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Understanding Web Project Management

Build a better relationship with IT

Christina ZellerInfoAction, Vancouver Public Library

SLA NorthWest Regional Conference, October 6, 2006

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Goals

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?

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?

Planning Communication Milestones

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Why plan?

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

Define Design Build Deploy

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Planning Process

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

“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

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

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

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

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

Resources = people or equipment Work = number of hours to complete Duration = length of time to complete

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

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

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

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

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

Status meetings Frequency? one per week

Status reports 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

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

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

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

Empty version of your website (with some test content)

Functioning content management system Test plan Implementation plan

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Deploy

Content transfer Testing/Quality Assurance Launch Training

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Content Transfer

When? During second round of testing in QA

Why not first? First round has too many bugs/interruptions Environment isn’t yet stable

Why not later? You’ll find bugs during the transfer

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Test

Follow the test plan you created during the Build phase

Test every process and feature Involve new users

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Launch

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

Review problem areas Identify successes Record

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Resources

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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