Presentation at Higher Ed Web in Milwaukee, WI in October 2009.

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

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

5. 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.

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

8. 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.

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

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

11. Follow a process, deliver a product.

13. Triple Constraint Scope Time Cost

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

15. 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.

16. 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”

17. 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?

18. 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)?

19. Break Project down

20. Two week chunks

21. Critical path

25. # 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

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

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

31. Agile process

32. Agile process

33. 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.

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

36. Learn how to use version control software.

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

41. Track the project.

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

43. Bugz

44. Issue tracking software Bugzilla Trac Team Foundation Server Basecamp

45. Use a process that works for you.

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