While my project to create a successful online collaboration tool continues, I am also embroiled in developing a video CD product. The project has developed into quite a project management challenge since we are working in a dynamic political environment (Bolivia) and trying to create a product that is historically focused and avoids offending, in a political sense, anyone in the present.
One of the more interesting challenges in hiring a local contractor to produce something like this video CD is helping them to develop the professional capacity to work in a U.S.-style of project management. So far I have worked to help on the creative side by sitting with the filmmaker for the project and helping him edit his documentary footage. I feel comfortable saying that I now have a working knowledge of the primary functions of Adobe Premier Pro (video editing software).
Another “learning experience” has been the development of the user interface and the content for an interactive information tool. Basically, the tool allows a reader to review the activities and successes of international development work in Bolivia over the past 20 years. The downside is that it seems the local contractor has never really developed such a tool, despite their fairly good technical experience. As a result, I am now in the process of reviewing the thing from a usability perspective (using a lot of the recommendations from Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think”) as well as developing a style sheet that the contractor can use when he goes back and corrects the numerous errors that have crept into the first draft.
Lessons learned:

  • When working with a new contractor, expectations need to be very clear and put in writing
  • Developing a PR tool requires a clear vision of the audiences and the key messages that they are supposed to receive. This means that the project manager must be closely involved in the storyboard production so that there is less re-working later.
  • Make sure that sufficient review cycles are built into the project schedule from the very beginning. This becomes even more important when the number of senior stakeholders increases.

Final thought
Despite the best efforts of the project designers, it seems that schedule slip is sometimes inevitable. I think the best way to avoid too much slippage (or prevent it entirely) is to develop as detailed a task list as possible from the very beginning of the project.
Another potentially useful practice is to avoid changing stakeholders and project sponsors after the initiation of the project’s work. This has happened to a limited degree during this project and it required some on-on-one meetings to finesse the perceptions of the new stakeholders so that they were in sync with the original scope of the work.