I’ve reached a point where I realize I need some (technology) help.
Balancing the needs of at least eight people, 5 units, and three divisions is hard! We all need to share a workflow for building digital projects from primarily paper-based archival materials. New projects entail, at a minimum, the digital collections team: the entire Digital Initiatives staff, and at least one person from Special Collections and University Archives, Preservation, Metadata and Cataloging, and the Research and Instruction Division, currently represented on the team by the Science & Technology department. Library IT and Central IT may also play a role, depending on the project.
In order to work efficiently and at capacity, we run more than one project at a time. Additionally, I manage the queue – there are always requests for new projects waiting in the wings or projects we’ve thought of that would provide new kinds of access to some of the Library’s collections. It’s my job to assess priorities and fit these into the existing work when I can.
Everyone has their own way of working that makes the most sense for them. My flavor of managing my work is very analytical and visual heavy. I love diagrams and charts, spreadsheets, and estimations. I am soothed by massive spreadsheets and complicated business process modeling!
Our needs are varied, as are our schedules. We’ve been managing the work through team communication and a routing sheet, but we need more. Our project scopes have expanded, we’ve added new people to the digital collections team, and the various units have new procedures that need to be incorporated into our shared work. So, I am on the hunt for a comfortable project management solution. If it’s not comfortable for all of us, it won’t get used and it won’t work. I want it to be something that eases my hunger for charts and analysis, while also being streamlined enough that someone could else just see the tasks they need to get done that week. We’re testing some options and will hopefully come up with something that eases burden rather than adding to it.
Do you also have project management challenges? If so, please share!
Library and Archives Preservation 