NISO Training Series: Project Management for the Information Community: Managing and Communicating the Process

Friday, February 22: Introduction to Project Management

What constitutes effective project management?  Why is it so useful for information professionals to become familiar with and conversant in the processes of project management? This initial overview addresses the benefits and value of project management skills and a context for the rest of the webinar and the discussions that follow.  Maureen Adamson will review major approaches from predictive to agile, core concepts, language and terminology as background. We will also review the overall structure of the rest of the webinar, starting with simple projects with clear goals as a foundational understanding, to be followed by more complex projects and situations later in the webinar.

Friday, March 1: Initiating the Project

A successful project always begins with a clear statement of objectives agreed upon by all stakeholders.  How is this defined and documented?  What type of project is it, i.e. clear goals or does it involve considerable uncertainty or change? What resources are needed?  How do you form teams and communicate effectively, especially when work cuts across organizational lines?  This second session will show attendees how to correctly define and document project goals, establish preliminary milestones and indicators of success.  Attendees will come away with understanding how to identify key stakeholders and recognize potentially intangible motivations for the project.

Friday, March 8: The Setup

This session delves deeper into creating a project plan.  For illustration, we will review how to set up a simple predictive (‘waterfall’ style) project plan.  What functional skills are needed to do the work?  How do you build your team?  What types of time commitments will you be requesting and for what tasks?  How do you define the roles and responsibilities? How do you negotiate for resources with stakeholders, handle meetings and communications? Your preparedness in thinking through such issues and communicating with decision makers and team members will be critical to success.

Friday, March 15: Blueprint for Managing Your Project

Up to this point, the only time constraints put on the project are based on expectations and broad estimates.  In predictive project management, the practical realities of the plan are now entered into a formalized project planning system. What work can be done independently and what work relies on task completion by other members? Where do milestones lie on the calendar when based on completion of tasks? What is the critical path and how can you make adjustments?  The advantages to using software involve the ability to use it organically as a tool to negotiate with stakeholders through ‘what if’ planning steps.

Friday, March 22: Execution and Tracking for Success - Conversation with Kristine Sunda

The project is now in motion and the most challenging part is the execution. You can now use all the planning work to help manage it, including comparing the real to the ideal of your plan, and the ability to make changes as required.  How do you support your team members when there are bumps in the road, or circumstances shift?  We’ll review managing communications with the team and with stakeholders on an ongoing basis, followed by effectively closing a project.  

With an understanding of the basics of a predictive planning process, this session will entail a conversation with Kristine Sunda. 

Kristine Sunda founded K Shannon Associates to bring agile and scrum practices to higher education and offer innovative solutions for ERP and business analysis needs. Sunda has been delivering IT projects in Higher Ed for 19 years for private and public institutions, as well as state university systems.  Sunda currently holds the position of Associate Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs Technology Strategy and Innovation at UNC Greensboro.  She previously held positions of Director, Enterprise Applications at Wake Forest University and Asst Director at the University of South Florida. 

Sunda has experience in enterprise systems, custom application development, technical architecture, IT process improvement and business process analysis.  She has earned a BS in Computer Science from Penn State University, is currently studying in the MS-IT Management degree with a certificate in Business Analytics and Cybersecurity.  She is also ITIL Foundations, PMP and PMI-ACP certified.  

Friday, March 29: Guest Lecturers: Al Brown, Sr. Project Manager, Ithaka and Bill Trippe, Co-Founder, Publishing Technology Partners

By now, participants will understand elements and likely many questions regarding how to apply this to your particular circumstances and projects.  Participants are likely to have many questions that go beyond the basics, whether how to manage multiple projects, or the unique complexities of large organizations.  We will be asking participants to send us these questions, to be addressed during this session, with the goal of tailoring this session with an expert to those questions.

Confirmed Guest Lecturers: Bill Trippe, Founding Partner, Publishing Technology Partners, and Al Brown, Senior Project Manager, Ithaka

Friday, April 5: Guest Lecturer: Gene Spiegle, Rutgers University

Eugene Spiegle has an extensive background as an educator, teaching and training project management.  He will summarize the state of the art in project management, both as an evolving field and as an opportunity for further training and certification.

Confirmed Guest Lecturer: Eugene Spiegle, Associate Professor of Professional Practice and Undergraduate Program Director, (New Brunswick), Rutgers University

Friday, April 12: Applying Project Management to Academic Libraries

During this session, participants will hear from two librarians working across sectors, discussing their experiences in managing projects for both the library as well as the university press.

Confirmed Guest Lecturers: Kate McCready, Director of Content Services, University of Minnesota Libraries, and Kirsten Clark, Director for Access & Information Services, University of Minnesota Libraries

Click here to view Kate and Kirsten's Project Management Process Manual, published in Fall 2018.