Are we on right ..

This post is inspired by real situation which could happened any of us many times in last a couple of years. This make me think about things behind the scene and in the real process of delivery

particular design project. So the question is …

“Are we on right direction?”

I made my own scope document based on real facts and compare with literature, online sources and talk to project managers which wasn’t involved in the project itself, but clearly and fully understood project management. Afterward I made some changes and compare again. Talk and read constantly for over than year a finally discover a couple of things which I would like to share with you in following two articles. I discover there are some general rules which you can apply for any single project in design field you are participate.

First part will be a collection of inspirations and sources I’d used for this article. So please feel free to download all sources and follow conversation on these websites related to this topic. Let’s start with my most popular source which is UIE .com. This article is not actually really news, because it was recorded on 07/2008  but in our case it can be interpret in many different ways and different situations. The fact which impressed me most was relevant to any single situation you might had back with client on daily bases. When someone without full knowledge take a control on the website you build.

“can we move this ..”

Luke Wroblewski is well know specialist for forms and interface design. In one of his many interviews he mentioned a set of practice you might consider to implement when you start to deal with the same situation and suggestions like “can we make this bigger” or even “can we move this over there” or specially one “we’ll sorted later”.

“can we make this bigger”

Of course there is a couple of book about design project management or even web project management. But if you really looking for short  answer please take a time and follow the link to listen this interview with Luke  Wroblewski at UIE – User Interface Ingenuity interviewed by Jared M. Spool. This interview is definitely applicable immediately in to your process and extend you general knowledge to deal with certain situations.

“we’ll sorted later”

What kind of skill you exactly need from design perspective to be a great project manager for design even development team?

You definitely don’t need a special education or training as is suggested on many managers website. What you definitely need is knowledge of the real environment and development process. I presume affirm that is a real benefit for all project managers I work with. Because if you don’t know difference between vector and bitmap or PHP and Java script you might miss the point and on your tiny decision with client you can change direction of whole project which can affect behaviour, user journey and mostly development.

There is no exact rules how to be aware of all of these but there are some guidelines to follow and don’t miss a point. Based on the literature I have been reading over than 2 year and actual experience I discover few things which help or at least don’t make a mistake in first step and at secound to be able to deal with these situations. There is no such a dream project where everything running smoothly and without any delay so …

“expect goods,

be prepare for worst”

First advice will be talk to your team before you talk to you client. You might discover a better capability and understanding what is achievable and what have to be plane. After you talk to you client make sure that all people in your team understand their task based on their knowledge. And what do I mean by that – for example in simple build there is a project manager (you), designer and developer. You have to know where is a border to make a decision and where you should stand back and ask for advice. Let’s face the fact that you didn’t studied object oriented programming or even typography and history of visual communication – you are the person who is responsible for the real content and timing. Designers and programmer about visual communication and information architecture. What exactly we are going to design and afterword how it’s going to be build. Don’t try to force your self to make these decision in front of the client because you might don’t know what exactly you endanger in the further process. Make sure that people understand content on the scene and how it’s work (in general) and what you saying about that – for these practices are the best find with your team naming convention which help you to clearly understand where exactly you are and what is related to. Finally after this brief introduction let’s step up and look closely how this things works in real environment. Than review

a / collect

b / process

c / organize

d / review

e / do

.. continuing  next week

Thank you for your participation.