By Erin Harm, Project Manager, Collection Renovation, Museum
of Man
Ari Davidow, Director of Online Strategy at the Jewish Woman’s Archive,
gave a presentation on project management. This topic was particularly
interesting to me since my role is that of project manager for the
stabilization, inventory and digitization of collections.
What became evident immediately is that I am project manager of
something that should not be considered a project. A project is something that
is defined as, “A temporary (not on-going) endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product, service or result.”
A part of my role, to renovate existing laboratory spaces, should be
considered a project. But the rest of the work we are doing should be an
on-going part of caring for the collections.
There were two
parts of the presentation that spoke to me the most, agile project development
and management and an activity focused on why projects fail.
Agile project management focuses on the idea that projects are divided
into short sequences, usually between one and three months. Each sprint is
derived from current priorities and developed to put working tools in people’s
hands or achieve deliverables quickly.
The activity focusing asked smaller break-out groups to come up with
reasons projects failed. What consistently came up in each group was a lack of
communication. Two repeating specifics were that the project team was isolated
from the business and that team roles and responsibilities were unclear.
Although that was not a surprise, participating in the discussion that followed
really drove home for me how I could help my group be successful and what and
how I needed to communicate to my Director and Board.