Speakers: Jesse Henderson, University of Wisconsin-Madison Meghan Musolff, University of Michigan Kate Thornhill, Oregon Health & Science University

1. Project Management
While we’re waiting….
● Introduce yourself to your neighbor.
● Share why you’re here today.

2. Project
Management
Jesse Henderson
Meghan Musolff
Kate Thornhill
VRA conference
March 2017

3. Welcome!
Introductions:
● Name, Title, Institution
● What is one project you’re working
on outside of work?

4. Who we are:
Jesse Henderson
Production Manager, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Meghan Musolff
Program Manager for Library IT Services, Training, & Assessment
University of Michigan
Kate Thornhill
Repository Community Librarian/Assistant Professor Curatorial Services
Oregon Health & Science University

5. Our schedule:
1. You! Intro to PM & Project Planning
a. Exercise #1
2. Team! Task Planning & Management
a. Exercise #2
3. Them! Stakeholders
a. Exercise #3

6. Learning Objectives:
● Understand basic PM principles and
terminology
● Understand the importance of project planning
● Understand the importance of the division of
tasks and roles involved in projects
● Understand how to engage with stakeholders

7. YOU! Introduction to
PM & Project Planning

8. What is a project?

9. Qualities of a project
● Goal or objective
● There’s an end.
● Unique quality
● Reminder: Projects can vary in scale.

10. Projects & People
Project Sponsor
project
Stakeholders
Team
Project
PM

11. What is project management?
● Bringing calm to the chaos
● Stewardship of project & resources
● Risk assessment
● Focus on communication &
documentation

12. What is project management?
● Project management is
people management.

13. Benefits of project management
● Increase chances of project success
● Clarity & control
● Improve relationships
● Build personal reputation

14. PM Models
● There are a lots of PM models
● Come from different worlds:
○ software development
○ manufacturing
● Basic principles can help with planning projects
(and services and spaces and life--everything
really).

15. Waterfall
Conception
Analysis
Design & Construction
Testing
Implementation

16. Agile
● User-focused design
● User → MVP → User → version 2.0
● Iterative process
● Lots of buzzwords:
○ scrum master, standups, burndowns,
user stories, sprints

17. Want to know more?
● PMI certification
● Methodology certification
● Lots of webinars/tutorials
● Resource list

18. Project planning basics
What?
● What are we trying to do?
● What problem are we trying to solve?
● What is in scope? What is out of scope?
● What will we have at the end?

19. Project planning basics
Who?
● Who is involved? At what stages? At
what authority level?
● Who cares? Who SHOULD care?
● What is your communication strategy?

20. Project planning basics
When?
● What is the timeline? Is there a firm
deadline?
● What activities are dependent on each
other?

21. Project planning basics
How much?
● Is there a budget?
● What resources are needed?

22. Project planning basics
Assessment!
● How will we celebrate?
● How will we learn from this project?
● How will we define success?

23. Project charters
● A project charter is your project management
best friend.
● It allows you to:
○ Make a plan.
○ Have a conversation.
○ Document decisions.

24. Exercise
Each group has been given a scenario.
Based on your scenario, complete the project
charter template you’ve been provided.
You have 15 minutes. Go!

25. Team!
Task Planning & Management
which leads to
Workflows & Documentation
in action!

26. Questions to ask
● What are the primary characteristics of your project?
● What needs to be done and by whom?
● What activities are dependent on each other?
● How & Where do you track work?
● How do you communicate updates?
● What are the potential fail points?
○ Availability
○ Timing

27. What should happen
● Outline the steps - list of tasks
● Outline the team players
○ Expertise
○ Availability
● Consider what might be most important to document
● Consider what tools to use to communicate and document
what is necessary

28. Tasks & Roles
● Where have we seen this before? The kitchen!
● Brigade System (Yes, chef!)
○ Invented to streamline the roles of the kitchen
○ Standardized way to communicate when working
○ Solid lines of where one role/set of tasks stops and
another starts
http://luckypeach.com/the-kitchen-brigade-eric-ripert-auguste-escoffier/

29. Tasks & Roles
● Give it a try: Overcooked! Video game
○ 4 team members
○ Need for division of tasks
○ Clear handoffs
○ Clear communication
■ Let’s see what it looks like without planning
■ https://youtu.be/BKhcFQm9iss?t=18m17s

31. Prep &
Chop
Cook &
Place
Assemble
& Deliver
Dishes &
Buns
Call out order Get & Chop Handoff
Get meat Cook meat Place meat
Get veggies Place veggies Deliver burger
Place plates Place Buns Get plates Wash plates
Tasks & Roles = Workflow
● Let’s see it working well…
○ https://youtu.be/wNE-juAGYsI?t=2m

33. Tasks & Roles = Workflow
● Start with a sketch
● Be as detailed as necessary - for what works for your team
● Many ways to do this:
○ Great recent presentation: DLF Forum 2016 “Finding the Balance: a
Discussion of 6 Digital Library Workflows”. https://osf.io/view/dlf2016/

34. Courtesy of UC San Diego (Cristela Garcia-Spitz), Duke (Molly Bragg), MIT (Kari Smith), Emory (Emily Porter).

35. In real life: UWDCC
● UW Digital Collections Center
○ Constant ongoing projects in consistent models
○ Overlapping timelines
○ Distinct units which make up the team
○ Centralized documentation
○ Standardized communication during handoffs
○ Standardized production meetings

