by Carla Pfahl
Quick Summary
This MLA session was presented by Anthony Molaro, Assistant Professor, St. Catherine University, and Kelley McBride, Director, Osceola Public Library.
This MLA session was presented by Anthony Molaro, Assistant Professor, St. Catherine University, and Kelley McBride, Director, Osceola Public Library. Molaro talked about why project management is necessary and the steps and functions involved in managing a project while McBride shared her experiences and lessons learned from managing projects as the director of a public library. Both provided excellent information and examples.
To start out, you need a team, not a group, to work on a project. The differences between them were defined in three categories: the understanding or purpose, the ownership, and creativity and contribution of its members. Basically, the distinction between a team and a group is if you have no authority you’re a group, not a team. Members of a team will work in mutual support to accomplish common goals that they have helped to establish, as well as, administer the team objectives. To be an effective team you need structure and direction from within the team.
It can be demoralizing if a team fails. The project can be derailed if you don’t follow a method. Molaro talked about ten reasons why a team can fail:
- Lack of clarity
- Lack of vision
- Lack of resources
- Lack of accountability
- Lack of planning
- Lack of encouragement
- Lack of conflict strategies
- Lack of collaboration
- Lack of inclusion
- Lack of reinforcement
The benefits of using project management can bring clarity to what you are trying to do and why you are trying to do it. It can also help develop a sense of focus to avoid the team getting off track or stalling out. The team will also have a better sense of where everyone is with their tasks and where you need to go as well as have a grasp of the overall big picture. A project management method will also help reduce the risk of failure, bring projects in or under budget, increase productivity of team members, and complete projects at or ahead of schedule.
A project is a temporary endeavor created to yield results. A project has 5 characteristics that help define it: goal; lifespan; defined team; unique results; and time, cost, and performance requirements. Applying methods, skills, and tools to the project activities will help meet the project requirements. Project management happens in 5 phases: initiating; planning; executing; monitoring/controlling; and closing, and there needs a manager that will lead the project from initiation to close. At the initiating phase, make time to plan and include a project charter that will define objectives and lay out a schedule. Write a draft of the charter, share, rewrite, and repeat until everyone agrees with it. This will give team members a stake in the project.
The nitty gritty of a project comes in the knowledge areas that will need to be planned and managed. They are:
- Scope
- Time
- Cost
- Human Resources
- Communications
- Risks
- Procurements
- Quality
For scope and time, establish a baseline of what your project is and what it is not. Identify the tasks and subtasks, the dependencies (who/what is dependent on a task or piece of the project) and work out a timeline for the tasks. Understand that tasks may take longer than expected. More importantly keep it simple and accessible. For cost, many projects begin with an amount. You will want to analyze the activities, schedule, procurements, and other associated costs. Be accurate with your costs and determine who will approve expenditures. Scope, time, and cost are closely related. A change in any of these will affect the others.
With human resources, determine the people that will be part of the team. Are they staff members, outside experts, volunteers, patrons, foundation members? Other pieces to consider of the team members are expertise, experience, availability, and personality. Establish the stakeholders early and address any concerns as they arise. For communications, decide early what the best communication tools will be used based on the team members involved and the company culture. Make sure team members have an understanding of the communication tools so technology does not hinder the work.
The procurements can be either or both internal and external. If you know you need to purchase a specific item for the project plan ahead. Send RFPs, locate/contact sellers, review contracts, and compare prices are just a few of the things to prepare and stay on schedule. Donated items and volunteers can delay the schedule as well.
Risks can derail a project quickly. Identify the risks of the project and communicate with team members what they are. It’s also helpful to plan a risk response – provide actionable results and talk with team members about what could go wrong.
The quality of a project can sometimes be defined by cost but not necessarily. Decide early what level of quality you need for the project and continuously review and analyze to make sure it is maintained. The golden rule of quality is the benefits of quality activities must outweigh the costs. As McBride stated, is the juice worth the squeeze?
As the project progresses team members need to be responsible for their work and report back what they are doing. Monitoring and controlling the knowledge areas will help get you to the finish line. Understand why the knowledge areas need monitoring – identify problems early, ensure the project is on task and within budget, and make adjustments as needed.
As the project comes to an end and the final product or service is delivered bring team members back together for performance evaluations and a project management self-assessment. Ask what worked and what didn’t work and create an action plan for future projects, especially if this is a project that will be done again or annually.
As the session was nearing an end, Molaro and McBride offered some information on methods and tools used for successfully managing a project. There are 5 major techniques that are used for project management: Agile; Waterfall; Critical Path Method (CPM); Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM); and SCRUM. Agile is designed for highly flexible projects that need less control and real-time communication with teams that are self-motivated. Waterfall is the most common method used for projects. It is sequential in nature, however, with the increase in control there will be less flexibility. CPM is a step-by-step process, similar to Waterfall, but with a list of activities, milestones, and deliverables. CCPM is similar to CPM but focuses on resource use instead of activities. SCRUM relies on iterations. It uses 30-day sprints to determine task priority and makes heavy use of smaller teams. They used a chart showing internal and external criteria to be considered when determining a methodology for a project. See the handout from their session for the chart!
There are few different tools that can be used for a given project. Their recommendations were: Microsoft Project (expensive but well designed and with a steep learning curve); Trello; Basecamp; Asana; Google Docs; and good old fashioned pen and paper. Each product is different and provides the team a different way of working with a project. Microsoft Project has a steep learning curve and is expensive but is well designed and gives you a nice Gantt chart. It has an activity-based display. Asana looks at people’s tasks not the activities. Not matter the product make sure team members have access and are equipped to use it.
Finally, for those looking to add project management as a real skill to their career portfolio or pursue it as a degree there are a few options available. Project Management Institute (PMI) is the major project management association with a variety of certificate programs. Project Management Professional Certificate (PMP) is a certificate program available via several different schools with specified requirements for completion. Lynda.com also provides two PM certificate programs.
It was a revealing and enthusiastic session with a lot of real-world project management examples drawn from their own experiences. No one project will go as completely planned. Hearing about pit falls, stumbles, and making unplanned additions to a project turn into successes helped give grounding to future projects waiting to be planned. Project management skills are a necessity for any library organization, public, academic, or other, planning for an internal or external project or event.
