Journal Frankly Richmond

New Wave (French:Nouvelle Vague) was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema.

I stumbled on the band of the same name whilst googling for something completely unrelated. Funny how you find things. I love this track.

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I read a little blog post today all about charging healthy rates for sustainability. It was directed at small agencies - but I think it goes for any agency worth their salt.

Yesterday I took a call (and received an email) from a long-standing client. I designed for them in 2001/2. Over the last year, the staff responsible for updating their site had changed, they had mislaid their passwords and they needed help.

So help was what they got. Helping this client took less than two minutes out of my day. Will they receive an invoice for a minimum time-block? Hell yes. Fifty squids in fact. Will they be happy to pay that. I hope so, because the cost to them in time, stress and other factors of us not being on hand to help could have been far more.

One of the reasons why, I think, we’re still here is profitability. We charge top rates, not because we have a high opinion of ourselves (actually that too), but because we want to make sure that we’ll be in business in one, three, five, ten years time. Being here matters to me, I love my work, but it also matters to the people we work with who need to count on our support in years to come.

So what is the moral of this story?

Don’t devalue yourself and your work by cutting your prices, especially in these difficult times. Your value is in more than just the hours, days or weeks that you spend working on your current job, or the next. Your value to your clients is that you’ll be there for them, to help them when they need it, in the future.

To make sure that happens you must make money. When a potential client asks if you’ll work for a lower rate, explain to them that it’s in their interests that your business is happy and healthy and that what they might save now will likely cost them dearly in the future if you’re not around.

Here endeth the entry.

Link to original post by Andy Clarke

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You can give a Project Manager the tools of the trade and throw all the theories and methodologies in the world at them, but if they lack people skills, in my opinion, they will never be truly successful.

All projects are carried out by people; success is achieved by people working together as a team and the Project Manager is the glue. I firmly believe that people management is the most important element of project management. All project management is about working with people. Whether people skills is something that can be taught is open for debate.

A few years ago I read a super paper by Steve Flannes (Flannes & Associates), called “Effective People Skills for the Project Manager: A Requirement for Project Success and Career Advancement”.

Projects are always technical problems with significant human dimensions. As projects increase in complexity (virtual teams, involving cross cultural variables and the need to achieve more with less), increasing emphasis is being placed upon the need for the technical professional to develop competencies in specific, tangible “people skills.” Importantly, people skills are also crucial for career advancement. These people skills can be defined, practiced, and continually improved, and are best learned experientially.

The paper describes an innovative approach to articulating people skills, which involve the abilities to:

• communicate effectively on interpersonal levels,
• develop and apply an approach to conceptualizing individual differences,
• apply need-specific leadership roles, craft tailored motivation strategies for individuals and teams,
• resolve conflicts using issue-appropriate conflict resolution approaches,
• successfully manage levels of professional and personal distress,
• and actively manage one’s own career.

For those wishing to read more, Steve’s paper can be downloaded from the SAS Business Analytics website in PDF format (171K).

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Right, you’ve spoken to your web agency and a meeting has been booked.You know what you want: an award-winning project that will increase visitor sessions by 100% and all for less than you paid last time. This is not such an unusual request as you might imagine. Your web agency is going to need a good brief or you might get the right answer to the wrong question.

How do you provide the perfect brief?

On one level, you should know what you want but not in too much detail. If you end up with a design that is exactly as you thought it would be, it’s likely that you haven’t got enough out of the relationship. The results should surprise and excite you, make you think, “I never would have thought of that”.

Step back for a moment

Prepare to be a little open minded about how your brief will be interpreted. For example, don’t expect an exact replication of your brochure, charts, diagrams, copy and layout online. The web is a different medium altogether and thus has completely different editorial and design concerns than say to print. I can not emphasis this point enough and a good agency will have the web analytics data to back it up.

If you’ve looked at loads of web sites and made a long list of features that you want included on your site, step back for a moment and think about the underlying needs that such features would meet. Your web site design should be unique, as should be the thinking behind it. Your design will have its own consistent way of interpreting requirements and should meet with your Web Strategy. Indeed, do you have one?

What should it say?

A good brief should cover three areas: the project, budget and time scale.

