From Feast or Famine

To Managing a Portfolio of Projects,

Estimating Capacity, and

Delivering On Time

Carolyn Caizzi, Dan Zellner, Jennifer B. Young

Northwestern University Libraries

Introduction

Northwestern University

Libraries

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6.7 million volumes

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24,757 linear feet of

archives & manuscripts

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267TB of unique

digital content

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1,969,281 visits from faculty,

students, and researchers

around the world

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2,547,419 page views

on Library websites

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345 staff

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2014-

201515 new departments and new planning council

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Repository & Digital Curation

Department Mission Statement:

RDC creates, acquires, and archives digital objects for long-

term preservation and develops as well as deploys software

to support the discovery, access, and use of digital resources

by members of Northwestern University, scholarly

communities, and the public.

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Customers:

Faculty/Researchers and

Curators who represent them

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digital

collection

Hard Work

Digital Collection=Project

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The Problem/Opportunity

Digital Project Selection

Process and the Management

of Multiple Projects

Before Re-Structuring

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Digital Projects

Committee

Problems included:

● Few proposals

● Met sporadically

● Merit vote only

● Long timelines to go or no-go decision

● Bypassing committee

● First come first served prioritization

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Solution: The Points Process

• Proactive project proposal gathering

• Determine capacity for 1 year

• Customers select projects based on

capacity

• Schedule projects for the year

Points Process Overview

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Proposal Gathering

• One-on-one interview with Curators

• Coordination with other departments

• Estimate project time and follow up

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CapacityPoints = Hours

3 categories of points: Digitization, Metadata, Project Management

Capacity = The amount of hours we have to work on projects

Scheduled Projects = projects that are the result of curator

interviews. Distinctive Collections selects the projects that make

up our season.

Adhoc Projects = Unscheduled projects that come up during the

year. Work is done on these as time allows and depending on

priority.

60% of our capacity is committed to Scheduled Projects

40% of our capacity is committed to Adhoc Projects

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Formula for Staff Capacity

Capacity calculation for staff members are

based on working hours for a year

37.5 hours * 52 weeks - (15 vacation days +15

sick days +10 holidays per year) = 1650 hours

per year

Total hours at 80% efficiency = 1320 hours Source: T. Grafakos

The Project Cycle

Spring Quarter

February - May

Close out projects from last cycle

Presentation to curators and staff

Plan for next season / capacity

List of projects for new cycle

Create schedule - quarterly meetings

Summer Quarter

June - August

Project work (especially high priority ones)

Fall Quarter

September -

November

Project work

Winter Quarter

December -

February

Wrap up project work and begin close out

Curator interviews in February

The Schedule: AKA Project Cycle

Research

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Preservation

Department

Outside the Organization

Emory University

Inside the Organization

Analysis

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● Best elements of research

● Existing frameworks

● Existing processes

Implementation

Requirements

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● Budgeting

● Time Tracking system

● Reporting

Next Steps

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● Organizational Assessment

● Process Documentation

● Roll Out

Assessment

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● Customers

● Team

● Stakeholders

Retrospective

Benefits

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More predictable workflow

Benefits

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Benefits

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Community of trust

Benefits

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Better idea of capacity

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Benefits

Benefits

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We Will

For Discovery and Creativity

Engage Locally and Globally

Lessons Learned

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Be iterative

Assess regularly

Phasing multi-year projects

Challenges

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Position vacancies

Adapting to change

Project management tools

Follow up follow up follow up

Summary

Problem: project selection done by

committee leading to unpredictable

workloads

Solution fostered by Libraries’ re-

organization: process to determine a

portfolio of projects for a yearly cycle

based on capacity

Thank You!

Questions & Comments Welcome!