Planning and management of digital projects

Overview Assessing the feasibility to Assessing the feasibility to become digital Building selection criteria Project planning Why technology projects fail Vision, risk and resource management Management toolkit Exercise!

Assessing the feasibility to become digital (1) The physical nature of originals for digitisation Can the items be handled safely? Variation across the collection? Accurate information of the number of items? Adequate catalogue or index? Copyright and intellectual property rights issues? Suitably skilled staff? Enough time available to plan and manage the project?

Durham Libae Vitae Penny Illustrated Paper, October 1868 Design Council Archive, University of Brighton Lambeth Palace, church plan of St. James Sheldwich

Assessing the feasibility to become digital (2) Sufficient hardware/software and technical infrastructure? Delivery system needs (GIS or audio-visual for instance) Storage: might be 10kb-1Gb per image/item! Plan to preserve the physical reliability of the data? Plan to ensure the continued usability of the data? Costs versus benefits

Building selection criteria Stakeholder studies Understand your audience Address actual information needs and goals Avoid online brochures Avoid repetition Create a narrative Add value

Building selection criteria policy and information goals identify collections of value to goals plan most effective route to create resource seek funding

Project planning Planning is an unnatural process. It is much nicer to just get on with the job: failure then comes as a complete surprise instead of being preceded by a period of worry and doubt. Sir John Harvey-Jones (with thanks for quote to Hazel Anderson - Testaments Project, Scottish Archive Network)

Why technology based projects fail 32% - inadequate project management & control 20% - lack of communication 17% - failure to define objectives 17% - lack of familiarity with project scope & complexity 14% - incorrect technology, project size & other. Figures courtesy of KPMG

Project Planning: 3 Key Factors Vision can you see the whole picture? Risk management ensuring the vision is achievable. Resource management putting vision into practice.

Planning: Vision Describe the complete project Understand how the elements fit together Be holistic - think about the lifecycle! Do not need to understand the detail of every technical element but must understand its project implication Be able to define solid objectives, goals and deliverables. Why you? - the Hollywood pitch !

Planning: Risk and Resource Management Employ a good project manager Empower the right people Ensure good communications Training - invest Define your acceptance criteria and assign ranking Ensure early scheduling of equipment delivery Have a quality plan Be honest about the problems and risk of failure

The Managers Toolkit Clear vision = clear goals = clear success criteria Stakeholder studies: defining the value of the asset base according to users/policy makers Feasibility studies: to extend the evidence base Infrastructure survey: can your goals be achieved with the technology available? Matrix of requirements: supports technology implementation Risk assessment: enables planning to mitigate future risk

Big Idea Whats Your Big Idea? Exercise: What is Your Big Idea? Write a brief, 1 –3 line description of a digitization or digital project idea you have Include potential funders, funding strategy Discuss with group 10 minutes now for thinking/writing 20 minutes talking/sharing during the fundraising session