Planning and implementing two major projects at once made some form of team-accessible planning software a must. Learn how one library chose a cloud-based project management tool, rightsized it for the two teams\u27 needs and brought organization out of chaos

Harper, Valerie L.

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University of New HampshireUniversity of New Hampshire Scholars' RepositoryUniversity Library Scholarship University Library11-1-2014Rightsizing Projects with EasyProjectsValerie L. HarperUniversity of New Hampshire, Durham, val.harper@unh.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/library_pubPart of the Library and Information Science CommonsThis Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the University Library at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in University Library Scholarship by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. Formore information, please contact nicole.hentz@unh.edu.Recommended CitationHarper, Valerie L. “Rightsizing Projects with EasyProjects”, poster session presented at the Library Information TechnologyAssociation’s annual conference, Albuquerque, NM, November, 2014Rightsizing	Project	Management	with	EasyProjectsVal	Harper,	Faculty	Fellow	for	Project	ManagementUniversity	Library,	University	of	New	HampshireProblem:The University Library is using project managementmethods to implement new services and manage newinitiatives. Librarians and staff expressed a cleardesire to prevent “scope creep”, inadequate projecthandoff, increased workloads, and poor prioritizing.Two projects were just about to begin: a 3-year IMLSgrant project to create a geospatial search interface tosome of our digital collections, and the closing of abranch library and integration of its collections intothe main library. Each project had its own projectteam.Needs and solution:Project teams wanted a tool like Microsoft Projectthat they could access, add tasks to, view milestones,and check off completed tasks. Several packages wereexamined - EasyProjects was our choice.§ Web-based, hosted service§ Included guest seats for free, allowing the LibraryDean or others to view project progress§ Customizable – could add our own data fields,remove those we did not wish to use§ Project team members could set up own“dashboards” for customized views§ Less costly than similar applications -§ Very easy to set up and use§ Included data storage for group documents§ Features included Gannt charts, calendars,milestones, reports, task assignments, weeklyproject updates by email§ Support was excellentImplementation:§ Worked with EasyProject’s Chief Make-It-HappenOfficer Vadim Katcherovski to set up preferencesand provide group training by webcast§ Set up two main projects and created a sandboxfor practice§ One project team (IMLS grant) reviews the projectsite at every bi-weekly executive team meeting tochart progress, modify due dates, add tasks. Groupmembers beginning to add own tasks to plan andmark off tasks accomplished. Group members whowere faculty and who delegated more tasks to staffseemed more inclined to view the project inEasyProjects.§ Other team (branch library move) was morecontent to let the project manager maintain andreport out at meetings. Group members who werefunctional experts or library staff seemed to focuson their own specific tasks and were less inclinedto view the “big picture” through EasyProjects.Rightsizing for the library:§ Chose not to use financial indicators (job rolerates, expense tracking, etc.) – the grant budgetwas being handled by our campus business center,and the branch library move budget was handledby campus planners§ Chose not to implement hourly time recording§ Every task assigned to a team member,emphasizing responsibility, authority, andaccountability§ Allowed all project team members full editingprivileges§ Allowed a fair amount of extra time to tasks,recognizing that projects were on top of regularlyassigned duties for many project teammembers§ Chose not to input dependencies, critical paths,but to concentrate on task assignment and duedates for nowActivity	Center	view	– all	projectsWork	breakdown	structure

Rightsizing Projects with EasyProjects

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Rightsizing Projects with EasyProjects

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