The project

Be clear about what you want to achieve. Most web projects should meet at least one of your Executive objectives, which will include:

• increasing revenue,
• reducing costs,
• increasing market share,
• increasing/retaining existing customers business, and
• increasing shareholder value.

Are you primarily looking to save money by reducing telephone enquiries, or is it your main intent to increase your company’s profile? Does this job form part of a larger project? Legal obligations, such as making the web site accessible, may need to be fulfilled.

You should also know your audience. Who is the site aimed at? It could be both internal and external. And what about international audiences and their needs?

Knowing what content you want is one thing, but you also need to think about where it will come from.Without content, there is no project. The project will only be a success with dedicated internal support. Don’t forget internal resources. If you have an image library, maybe you won’t have to commission a photographer; perhaps content is being written for other purposes that you can reposition for the web site.

The budget

This is not the time for poker faces or for asking for the same as last year (only cheaper). You wouldn’t ask a barman for the ’same again, please’ and demand to pay less, so don’t restrict your web agency to the same parameters in terms of budget and creativity.

It is best for both parties to be open and honest about the costs involved. A good agency will be able to deliver a quality solution for a specified budget and will say what is possible within a particular budget.

The more transparent these discussions are, the easier it will be to find the right approach. By agreeing a budget, the agency will know what time and resources should be dedicated to the project and the client will not receive any surprises.

The time scale

It’s fine to say tomorrow, but the result will reflect the time spent on the project. Deadlines have to be realistic for both agency and client. Just as with budgets, both sides need to be open and honest about what is achievable and by when. Whether it is for delivery of the content or the ‘go live’ date, everyone should be working to the same timetable.

Delivery of final content to schedule is crucial. This date should be clearly stated and committed to by both parties, with the understanding that if it is not met, launch will be delayed. Everyone who is providing content should be clearly briefed about what they need to provide and when.

Planning and people

The project is a two-way process so neither party should underestimate the resources needed. If in doubt, ask the agency what input is required.

You should appoint a co-ordinator who is responsible for the internal direction for the project.

The agency Account Manager is the initial interpreter of the brief and requirements. Their skills will focus on delivering beyond the client’s expectations. It’s the agency’s project manager who will ensure that this doesn’t effect the time scales or budget though.

Web designers are not artists. Their creative knowledge and skills concentrate on interpreting the brief. They listen to clients’ needs, as interpreted by the Account Manager, and develop a solution that works within company brand guidelines.

Trust is paramount

You wouldn’t go to the garage, then stand by the mechanic and tell them how to service your car. In the same way, if you choose an web agency based on their creativity, ideas and talent, don’t then try to do the job yourself. You’ll be wasting your time and and your money.

Don’t confuse personal taste with good design or try to design by committee. In fact, a committee is nothing other than a room of personal tastes. The user experience may be everything, but that doesn’t mean you should privilege your experience over everyone else’s. (Naturally, this goes for consultants and MDs too.) Trust your agency to come up with the right expression for your project – they know the rules.

Perhaps ‘visual communication’ is a better term than ‘design’. Putting your trust in a creative idea and going all the way with it is essential if your web site is to communicate effectively with your users. Your agency will have the expertise to suggest the right way forward for your brand and your project. But, in the end, it is your decision.

Keep talking…

Open communication is essential. Talking the project over with consultants may spark new ideas. Communicate clearly what you want to achieve and be prepared for plenty of questions. Agencies want to deliver projects that make their clients happy. It’s one of their main critical success factors. Keep talking, there’s every chance you’ll get something that exceeds your expectations.

Just don’t tell us to make your site look like the iTunes Cover Flow!

Related article by Dave Kinsella: Web agencies and their clients are getting it all wrong

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I used to be a front-end developer and locating blogs and sites authored by fellow developers was…, well a piece of cake, really. The blogosphere oozes geek banter. Well, it goes with the territory.

Unfortunately locating digital project management kinsfolk turns out to be a slightly more arduous task.

Photo: Shibuya crowds, by Altus.

 
For some reason this started to bug me a month ago, so I typed “web project manager” into Google search. I got 187,00 results back. Woo-hoo? Aaaah, no. 99% were recruitment job specs or resumes. So I tried “digital pm”, “interactive pm”, even “pm, but not in construction or software development”… all with equally crap results.

What next then, Sherlock?

Step forward the good samaritan “Social Media”.

