m aiming for with All Books is a sliding popup for when I click on those verses with footnotes. The feature is harder to implement than its drawn. But, because I’m clear towards what I want to do when the popup is envoked, how its interacted with, and how it is dismissed, I can keep my programming focused and timelines (generally) well kept.

A Good Mobile UX Is Also Your Feedback Loop’s Process
In designing an effective mobile user experience (UX), you also need to take into account the development/design of your support infrastructure. As we talked about once before when developing mobile web apps, you need to have in place the resources not just to build the app, but to support, maintain, and maybe even update it.

Build, Get It Out There
After I was able to figure out my issue relating to displaying content within All Books, I needed to start using it. It didn’t matter that there was (noted) performance issues or the inability to see the footnotes as I’d like. Getting it into my normal use allows me to catch things that I’d not considered in my initial development and design, and then adjust on the fly without effecting other pieces of the project. For example, I realized that for all the work I did with makng this a spatially-orienting design, I still felt lost when navigating. The insertion of colored indicators on the section that I was within helped this considerably, and it was a few lines of code to add to do this (1 CSS class and 1 JS statement).

With that: do you have your mobile UX resolution refined now. Its the middle of January, don’t let too much longer go by.

Technical Issues and Practices in Mobile Ministry

Each conversation about mobile ministry brings it’s own insights and challenges. Some of those challenges are of a technical nature and require the understanding of items related to content product and design. Here are a few resource links to address some of the technical items I have recently encountered:

What are some of the resources that you use in creating those mobile innovations that bolster your mobile ministry efforts? Or, what kinds of resources would you like to see more of?