Some time ago I attended an all-day seminar on project management held at MPOW. I don’t formally have the job title of project manager but the fact is, that’s what I do every day. Most of what was presented was dross but one presentation had valuable advice to give about how to succeed with projects. Here is the list as I’ve jotted it down (I may have the words wrong but I think I got the basic gist of each point the speaker made), with my commentary:
- User involvement. Ensure that users are part of the whole project process as much as possible.
- Support of executive management. I’ve heard this often before but I think it’s still valuable to remember the need for sponsorship of a project; you need to have someone higher up (hopefully more than just one) interested in and willing to go to bat for your project if needed.
- Clear business objectives. I can’t tell you how many times in my library career that I’ve worked on projects without clear objectives of what is really desired or wanted. That is such a turnoff, let me tell you. And it pretty much guarantees failure in the end.
- Optimized scope. Not really sure what this means, frankly. I often think that the terms “scope” and “objectives” are conflated.
- Agile process. I agree with this in theory but trust me, I’ve been part of more “agile processes” than I care to remember and what this phrase is usually code words for “fly by the seat of the pants, just get the bare minimum done, it’s total chaos.” The result is usually, noone is happy, least of all the customer. Instead of this I think I prefer using an iterative process.
- Project management expertise. No need for explanation or commentary.
- Financial management. Quite often projects have a significant financial component and it is important to not lose track of the financials. Reminds me of an article I just read about how Hillary Clinton’s campaign spending may or may not be causing her great disadvantage at the moment.
- Skilled resources. It sure helps to have people with you on a project who actually know what they’re doing. No brainer.
- Formal methodology. Boy, do I have mixed feelings about this one. MPOW worships at the altar of formal methodology, so much that more work and effort are spent worrying about adhering to “rules and regulations” than on actually doing the needed project work.
- Standard tools and infrastructure. In other words, have stuff available to help you in projects that you’ve used before and are flexible enough to help you again. Prevent the “reinvent the wheel” approach.
So there you have it, ten steps to successful project management. I think these have applicability to library settings of any kind.
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