I put the first feelers out through fellow PM Nothmar Noriel’s group on Facebook, Project Manager Professionals Group Worldwide, but alas, the trouble with facebook is that’s it’s a fickle friend and Facebook Groups are like pin badges. Discarded at the back of the drawer when the fad is over. It’s been a rare Facebook group that I’ve found where members reply to group posts or discussion topics. [Wispa doesn't count!] There’s no “networking” about it.

But I digress. I’m looking for web project managers right? Ok so over to Twitter we go then. I first stuck my toe in the waters of Twitter back in early 2007. It was wierd - being involved in the wonderful world of the web meant this is what i was supposed to do - but as I didn’t know many other Twitterers me and my office chums merely swapped accounts of what we were having for lunch. That crazy craze tailed off by the spring of 2007 and I gve up on it altogether until I discovered #hashtags.

To cut a long blog short, through the power of twitter, I’ve started to find some great blogs by fellow web project managers and it’s encouraged me to start blogging on a more regular basis myself. Over the next few weeks, i’ll be blogging about what I do Monday through Friday and how I view the project manager’s role within a web agency environment.

Recommended blogs and websites

• Ed [A.K.A. DigitalSignals]
• Sam Barnes
• Ian Applegate
• Antonio Volpon
• Dina G
• The PMOT Twitter Group

If you are a blogging web PM, shout - i’d love to hear from you!

Note added 20 April 2009:

The webpm Twitter Group

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With all the social networking tools such as Twitter and Linkedin we all tend to forget about real life and actually meeting up with fellow project managers. Well no excuses now for London based project managers to stay behind their screens, a new LinkedIn group has been recently set-up to communicate on Project Management real-life meetings.

So if you are in London (UK) then join us : http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1886694

[Original article from PM in focus http://www.pminfocus.com/story/calling-london-project-managers]

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Week Planner, originally uploaded by Frankly Richmond.

I love organising! No, really I do.

And on the subject of women multi-tasking, a recent data study carried out by Integrated Media Measurement found that that between the ages 15 and 48, twice as many women tend to watch TV while surfing the net as men.

“Our interpretation of this is that women are more inclined to multi-task than men, particularly when in the home balancing their personal and professional lives.”

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• Basecamp Task Mgt http://basecampreview.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/basecamp-task-management/ #
• Findings from ALA’s Web Design Survey, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/c8grse #
• LMHO! My guilty pleasure is the Sound of Music http://tinyurl.com/cpc9zq Dutch improv and they mix it up at 02m10s #
• RT: @alecsatin: Try adding #pmot to your project management related posts. Learn more here: http://tgr.me/g/pmot #
• Processes should not be torture http://tinyurl.com/cpvxcy #pmot #
• @Irene_ExpCols I love images so mine are set thru CSS to a width of 470px (height is proportional). If just decorative/logo then 220px wide in reply to Irene_ExpCols #
• RT: @pm4girls: Is Project Management Different For Girls? http://is.gd/re1Y Really enjoyed podcast. Gave me food for thought as a girl PM! #
• @projectshrink Nice summary. Those interested in EVA should invest in Steve Wake’s superb pocket booklet http://tinyurl.com/ctz4ga #pmot in reply to projectshrink #
• RT @DigitalSignals Have you got time? - http://bit.ly/Edj0a #
• Having spent months on a project, UK press focus on content, not my sheer brilliance in delivery! http://tinyurl.com/c5xpk7 Drat and LOL #
• @franciscojsaez Why thank-you, sir in reply to franciscojsaez #

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Your nuts! Sir, originally uploaded by mikeworld.

 
I can easily lose a whole day just browsing through Flickr. The vast amount of incredible photography it exposes you to (free of charge!) is unrivaled on the web.

Some of the photos you stumble upon can be both awe-inspiring and humbling at the same time. Recent Flickr postings about Protests in Moldova and the G20 in London can attest to that.

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Just over 30,000 people took time out to answer the detailed and frequently thought-provoking questions presented in A List Apart’s second global survey of the web design industry.

This year’s findings paint a clearer picture of the distinctions between full-time and freelance web professionals: how we work, what we earn, and what we love about the job.

Interestingly, despite the global recession that was already in full swing when ALA offered the survey, most respondents revealed a surprisingly high level of job security, satisfaction, and confidence in the future.

