Putting it All Together:
Designing a Library Website using Project Management Techniques
Katherine E. Pitcher
Reference/Instruction & Web Development Librarian
Milne Library
SUNY Geneseo
Geneseo, New York
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
An Academic Library Symposium
Abstract
Using project management techniques to
organize and plan a large-scale redesign of
their library website.
The presenter will show how these
techniques were used to manage a complex
web project and how project planning and
workflow can be used effectively in a library
setting.
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
An Academic Library Symposium
SUNY Geneseo
2003-2004 Stats
Public liberal arts college
5550 students (5307 undergrads)
Faculty-to-Student Ratio: 18.79:1
Computer-to-Student Ratio: 1:6
40.4 % admission rate
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
An Academic Library Symposium
Milne Library
Total space: 70, 591 square feet
Annual visitors: 550,396
Hours open per week: 106
Print resources: 516,700
Current database subscriptions: 98
Computer workstations: 90
Laptops: 185
Multimedia classrooms: 4
Staff members: 32
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Background
 Milne Library website originally created in
1995
 Redesigned in 1999/2000
 Minor revisions and updates periodically
 No web development services or team to
oversee site
 No web librarian
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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1999 version
2005 version
Spring of 2005
 Reference ~10 hrs per week
 Instruction ~ 20-25 classes a semester
 Government documents
 Supervising 1 clerk and 2 student workers
 Webmaster for special projects
 Collection development
 Another hat??
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
An Academic Library Symposium
How to do it all? (you can’t!)
1. Prioritize
2. May have to give up
something (“delegate”)
3. Ask for resources
(“communicate what you
need”)
4. Know your limits
5. Use project management
techniques to manage
workflow
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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What is project management?
The planning, organizing, scheduling,
leading, communicating, and
controlling of work activities to achieve
a pre-defined outcome on time and
within budget
November 3, 2006
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An Academic Library Symposium
What is a project manager?
A Project Manager controls the
progress of the project against any
detrimental influences on the time, cost,
and quality involved in regard to the
client, the place of work, market forces,
other external influences, and the
development team
November 3, 2006
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A good project manager is…
 Communicator
 Troubleshooter & problem-solver
 Able to take responsibility
 Knowledgeable about:


Working practices
Technical details
November 3, 2006
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Administration
Students
Faculty
Staff
Alumni
Community
Other Libraries
Web Development
Librarians and
Library Staff
Information
Technology
Find out what resources you need
 Write clear objectives
 Once you have your outcomes, you then can
plan what resources need to be acquired to
get the job done
 What are your requirements?
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Find out who can do it
Get your team in place:
 Programmer
 Production
 Designer/Graphic Artist
 Content manager
 Project manager
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Find out how you are going to do
it
 Talk to your people
 Schedule
 Create a project plan
 Budget
November 3, 2006
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Milne Library Web Project
 Advisory committee formed by director
 3 librarians, 3 professional staff
 Chaired by Project manager
 Oversee redesign of site as well as make
policy recommendations to Library
Management team
 Ongoing library team
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Web Project Manager
Programming
Design &
HTML Production
Multimedia
Content
Mark
Bonnie
Steve
Rich/Librarians
Web Team
Project Management Cycle
Define
Close
Plan
Manage
Launch
November 3, 2006
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Defined project method
 Checklist
 Framework
 Accountability
 Progress reporting
 Standards
 Control mechanism
 “Big Picture”
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Development
 4 phases of workflow
 Each have their own stages and deliverables
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Phase I
Preproduction
 Project clarification
 Solution definition
 Project specification
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
An Academic Library Symposium
Stage One
Project Clarification
Why? of project planning
 Discovery stage
 Gather information
 Ask questions of your stakeholders
 Analyze other library websites
 Identify needs
 Determine overall goals & objectives (write
these down in a document!)
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Stage Two
Solution definition
How? of project planning
 What requirements must you meet?
November 3, 2006
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Stage Three
Project specification
What? of project planning
 what you have to deliver
 how you are going to do it
 with what resources
 by when
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Project Communication
 Write your communication brief
 Email
 Listserv
 Project website or blog
 Regular updates to your stakeholders
 Meeting minutes
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Project blog
Email
Phase II
Production
 Content
 Design and construction
 Testing and launch
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Stage Four
Content
 Form a separate subcommittee to deal with
content
 Do a content inventory of existing content
on website (what do you want to keep?
discard?)
 Develop a content delivery plan
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Stage Five
Design and construction
 Form separate subcommittees to deal with
design and functionality issues
 Prototyping
 Recommendations sent to all librarians for
comment & feedback
 Works closely with content subcommittee
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Stage Six
Testing
 Develop a quality control plan
 “bug-tracking”
 Designate someone, but this may fall to
project manager
 QC Cycle
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Quality Control Cycle
Error
fixed
Tester
reports
error
November 3, 2006
Tester
tests
website
Tester finds
error
Brick & Click:
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Stage Six
Launch
 Develop plan for launch day:




What files need to be moved?
How are you launching?
When are you launching?
Who needs to be notified?
November 3, 2006
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Launch Day
Phase III
Maintenance
 Maintenance
 Ongoing and eternal
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Stage Seven
Maintenance
 Develop a maintenance plan




Who will be responsible for changes and
updates?
When & how often will it be updated?
How will changes be made?
What areas of the website need maintaining?
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
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Phase IV
Evaluation
 Review and evaluation
 Ongoing assessment
 Use a survey tool to gather feedback from
users
 Conduct usability testing
November 3, 2006
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Stage Eight
Review and Evaluation
Ongoing assessment
Dos and Don’ts
 Do make sure you have key players involved
 Don’t set up unnecessary meetings “just” to
have them
 Do communicate with your team members
regularly and follow-up after meetings
 Don’t forget to get buy-in from stakeholders
(administration, librarians, staff, etc.)
 Do ask questions!
November 3, 2006
Brick & Click:
An Academic Library Symposium
New Milne Library Website
Library School Reunion Website
Recommended Resources:
Friedlein, Ashley. Web Project Management:
delivering successful commercial web sites.
San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann
Publishers, 2001.
Goto, Kelly and Emily Cotler. Web Redesign
2.0: workflow that works. Berkeley, CA: New
Riders Press, 2005.
Contact Me:
Katherine E. Pitcher
Reference/Instruction & Web Development Librarian
SUNY Geneseo
Milne Library, Room 201a
1 College Circle
Geneseo, New York 14454
(585) 245-5064
pitcher@geneseo.edu
http://www.geneseo.edu/~pitcher