Project Management in Libraries, Archives and Museums

Working with Government and Other External Partners

Julie Carpenter

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781843345664
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780630526
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Business Strategy

Aimed at practitioners and managers, this practical handbook provides a source of guidance on project management techniques for the academic and cultural heritage sectors, focusing on managing projects involving public sector and other external partners. Issues under consideration and illustration include: different approaches to managing projects and how to select appropriate methods; using project management tools and other applications in project development and implementation; ensuring the sustainability of project outcomes and transferability into practice; realistic monitoring methodologies and specification and commissioning evaluation work that has real value. - Written by an experienced project manager, it addresses project management realities rather than theory - Deconstructs the traditional 'project cycle' model to address different project approaches - Takes into account the government and local government context, especially operational procedures and accountability

1

What does project management mean?

Introduction

Projects are a common feature in the work of libraries, archives and museums. They may be activities which are part of a broader programme of strategic change, or externally-funded initiatives perceived as somehow ‘separate’ from operational realities.

The ‘projectisation’ of work has led to the widespread use of ‘project’ terminology: people talk about ‘project managing’ something, when they often mean problemsolving and decision-making; IT ‘projects’ can mean anything from the introduction across an institution of some new application, to a full-scale system procurement; things tend to be ‘implemented’ rather than ‘executed’ or simply ‘done’; institutions might adopt a ‘project-approach’ to management issues. The word ‘project’ itself is so widely used in so many different contexts that its meaning has become rather vague.

This first chapter will explore the most common approaches to project management and to the main roles and responsibilities of a project manager.

What is a project?

So what do we mean by a project? Most definitions emphasise the following common features of projects:

They are temporary – that is, they have definite start and end dates; when the work is complete the project is finished and remaining resources may be dispersed.

They have definable aims, objectives and outcomes, which almost always involve something unique, some innovation or change, with results that are different from other day-to-day functions or outputs of the organisation.

They use defined and predetermined resources to achieve the required outcomes.

The PRINCE2 methodology takes a process-driven approach and the project is seen as the structures and resources set up to deliver something. In the service-driven world of libraries, museums and archives, however, people are more inclined to think of projects as the development and delivery of the outcomes of those structures and resources – an important difference, in my view, with implications for the way projects might be managed.

Of course, each project falls within a specific business context and there will be many high-level and strategic issues and circumstances surrounding a project, which will be the concern of senior organisational managers, and possibly parent bodies. The project manager often sits in the middle ground between higher-level more strategic concerns that provide context, and the specialist techniques and resources that are required to achieve the project’s aims.

Kinds of projects

Sheila Corrall¹ defines three broad types of projects as types of activities with different degrees of frequency and impact:

Runners – ‘bread and butter’ undertakings that occur quite frequently, and rarely present major challenges as the organisation is well set up to deal with them;

Repeaters – ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ undertakings, that happen less often and represent enough variation to require significantly more attention;

Strangers – ‘one-off’ undertakings, where the organisation has little or no past experience, involving many interests and functions.

Barbara Allan² also identifies a category of projects as ‘strategic or operational’ and explores the levels of complexity in a project, making the useful point that:

The more complex the project then the more important it is to use project management tools and techniques – these are the types of projects they were designed to support. In contrast, using these tools and techniques on relatively simple projects is rather like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Table 1.1 adapts Allan’s summary of the key differences between simple and complex projects.

Table 1.1

Simple and complex projects

Characteristics	Relatively simple projects	Complex projects
	e.g. moving office, creating a new website, or organising a conference	e.g. national digitisation project, merging two archives, implementing a new institutional repository
People	Involvement of a small group of people who are all working in the same building and organisation	Involvement of people from different professional backgrounds, different teams and organisations. Involvement of people with a range of first languages, from different cultures, or living in different time zones. Involvement of a large number of different activities involving a number of different people
Data	Relatively low volumes of data	Involves large volumes of data
Risks	Risks can be easily identified	Hard to identify all the risks
Innovation	Low levels of innovation; while the project may be novel to the project team there is existing good practice in this type of work	High levels of innovation
Technology	Working with relatively well-established and tested technology	Working in a technical environment that is changing at a rapid pace; working with technologies that are new to the local environment and not well-supported
Working methods	Use of tried and tested methods (even if they are new to the project team)	Working procedures are established by an external body which may change them throughout the project
Management	Project manager has complete control over the project	External body or another person may have real power e.g. over timescale, resources, people. Responsibility for the project may be shared e.g. by managers working in different orga...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of figures and tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations and acronyms
• About the author
• Chapter 1: What does project management mean?
• Chapter 2: Project planning and review
• Chapter 3: Working in project partnerships
• Chapter 4: Risk management
• Chapter 5: Managing human resources within a project
• Chapter 6: Managing other project resources
• Chapter 7: Evaluation and review
• Chapter 8: Quality management in projects
• Chapter 9: Sustainability of projects
• Chapter 10: Using information and communication technology in project management
• Useful resources
• Glossary of project management terms
• Index