Digital Project Management - Episode 1
This is the first in a series of posts I plan to publish relating to project management. I've been working on a new graphical representation of my project approach and its associated documents and deliverables and I thought I would tie it all together with a series of personal takes on the project delivery stages.
I've talked about many things on Digital Signals to date and intend to keep the format fairly open on the digital media subject matter, but project management is my background and whether its a social media campaign, website development or SEO campaign they all need good project management to reap the rewards of the work. The diagram below is focussed more around the delivery of website, but can easily be adapted to a SEM, SEO or Social Media campaign.
I've been a project manager of sorts now for nearly a decade and a half and know most of its pitfalls and requirements. The one thing that strikes me, in fact I feel it applies to modern approaches to business in general, is the continual requirement we have for compartmentalising everything and formalising approaches.
While I appreciate and advocate this for the sake of efficiency and formalising approaches, particularly for in-house projects, it isn't always necessary to the last degree.
Having worked on many projects of various sizes over the years, in-house and external client projects, I've encountered a number of occasions where people have fallen back on blaming deviation from project methodologies for the failure of projects. Other times, people obsessing about producing particular project documents for the sake of a particular methodology while the project itself starts to fall behind.
Project methodologies, should, at the end of the day be there to assist you and those around you with the delivery of an agreed product, on time and on budget, as defined and agreed by all parties. Helping you along the way to think of approaches or documents that might assist you with what steps to take next in a project.
The image here is a visual representation of the key deliverables at each stage, it is by no means definitive and, as with all projects, project managers need to be able to adapt and accommodate specific requirements that might arise on a project. This has been developed after using several in-house methodologies/approaches and more main stream approaches such as Prince2, Agile or Waterfall methods whilst in roles on specific projects.
In this first episode, of what I intend to be a series of communications on the subject, I'd like to define what I believe to be the two most important components of all project management; communication and definition.
Communication with your clients, developers, designers or other staff can not be underrated. Ensuring everyone is reading from the same book is essential for effective project delivery. This might sound obvious, but is too often forgotten, and a client would rather know what is going on than to be kept in the dark until its too late.
I've talked of avoiding disintermediation in the past and good communication is where this all starts. With the rise of social media you could say that we've all become better at communicating, particularly in the on-line media sector, this from my perspective is not the case. More tools and communication awareness does not in turn lead to better communication, this is something we all have to work at as individuals and its not always easy.
Definition of what is expected to be delivered, additionally how and when this delivery is going to happen is integral. Strangely enough, this definition is best achieved by its bed partner, communication. Working together these two elements can resolve any issue that a methodology could be designed to help.
While all the concentration can be on the methodology, focus can be lost on the important matter of delivering the project and delivering the right project on time and to budget. If instead of worrying about a methodology, we focus our attention on communication, definition and common sense it would, or should, ensure a successful project delivery.
In the next post, I'll talk in detail about the initial phase of my methodology which I entitle Project Acquisition. Thanks go to Dave for turning my graphic attempts into something I can show the public!
Related articles:
Episode 2 - Digital Project Management - Project Acquisition http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/02/digital-project-management-episode-2.html
Have you got time? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/have-you-got-time-project-managing-time.html
Digital Project Management - Tools of the time trade - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/digital-project-management-tools-of.html
Communicate and define - The basic rules of any project - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/03/communicate-and-define-basic-rules-of.html
I've talked about many things on Digital Signals to date and intend to keep the format fairly open on the digital media subject matter, but project management is my background and whether its a social media campaign, website development or SEO campaign they all need good project management to reap the rewards of the work. The diagram below is focussed more around the delivery of website, but can easily be adapted to a SEM, SEO or Social Media campaign.
I've been a project manager of sorts now for nearly a decade and a half and know most of its pitfalls and requirements. The one thing that strikes me, in fact I feel it applies to modern approaches to business in general, is the continual requirement we have for compartmentalising everything and formalising approaches.
While I appreciate and advocate this for the sake of efficiency and formalising approaches, particularly for in-house projects, it isn't always necessary to the last degree.
Having worked on many projects of various sizes over the years, in-house and external client projects, I've encountered a number of occasions where people have fallen back on blaming deviation from project methodologies for the failure of projects. Other times, people obsessing about producing particular project documents for the sake of a particular methodology while the project itself starts to fall behind.
Project methodologies, should, at the end of the day be there to assist you and those around you with the delivery of an agreed product, on time and on budget, as defined and agreed by all parties. Helping you along the way to think of approaches or documents that might assist you with what steps to take next in a project.
The image here is a visual representation of the key deliverables at each stage, it is by no means definitive and, as with all projects, project managers need to be able to adapt and accommodate specific requirements that might arise on a project. This has been developed after using several in-house methodologies/approaches and more main stream approaches such as Prince2, Agile or Waterfall methods whilst in roles on specific projects.
In this first episode, of what I intend to be a series of communications on the subject, I'd like to define what I believe to be the two most important components of all project management; communication and definition.
Communication with your clients, developers, designers or other staff can not be underrated. Ensuring everyone is reading from the same book is essential for effective project delivery. This might sound obvious, but is too often forgotten, and a client would rather know what is going on than to be kept in the dark until its too late.
I've talked of avoiding disintermediation in the past and good communication is where this all starts. With the rise of social media you could say that we've all become better at communicating, particularly in the on-line media sector, this from my perspective is not the case. More tools and communication awareness does not in turn lead to better communication, this is something we all have to work at as individuals and its not always easy.
Definition of what is expected to be delivered, additionally how and when this delivery is going to happen is integral. Strangely enough, this definition is best achieved by its bed partner, communication. Working together these two elements can resolve any issue that a methodology could be designed to help.
While all the concentration can be on the methodology, focus can be lost on the important matter of delivering the project and delivering the right project on time and to budget. If instead of worrying about a methodology, we focus our attention on communication, definition and common sense it would, or should, ensure a successful project delivery.
In the next post, I'll talk in detail about the initial phase of my methodology which I entitle Project Acquisition. Thanks go to Dave for turning my graphic attempts into something I can show the public!
Related articles:
Episode 2 - Digital Project Management - Project Acquisition http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/02/digital-project-management-episode-2.html
Have you got time? - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/have-you-got-time-project-managing-time.html
Digital Project Management - Tools of the time trade - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/digital-project-management-tools-of.html
Communicate and define - The basic rules of any project - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/03/communicate-and-define-basic-rules-of.html
Labels: digital media, digital project management, project management, project methodology
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posted by Ed Richardson at
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