36. Overall project workflow outlined at University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center

37. Multiple copies
on HD array
TIFF image
“original scan”
TIFF image
“master file”
JPEG and/or
JPEG2000
images
Plain text files
Metadata
completed
Material
Scanned
Images
cropped &
quality
control
performed
Web
derivatives
created
Optical
character
recognition
(OCR) text
generated
(EFacs only)
Web
derivatives &
OCR text
uploaded to
test
environment
Quality
control
completed
by Metadata
Files queued
for archiving
to hard drive
array
Corrections as needed
UWDCC Basic Reformatting Workflow
Plain text files
JPEG and/or
JPEG2000
images
Handoff logged - date &
by whom.
Email generated: “[Batch]
is ready for reformatting”
Handoff logged - date &
by whom.
Email generated: “[Batch]
is ready for QC”
Reformatting Unit Task
Metadata Unit Task
Artefact Created
Handoff /
Communication Point

38. Documentation (proj. management related)
● Cost estimates
● Project notes/description
● Production notes
● Tasks logs
● Handoff dates
● Production stats
● Tools used
○ FileMaker Pro
○ Google Sites
○ Google Sheets
○ Email
○ Network storage (central
project folder)

39. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center Project Management Database in FileMaker Pro - Project Phase layout

40. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center Project Management Database in FileMaker Pro - Project Phase layout - phase stage detail

41. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center Project Management Database in FileMaker Pro - Project Phases in process summary report

42. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center Production Team Google site - used for more immediate and ephemeral notes

43. Exercise!
Based on your scenario, write down all the tasks
you will need to do. One task per sticky note.
Begin to arrange them in order, with assigned
roles and handoffs. Also consider project artefacts
and documentation
You have 15 minutes. Go!

44. Them! Stakeholders

45. Who are stakeholders?!
● Individuals who either care about or have a vested interest
○ Actively or passively involved
○ Something to either gain or lose from results
○ Can be major determinants of how a project unfolds
into success or failure

46. How do they relate to Project
Management?
● Project charter
● Project planning and tasks
● Project satisfaction and failure
● Relationship building and buy-in
● Communications

47. What is driving stakeholders to want
your project?
Project Worth = Value
Project Effect = Impact
Project Participation = Engagement
How do you find these out?
Talk to stakeholders

48. Identify stakeholders?
Primary stakeholders: directly
affected
Secondary stakeholders: indirectly
affected
Key stakeholders: belong to either or
neither of the first two groups, but
important within or to an
organization, agency, or institution
engaged in efforts
Find out via
Communication
Email
Phone Call
In-person
Meetings
Informal Gatherings

49. Question stakeholders about project value
and impact and how to engage/interact
1. What financial or emotional interest do they have in the outcome of your work? Is it positive or
negative?
2. What motivates them most of all?
3. What information do they want from you?
4. How do they want to receive information from you? What is the best way of communicating
your message to them?
5. If they are not likely to be positive, what will win them around to support your project?
6. How will you manage stakeholder opposition?
7. Who else might be influenced by their opinions? Do these people become stakeholders in
their own right?

50. Stakeholder analysis
● Synthesizes your efforts for identification
● Allows you to strategize and prioritize needs
● Supports how the project moves forward
● Helps organize stakeholders based on value, engagement,
and impact and influence/importance to project

51. Decision matrix

52. Manage expectations
● Scope drift can be a problem - Push back when you need to
do it
● Communicate based on what is important to stakeholder
Stick to the project scope
● Make no assumptions about expectations- Get context and
more information!
● Sometimes you need to change course, other times you
don’t

53. Stakeholder Engagement
● Project communication
guides stakeholders through
the project process
● Strategize communication
○ How much is enough?
○ How involved should
they be?
● Stakeholder Roadmaps:
project milestones,
deliverables, project end
Ask how frequently
they want updates
about the project or
how they want to be
involved

54. Measuring success - Evaluation &
Assessment
● Define success based on stakeholder priorities/goals
● Evaluation criteria - qualitative/quantitative means,
conversations, polls, surveys, etc., that support project’s
outcome and what is deemed important
● Use evaluation to inform your assessment!
● Usually a report at the end of your project

55. Exercise!
Based on your scenario, fill in the decision matrix with your
best judgements. Discuss your decisions about influence,
impact, engagement, and determining success.
You have 15 minutes. Go!

56. End!
End!

57. How did it go?
Congratulations! You’ve completed your
project. What does the end of your
project look like? What are the follow-up
steps? How will you assess how you did?

58. Questions to ask
● How did it go?
● Was the project a success?
○ What made it successful?
○ How do you repeat that success?
● Was it a failure?
○ Why did it fail?
○ What were the breakdowns?
○ What can you learn?

59. What should happen
● Celebrate!
● Have a conversation.
● Document.
● Incorporate.

60. Thank you!
Jesse Henderson (jesse.henderson@wisc.edu)
Production Manager, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Meghan Musolff (musolffm@umich.edu)
Program Manager for Library IT Services, Training, & Assessment
University of Michigan
Kate Thornhill (thornhik@ohsu.edu)
Repository Community Librarian/Assistant Professor Curatorial Services
Oregon Health & Science University