Transcript Slide 1

Understanding Web
Project Management
Build a better relationship with IT
Christina Zeller
InfoAction, Vancouver Public Library
SLA NorthWest Regional Conference, October 6, 2006
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Goals
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Understand the steps in a CMS project using
a project management approach
Understand basic terminology of project
management and software development
Be able to communicate with your systems
staff or contractor effectively about a project
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Why use project management?
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Identify when you’ll finish a project
Avoid setting impossible deadlines
Discover issues early/manage risks
Know how much it will really cost
Identify whether the product is worth the cost
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What’s most important?
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Planning
Communication
Milestones
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Why plan?
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It’s easier to work on small parts of a major
project
People feel more in control
You can identify time/budget issues earlier
Avoid multiple people on the same task,
forgetting items, or starting too late
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CMS project plan
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Phases in a web project
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Define
Design
Build
Deploy
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Planning Process
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Break down each phase into smaller parts
Assign each part (work package) to a leader
with expertise in that area
Create the “work breakdown structure”
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Gather requirements
List each desired feature, then document:
 Who uses it
 When someone uses it
 What steps must come first (inputs)
 What happens after (outputs)
 Characteristics or rules that apply
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Produce estimates
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“Work package” leader identifies the tasks to
complete their part of the project
Estimate time in days or hours to complete
each task
Identify resources (people) needed
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Estimating
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How many days do you think it will take?
Who needs to be involved?
How many people will work on this at once?
Will each person work full time, or only part of
the day on this task?
Best practice: do not assign anyone for more
than 85% of their time
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Budget
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Software license
Server/hardware needs
Consultants/contract staff
In-house staff (agree on a value)
Get approval from “sponsor” for the final budget
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Scheduling
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Decide if your project must finish on a certain
date, or if it starts now and the finish date is
flexible
Identify resource constraints, like experts who
must be present for the project to progress,
or holidays of main resources
Identify reporting “milestones” if needed
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Create project plan
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Enter WBS into project management
software, e.g. Microsoft Project (or Excel)
As needed, break down each item into tasks
Assign tasks to people
Look for over-allocation and adjust schedule
Best practice: Each task should be no shorter
than 1% and no longer than 10% of the
project duration.
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Resources, effort, duration
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Resources = people or equipment
Work = number of hours to complete
Duration = length of time to complete
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Can be fixed or variable
Fixed: a meeting that is 1 hour has 1 hour
duration, no matter how many people attend
Variable: filing 100 documents takes ½ the time if
you assign 2 people rather than 1
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Dependencies
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What needs to happen before this task can
start? (finish to start)
Can this task happen at the same time as
another task? (start to start)
Do these tasks need to end at the same
time? (Finish to finish)
Tip: later in the project, these tend to change
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Deliverables
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What identifiable product does each group of
tasks produce?
For example, the deliverables of the define
stage are the approved requirements
document and project plan.
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Gantt chart
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Project kick-off
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Bring all team members together
Review schedule
Identify risk areas
Adjust schedule as needed
Contingency: building in extra time for the
unexpected
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Design phase
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Information architecture
Flow charts
Wireframes of the templates
Initial content plan
Permission levels/groups
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Build Phase
Project manager’s role?
 Remove obstacles that prevent team
members from completing tasks
 Update project plan to keep track of issues
with time and budget
 Watch for team members who work long
hours and find out why
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Project Communication
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Status meetings
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Frequency? one per week
Status reports
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Accomplishments in past week
Goals/tasks for upcoming week
Risk areas
Milestone schedule (deadlines)
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Install
This can often begin before design completes:
 Set up server
 Install CMS
 Configure CMS settings
 Basic test of functions
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Develop and Customize
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Create templates to apply your design to
the content
Customize built-in features of CMS
Set up administration
Risk area: even though a CMS has “features” you may
need to install them or customize them
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Create test plan
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Identify every feature you install
Itemize process to check that it works
Identify who will test it – you may need
multiple people
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Test
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Use content from your existing site, or use
test content
Best way to test is with real content
Be prepared for frequent outages and
interruptions
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Deliverables
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Empty version of your website (with some
test content)
Functioning content management system
Test plan
Implementation plan
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Deploy
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Content transfer
Testing/Quality Assurance
Launch
Training
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Content Transfer
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When?
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Why not first?
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During second round of testing in QA
First round has too many bugs/interruptions
Environment isn’t yet stable
Why not later?
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You’ll find bugs during the transfer
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Test
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Follow the test plan you created during the
Build phase
Test every process and feature
Involve new users
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Launch
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Review schedule of tasks
Draft timing
Plan a celebration
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Training
When?
 Core user group should participate in the
content transfer
 Secondary users should be trained after
launch
 Consider waiting until the next “release”
before training so bugs are worked out
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Lessons Learned
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Review problem areas
Identify successes
Record
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Resources
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CMPros www.cmprofessionals.org
Project Management Institute www.pmi.org
Nokes, Sebastian, et al. 2003. The Definitive Guide
to Project Management: the fast track to getting the
job done on time and on budget, Prentice-Hall:
2003.
Wysocki, Robert K. and Rudd McGary. 2003.
Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive,
Extreme, 3rd ed. Indianapolis: Wiley.
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Questions
?
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