LibraryServices

Project Management

UCL DIS INSTG002

2 February 2016

Andrew PreaterHead of Library Information Systems

@preater

Overview

• Our context

• My take on project

management

• Project management in

libraries

• Opportunities and pitfalls

Imperial College London context

Library Services context

What is project management?

What we talk about

when we talk about

project management

Hodgson, D. (2005) ‘Putting on a professional performance’: performativity, subversion and project

management’, Organization, 12 (1) pp.51-68 [Online] DOI: 10.1177/1350508405048576 (Accessed 1

February 2016)

Butler, J. (1990) Gender trouble. New York, NY: Routledge.

What is special about a ‘project’?

• Change

• Time-limited ie. they end

• Cross-function

• Each is unique

• Risky businessTSO (2009) Managing successful projects with PRINCE2. 5th edn. London: TSO.

Cicmil, S. Hodgson, D., Lindgren, M., and Packendorff, J. (2009) ‘Project management behind the façade’, ephemera, 9

(2), pp. 78-92 [Online]. Available at: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/9-2ephemera-may09.pdf

(Accessed: 1 February 2016)

What is special about a ‘project’?

• Change

• Time-limited ie. they end

• Cross-function

• Each is unique

• Risky businessTSO (2009) Managing successful projects with PRINCE2. 5th edn. London: TSO.

Cicmil, S. Hodgson, D., Lindgren, M., and Packendorff, J. (2009) ‘Project management behind the façade’, Ephemera, 9

(2), pp. 78-92 [Online]. Available at: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/9-2ephemera-may09.pdf

(Accessed: 1 February 2016)

Why manage projects?

Maybe you don’t

need to!

Why manage projects?

• Maybe you don’t need to

• Planning and managing

change

• Risk and quality

• Learning & development

How big is a “project”?

5 days BAU

30 days change

90 days small

180 days medium

>180 days big

When not to manage projects?

Case 1. Federated

search project brief“After investigation, we recommend that [the library]

does not pursue a federated search product at this

stage, but awaits developments in library management

systems that may address those requirements not

already met by existing connections between our

catalogue and eresources and through information

literacy training…”

PRINCE2 Project Brief: what we could

have done

• Project definition

• Business case

• Product description

• Project approach

• Project management team structure

• Role descriptions

• References

TSO (2009) Managing successful projects with PRINCE2. 5th edn. London: TSO.

A word about PRINCE2

TSO (2009) Managing successful projects with PRINCE2. 5th

edn. London: TSO.

You will

encounter this

methodology

More words about PRINCE2

TSO (2009) Managing successful projects with PRINCE2. 5th edn. London: TSO.

“Project Initiation Document (PID)”

“Senior User”

“Deliverable” or “Product”

“Lessons Log”

“Stakeholders”

etc. etc.

A word about agile

Rubin, K.S. (2012) Essential scrum. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley.

'Workshop exploring agile project parameters' by Flickr user Improve It, license

CC-BY. Available at: https://flic.kr/p/3paWa5

Project management in libraryland

What sort of projects?

• Our own projects

• Information technology

• Estates / buildings

• Cross-College

• Above-College

Inheriting someone else’s project

Case 2.

Inheriting

someone

else’s project

work

Inheriting someone else’s project

Where’s my…?

• PID

• End project report

• Lessons learned report

• Post-project review

• Follow-on actions

Real world big project: system

migration

Case 3. Ex Libris

Alma at Imperial

College London

Objective #1, from the project docs

“To improve user service and enhance student

experience”

Project teams: how big?

Main project team

Acquisitions

Circulation

Knowledgebase and access

Collection development

Communication

Data migration

Document Supply (ILL)

Metadata & Inventory

Discovery

Reporting

Reading Lists

Systems

User Management

Total 83

staff

Alma project phasing

What did the project sponsor want to

realise?

Print and e-resource workflows

What did the project sponsor want to

realise?

Print and e-resource workflows

Review and improve policy and

processes

What did the project sponsor want to

realise?

Print and e-resource workflows

Review and improve policy and

processes

Technology platform

What did the project sponsor want to

realise?

Print and e-resource workflows

Review and improve policy and

processes

Technology platform

Standardized approach to

analytics

What happened? Alma live, July 2013

What did the staff think?

What happened to those workflows

and processes?

What lessons did we learn?

