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Speed Dating for Project Management Software

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Margot Hanson, California Maritime Academy

Andrew Tweet,William Jessup University

Kevin Pischke, William Jessup University

Annis Lee Adams, Golden Gate University

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Internet Librarian 2013

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

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Project Management Principles & Best Practices

  • A project is work that has a defined beginning, end, and goals.
  • Project management is a set of tools to help allocate and track resources so that a project can be completed successfully, on time, and on budget.
  • Project management is in contrast to operations management which has defined goals, but does not have a defined term.

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Defining the Project

  1. Define the project scope in a written charter
    1. Define success with goals & stakeholders (punchlist, phases, metrics)
    2. Define timeline in relative or calendar terms
    3. Define resources (budget, personnel, equipment)
    4. Define what happens to the resources and deliverables when the project is over
  2. If any one of these parameters changes, then the others must adjust to compensate.
  3. Defining the scope will help prevent misunderstandings between stakeholders and scope creep.

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Allocating the Resources

  1. Three types of resources, many techniques
    1. Time (storyboards, weekly meetings, cascade chart)
    2. Personnel (kickoff/closing meetings, debriefs, monitoring reports, task allocation, flow charts)
    3. Money (budget, release points, or other accountability measures)

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Project management phases

  1. Planning
    1. Project scope defined and written up as charter
  2. Build-up
    • Allocation of needed resources, training, team building, etc
  3. Implementation
    • Carrying out the plan
    • Modifying scope and resources as needed
  4. Closeout
    • Handing over deliverables, making the site live, debriefing and reporting to stakeholders

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Recommended reading on project management

HBR's 10 must reads on collaboration. (2013).

Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review

Press.

HBR's guide to project management. (2013).

Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.

Managing projects: Expert solutions to everyday

challenges. (2006). Boston, Mass: Harvard

Business School Press.

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PMP (Project Management Professional) study guides (via ebrary and Ebsco).

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Project Management Software Adoption Survey

  • Survey ran from Aug 23 - Sept 13, 2013

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  • Distributed on CALIX, CALIBACA, ERIL, BayNet, New-Lib, Web4LIB, CODE4LIB, ILI, SCELC, CCCU

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  • 205 Respondents

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Respondents’ Library Type

Academic Public Special

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Staffing Levels at Respondents’ Libraries

1-9 FTE 10-24 FTE 25-49 FTE 50-99 FTE 100+ FTE

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69% have not used software

Has your library used software that is designed specifically for project management?

No Yes Don’t Know

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Dominant Themes

  • Librarians (survey respondents) see a need for project management, but not sure where to go
  • Missing base knowledge on project management
  • Not sure which program will work best with their library workflow (or won’t get adopted)

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Case Study

“No one should ever have a question about where a project stands” --Kevin Pischke

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Let’s take it slow

  • Our Evergreen consultant introduced us to Trello during an ILS upgrade for testing and bug tracking
  • Started to use for idea gathering in planning events
  • Not committed and little buy-in from stakeholders

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Time to get serious (DTR)

  • We started to use Trello as a PM tool when we had 7 different technology projects to implement at the same time. (EBSCO Discovery Service, Camino, Libguides, EBSCO Academic Ebooks, EBSCO LinkSource, EBL patron driven loans/acquisitions, GetItNow)
  • Developed workflow on projects & operations
  • Assigned Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) to tasks

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Case Study

Don’t be afraid to play the field -- you probably won’t marry the first one that comes along. So, jump in and don’t wait for “the perfect one!” --Margot & Lee

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Lots of fish in the sea

  • We developed a project management software evaluation matrix
  • Tested various software to see if they fit our needs

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Time to get serious (DTR)

  • BaseCamp - Website redesign project
  • Trello, Asana, Podio: - e-resource troubleshooting; presentation coordination

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Top 4 Responses

What project management software has your library used?

MS Project Basecamp Jira Trello

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How well did the software work for your library’s project(s)?

MS Project Basecamp Jira Trello

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Bachelor #1

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We’d set you up on a blind date with Microsoft Project if...

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  • Already in use with your organization
  • PMP on staff
  • You need a high level, complex tool
  • Required to manage time, money, and personnel

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It’s Not Me, It’s You

  • Steep learning curve
  • Too feature rich
  • Difficult to share progress and updates
  • “all noise no light”

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Bachelor #2

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We’d set you up on a blind date with Basecamp if...

  • You’re looking for something to manage your task-intensive, short-term projects (IT projects, event planning)
  • You need a low barrier for adoption
  • You have a little money to spend
  • You want to keep everyone in the loop, share files, and track timelines

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It’s Not Me, It’s You

  • “Basecamp timelines are not tied to resource allocations.”
  • “Basecamp is a messy interface. Doesn't facilitate visually the organization of multiple projects very well.”

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Bachelor #3

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We’d set you up on a blind date with Jira if...

  • You want to track issues/bugs
  • You have an IT/tech/digitization/web design project
  • You want to set up multiple workflows
  • You want a very flexible/customizable program
  • You have a little money to spend

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It’s Not Me, It’s You

JIRA has a high learning curve for changes, i.e. it is very flexible, but therefore has many configuration options

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Bachelor #4

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We’d set you up on a blind date with Trello if...

  • You have a team of 5 or fewer individuals
  • You primarily need task management not time or budget management
  • You need an easy, shared tool in the cloud
  • You have $0 budget, and don’t need frills
  • You need easy file attachments, checklists, assignment of DRI’s, mobile app

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It’s Not Me, It’s You

  • It doesn’t scale up for big projects
  • You have to make it fit into your workflow or get a 3rd party app to integrate it into email and calendar
  • You don’t have to assign DRI’s or due dates so things can slip through the cracks if you don’t monitor your boards

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Take-aways

  • Principles, practices, tools can be implemented at any level
  • Pick the right tool for the job (lightweight, low-cost tools don’t need library director approval!)
  • Software alone won’t solve your project management problems

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Questions?