Higher Ed Web Conference - Web Project Management

Web Project Management
Strategies for chaotic web projects in Higher ed.

A Project is… “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result”
– PMBOK Guide (2004)

A Web Project is...
Building a few web pages for a department.
Developing a simple web application that collects student information.
Using Twitter/Facebook/Ning for whatever specific reason*
Extensive Content Management System.

A Project is… “ongoing, with many false starts and chronic scope creep. Governed by committee(s), success is not often tangible.”
– Higher Ed.

The Chaos
Developer comes in sometime after noon.
Designer that doesn’t answer email.
Department wants to see the term “pedagogy” on something aimed at parents.
Committees.
Never ending change requests.

Learn a little from Software Engineering
Pick a dev strategy: understand clearly what you are doing
Version control
Issue tracking

Project definition
First committee meeting needs a “memorandum of agreement”
Define the goals, objectives, and/or outcomes
Sign it.

Follow a process, deliver a product.

Triple Constraint
Scope
Time
Cost

Triple Constraint
What am I building?
How long will it take?
How much will it cost to develop?

Dealing with the “what”
Project sponsor asks for something that needs to be built
Meet with committee and develop a clear scope along with timeline
Sketch out application
Call in resources you need
Develop application, get feedback, tweak, done.

What really happens
“I would like a web site that looks like (insert newsworthy site of the week)”
“Next week would be perfect”
“Oh and can we have video?”
“And a live chat?”
“We want social media”

Manage Resources
What are the skills and people available to this project
How much time do they have?
Is there a line of communication between you and your resources even when not working together in the same place?

Identify risks
What could cause this project to be delayed or fail?
What will you do about them?
How much will it cost (time/money)?

Break Project down

Two week chunks

Critical path

# S: (adj) agile, nimble, quick, spry (moving quickly and lightly) "sleek and agile as a gymnast"; "as nimble as a deer"; "nimble fingers"; "quick of foot"; "the old dog was so spry it was halfway up the stairs before we could stop it"
- http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=agile

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/18091975@N00/

From http://www.flickr.com/photos/orcmid/3879384912/

Agile process

Get involved
Use Basecamp or excel or a word document
Break down the project for the sponsor (and you)
Provide time estimates for each phase
Follow-up with daily/weekly updates on progress
Share information.

PM software?
Microsoft Project (larger teams)
OmniPlan (for the mac users)
Basecamp

Learn how to use version control software.

Version Control Software?
Github
Subversion (svn)
Team Foundation Server
CVS
Google Code (svn)

Track the project.

Issue tracking
Document milestones
Track conversations, changes, rationale
Generate reports (if you want)
Control your scope.

Issue tracking software
Bugzilla
Trac
Team Foundation Server
Basecamp

Use a process that works for you.

About me.
Jesse Rodgers
Associate Director, VeloCity -- University of Waterloo
Blog: http://whoyoucallingajesse.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jrodgers
Email: jrodgers@uwaterloo.ca

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Higher Ed Web Conference - Web Project Management

by Jesse Rodgers on Oct 05, 2009

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