Do business analysis

Lesson #1 : Do business analysis

Interlending

lean / kaizen

process

improvement

exercise

33

Library Staff I have reviewed

the item request

I have validated the

request

I have requested

the item

I have checked that

the item arrived

I have requested

the item

Student /

Academic

I am waiting for my

item to arrive

I have received an

update

I have received the

requested item

I am looking for an

item for research

I have notified of

the due date

I have returned /

renewed the item

‘Get It’

Search

Primo ‘Articles

& More’

Doc Del

Tab

ASK the

Library

Primo ‘Books

& More’

Signed In

Pre-

populated

Form

Not

Signed In

Blank Form

Registered

User

RegisterRequest

Registration

Primo ‘Books

& More’

Allowance

Level

Challenge

Level

Submit Request

Review

RequestValidate

Request

Cancelled

Request

Cancel Request

Search

Engine

Request

Additional

Information

Databases

Publishers

British Library

Catalogue

British Library

(BL) Art

UK

Institutions

Alma Form

Campus Library

Request to Central

to Place

BL Availability

Status Report

OCLC

FormGoogle Spread

Sheet

Request Item

Manual Update

Receive

Request

Manual Update

BL End User

BL Doc Del

Supplier

Notification

Physical Receipt

Student /

Academic

Journey

Notified Not

Available

Return Item

Manual Update

Due Date

Notification

High Level

Principles

It is easy to find out

what I need to do

It is simple and requires

minimal data entry

I know that my request has

been processed

I know that my request is

on its way and when to

expect it

My request

arrives where I

need it to and is

simple to retrieve

It is simple to return my item

and I am reminded about my

due dates

Library

Staff

Journey

Lesson #1 : Interlending ‘journey’

34

Library Staff I have reviewed

the item request

I have validated the

request

I have requested

the item

I have checked that

the item arrived

I have requested

the item

Student /

Academic

I am waiting for my

item to arrive

I have received an

update

I have received the

requested item

I am looking for an

item for research

I have notified of

the due date

I have returned /

renewed the item

‘Get It’

Search

Primo ‘Articles

& More’

Doc Del

Tab

ASK the

Library

Primo ‘Books

& More’

Signed In

Pre-

populated

Form

Not

Signed In

Blank Form

Registered

User

RegisterRequest

Registration

Primo ‘Books

& More’

Allowance

Level

Challenge

Level

Submit Request

Review

RequestValidate

Request

Cancelled

Request

Cancel Request

Search

Engine

Request

Additional

Information

Databases

Publishers

British Library

Catalogue

British Library

(BL) Art

UK

Institutions

Alma Form

Campus Library

Request to Central

to Place

BL Availability

Status Report

OCLC

FormGoogle Spread

Sheet

Request Item

Manual Update

Receive

Request

Manual Update

BL End User

BL Doc Del

Supplier

Notification

Physical Receipt

Student /

Academic

Journey

Notified Not

Available

Return Item

Manual Update

Due Date

Notification

High Level

Principles

It is easy to find out

what I need to do

It is simple and requires

minimal data entry

I know that my request has

been processed

I know that my request is

on its way and when to

expect it

My request

arrives where I

need it to and is

simple to retrieve

It is simple to return my item

and I am reminded about my

due dates

Library

Staff

Journey

Primo / Library

Search

Primo Form

Doc Del Tab Form

Primo User

Experience

Registration

Allowances

Cancellations

Review each

request

Manual Item

Request

Multiple Steps

OCLC Requests

Manual Alma

Update

No Tracking

Analytics

No Tracking

Analytics

No Tracking

Analytics

Manual Doc Del

Form Alma Update

BL Plug In

Lesson #1 : Interlending ‘pain points’

“We are also reminded regularly that

even the changes the vendor agrees

to make cause the vendor

inconvenience, and that we should

change our procedures to align with

the technology […] we don't like

being told that we're not doing things

right, from the vendor’s point of view”

- anonymous Alma site

Breeding, M. (2016). ‘Perceptions 2015: An international survey of library automation’. Available at:

http://librarytechnology.org/survey-2015-comments.pl#Alma

What lessons did we learn?

Do business analysis

Rescope to meet goals

‘Reality Triangle’ (Walsh)

Resources

Concept from Barry Walsh, University Information

Systems and Financial Management Services,

Indiana University

‘Triangle of objectives’ (Lock)

Quality

Time Resources

Lock, D. (2007) The essentials of project management.

3rd edn. Aldershot: Gower.

#2 Rescope to meet goals

Rescoped / altered deliverables

• Finance integration

• Workflow analysis

• Metadata optimisation

• Reading lists

What lessons did we learn?

Do business analysis

Rescope to meet goals

Set expectations in planning

#3: Set expectations in planning

“We view Alma as an immature

product with great potential. Basic

functionality is fairly solid though

resource sharing of materials across

the consortium is labor intensive and

wrought with problems. Analytics and

the ability to generate custom reports

or otherwise assess data is very

poorly developed […]”

- anonymous Alma siteBreeding, M. (2016). Perceptions 2015: An international survey of library automation. Available at:

http://librarytechnology.org/survey-2015-comments.pl#Alma

What lessons did we learn?

Do business analysis

Rescope to meet goals

Set expectations in planning

Plan for bugs & snags

#4: Plan for bugs & snags

Key issues in:

• ILL & subscriptions workflow

• Staff training

• Systems Team dependency

• Staffing changes

What next for the Library?

Re-evaluating and improving

processes

Staff certification

Focus on user experience

Revisit key integrations

One

•Two

• Three

» Four

Five

@imperiallibrary

@preater