Setting the Foundation for
Working Collaboratively Throughout a
Project Lifecycle
Managing Your (DH) Project
THATCamp Pacific Northwest 2010
Julie Meloni // @jcmeloni // jcmeloni@gmail.com

Credit Where Credit is Due
Many of the slides in this presentation were
adapted from the materials presented by
Lynne Siemens in her course, “Issues in
Large Project Planning and Management,”
which she offers at the Digital Humanities
Summer Institute at the University of Victoria.
For more information on the DHSI, or Lynne’s
class (which I highly recommend), visit
http://dhsi.org/

So, What’s a “Project”?
 It is NOT regular operations and is NOT regularly
repeated
 It has a particular purpose or contract
 It requires coordination of multiple tasks and
resources
 There are specific cost, time, and technical
constraints
 It has a life cycle
 It brings with it UNCERTAINTY

What is “Project Management”?
A set of principles, methods,
tools, and techniques
for the effective management of
objectives-oriented work in the
context of a specific and unique
organizational environment.

The Role of the Project Manager
 Day to day management of a project
 Establish project structure
 Negotiate written agreements
 Monitor work
 Report progress (internally and externally)
 Train and develop staff
 Develop a sense of a team

Eight Basic Principles of Project
Management
1. No major project is ever installed on time, within
budget, with the same staff that started it.
2. Projects progress rapidly until they become 90%
complete; they then remain 90% complete forever.
3. Fuzzy project objectives help you avoid the
embarrassment of estimating the corresponding
costs.
4. When things are going well, something will go
wrong.
 When things just can't get any worse, they will.
 When things appear to be going better, you have overlooked
something.
[These “principles” have made the rounds for ages...I think it started here: http://www.daclarke.org/Humour/projects.html]

Eight Basic Principles of Project
Management
5. If project content is allowed to change freely, the
rate of change will exceed the rate of
progress.
6. No system is ever completely debugged;
attempts to debug a new system inevitably
introduce new bugs that are even harder to
find.
7. A carelessly planned project will take three
times longer to complete than you expected; a
carefully planned project will only take twice
as long.
8. Project teams detest progress reports, because
these reports vividly manifest their lack of
progress.

Creating a Project Plan
 Essential Questions to Ask
 What (is the technical objective?)
 How (will the work break down?)
 Who (will be doing the work and where will they
come from?)
 When (will this work be done?)
 How much (is the budget?)

Starting Your Project
 Identify the need/problem
 What is the issue to be addressed
 Why do you want the project done?
 Why do you want the project done NOW?
 What are the risks?
 What are the costs?
 By what standard will you measure results?

Documenting Your New Project
 Problem/Opportunity statement
 Scope definition
 Completion criteria
 Assumptions
 Impact statement
 Risks
 Resource requirements
 What type of team do you need?

Project Team Formation
 Who should be part of the team? Ask yourself:
 Would I want this individual working for me?
 Would I want this individual as one of my peers?
 Would I want to work for this individual?
 What is their availability, personal style, and
personal goals?

Skills and Responsibilities of Team Members
 What skills are needed?
 Create and maintain a skills inventory matrix
 Who will be responsible for what?
 Create and maintain a responsibility matrix
 Assessing competence
 Balance between skills and “good guy”
 Balance between learning on the job and just doing

Team Development
 Have a Team Charter
 Set forth how the team will work together
 Define the purpose of the team
 What are the ground rules for behavior (and
consequences)
 Provide clearly assigned roles and responsibilities

Working with Diverse & Distant Teams
 Trust & Accountability
 Goes back to team charter
 Ongoing performance evaluations
 Communication
 Project management software suites can help!

Project Management Software
 Tend to contain...
 collaborative tools
 issue tracking tools
 scheduling tools
 document management tools
 resource management tool
 Evaluate the needs of your team, implement
the tools, work the process, reflect and modify
if necessary.

Project Management Software Suites
 “just” a wiki?
 “just” Google Groups?
 Basecamp
 http://basecamphq.com
 Atlassian
 http://www.atlassian.com
 and more...
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_management_software