Project Management

Project and Project Management Documents

The document repository holds all the project deliverables - both project-related and project management-related. For instance, the repository will hold the Project Charter and project schedule (project management deliverables), as well as the Technical Design and Testing Plan (project deliverables). When you start to consider your document management process, all of the documents your project produces must be taken into account.

Document Workareas

Usually the document repository does not hold documents that are currently being worked on (this may also depend on any document management software being used). Each team member should have a workarea where he or she can store versions of documents that are currently in-progress but not yet in circulation. This can be a directory structure or a folder that each team member has full access to. Team members can structure their work area in whatever way makes sense to them.

Draft Copies

Draft copies are documents that have been initially completed by the author, but are not yet ready to be considered entirely complete from a project perspective. In most cases, this is because the document is in some kind of review process. Draft copies of documents could be stored in the author's workarea. However, for large projects, or ones where more rigor in document management is needed, it will make sense to maintain a library or folder for draft copies. In this case, the update process would look as follows:

1. A document is created and edited in the author's workarea.
2. After the initial draft is completed, the document is moved from the workarea to the draft library. The document stays there until the author needs to update it or it is ready to be moved to the repository as an approved document.
3. When the document is in the draft library, it can be circulated for review and input.
4. If the draft copy needs to be updated again, the document is copied back to the workarea for updating, leaving a copy in the draft library.
5. This process is repeated until the document is totally complete. Then the document can be moved from the draft library to its final location in the document repository.

The value in this approach is that the project team always has one official draft of each document and only one live, approved version as well.

Garbage in – Garbage Out

This classic problem still exists in document management no matter how sophisticated your processes become. Document management helps you store and retrieve information that already exists in the project. However, even if you find the document, the content may or may not be helpful. Team members need to understand that their documents must be well-written so that others can read them and understand the content. On some projects, team members search for documents, find them, but then discover that the content in them is unusable. Your document management processes may help in these situations by getting others, including the librarian, involved in reviewing documents before they are added to the repository. However if you allow poorly-written documents to be added to the repository, you may find that people are not going to utilize the repository as often since they will not perceive value in the documents that the repository contains.

Document Management Technology Will Influence Your Process

Much of the process for managing documents is influenced by any document management technology used on the project. For instance, document management software will usually come with a standard logical structure. You just plug in your specific names to make it real. Software may also enforce versioning and have features for controlling update authority. The tool may also describe the metadata needed for keywords and indexing.

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Weekly Anagram

Let's have some fun! See if you can unravel this anagram. (Anagrams are a word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as satin to stain.)

An overview or introduction to a topic.

RATIO TOE INN: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Last Week's Anagram.

A point in the project life cycle, usually separating major Phases or Stages, at which senior management has the opportunity to confirm or deny continuation into the next Phase or Stage.

CATTLEMAN ONE MORNING OPT: MANAGEMENT CONTROL POINT

Wideman Glossary Term of the Week - Mission

• A concise statement of a program or project's overall purpose and reason for existence. See also Vision.
• A stretching, guiding and reinforcing statement of intent and commitment.
• The objective or task, together with the purpose, which clearly indicates the action to be taken.
  Editor's Note: Usually expressed at a high or overview level to provide overall direction.
• Derived from the project vision, an action plan that is feasible in time and place and compatible with the pursuit of the vision.

Labels: Document management