NASIG Newsletter

TACTICS SESSION

Mile High to Ground Level:  Getting Projects Organized and Complete

Jennifer Marill, Office of Strategic Initiatives, Library of Congress
Reported by Rosella Thomas 

This presentation by Jennifer L. Marill, from the Office of Strategic Initiatives at the Library of Congress, focused on the process of organizing and completing a project through good project management techniques. By illustrating those established project management techniques, this session showed the multiple steps in the process of organizing and completing a project from beginning to end: how to initiate, plan, execute, monitor, complete and close the project out. 

A good project manager must be a mentor, taskmaster, cheerleader and disciplinarian to have the project done well.  Defining a project requires careful planning and a clearly identified and documented objective, together with enough training and support by the project members who provide their individualized expertise and creative energy to work collaboratively toward the finished goal. 

Using project management methods and resources such as Gantt charts, responsibility assignment matrixes (RAM), and the PMBOK® Guide, and drawing on resources from the Project Management Institute, the outcome from this session was a carefully planned series of steps to execute a project, including:  

• Planning a project and putting a team together
• Project requirements
• Work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Budget and scheduling
• Risk planning
• Executing and monitoring
• Keeping people informed and managing change
• Why projects fail
• Proper closeout of a project

Although she stated at the beginning of her presentation that her projects were not necessarily serials-related, good practical advice was offered and the audience garnered a better understanding of how to organize and execute projects they may have to initiate for their respective libraries.