The results can be viewed online at: http://aneventapart.com/alasurvey2008

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I came across the most beautiful website by photographer Philip Toledano, via a Twitter pal in Australia .

The site, Days with my Father, is dedicated to Phil’s 98 year old father; documenting his life on a day-to-day basis after the passing of his wife (Phil’s mother).

Asides from the personal story, which will tug at your heart strings, the site’s worth a visit to check out the novel navigation too. Built in Flash, when you take your mouse to the bottom of the screen and click, the images automatically scrolls to the next one down. Same if you take your mouse to the top. Also conveniently, if you take your mouse to the left of the screen and click, you are presented with a thumbnail gallery of all the images and accompanying text.

It’s in an extraordinary story with a raw honesty that’s totally overpowering.

Weblinks:

• Days with my Father
• Mr Toledano

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• RT: @projectshrink: Links for March 29 2009 http://tinyurl.com/ctzmve #
• RT: @pmstudent: #PMOT Girl’s Guide t Sales pitch or useful research?: Wellingtone have just produced an ‘exe.. http://tinyurl.com/cfy8xq #
• Internet.com has FREE ebooks on PM which just require registration with the site to download. Fav: http://www.devx.com/ebook/Article/37782 #
• @jurgenappelo I was expecting to see a picture of some chickens at desks in reply to jurgenappelo #
• I just joined the Project Managers on Twitter Twitter Group http://tgr.me/g/pmot so stop by and see us. #pmot #
• Who’s using and who’s abusing your content? http://tinyurl.com/czepxp #
• is anxious about tomorrow’s G20 protest taking place near the office. Hoping it’s effective but PEACEFUL http://climatecamp.org.uk/g20 #g20 #
• RT: @projectshrink: The Statement of Work http://tinyurl.com/d87ez2 [The Project "bible" - nice succinct article from Brad] #
• Question - do you know of any web project managers that use E.V.A.? Or do you find lifecycles to short to warrant it? #
• @vincentbir - Hiya Vincent, I’m a London based PM #
• RT: @londontonight: Riot police, a tank and a water cannon has arrived outside RBS!! http://twitpic.com/2oayv #G20 #
• is thinking that a user will tell you anything you ask, but nothing more. #
• isi half way through the Aviva project. Still OTOBOS something must be wrong…. #
• is recovering from a spontaneous phone conversation with Ivar Jacobson Int’l about Use-Case Express http://tinyurl.com/cu4wtm #
• 7 Top Twitter Topic Trackers http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/7_top_twitter_topic_trackers.php #

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When I have spare evening indoors (a spare what!!?), I like to blog and catch up on relevant stuff by others on the blogosphere. From time to time I’ll re-tweet juicy stuff and if it’s a particular "keeper" then I’ll reBlog it here and include a trackback.

Running away with your idea?

There are only two reasons why i’d ever reBlog someone’s work. The first is because it may be content that I know i’ll want to refer to again at some point, but not today. If it’s here on this site then I know it ain’t going nowhere. How many times have you hit a URL in a blog post only to find the destination link has long gone puff! up in smoke. I find this really bloody annoying, particularly if the blog hangs on the user having previously read/understood the missing link.

The second reason why I’ll ever reBlog something is really down to lack of time. For example, when there is something i’m particularly passionate about and just don’t have the time to write about it myself but i happen to find a blog that sums up the point perfectly and far better than i ever could then it’s “Copy, paste, credit, don’t edit” and bob’s your uncle.

Credit where credit is due

The point of this waffle is that I have acquired quite a few blog subscribers over the last few months, so it’s important that they know who/where content on this site has come from. Likewise, if other bloggers are going to use my stuff, I expect the same in return. The only problem with this is, how do you know everyone is being honest?

A new application called FairShare enables bloggers to find out who exactly is using their content and in what way. Fairshare is currently a free service. It only takes a few minutes to register and once done it allows you to register as many of your text and photo feeds as you like.

How does FairShare work?

1. You supply your RSS feed, select a Creative Commons license and enter your email address.
2. Once registration is confirmed, FairShare provide you with two news feeds to add to your own feed reader.
3. It takes up to 12 hours for the initial spider to trawl your content, but eventually the feeds will start returning webpages where your work has been reused.
4. For every unique webpage returned, Fairshare will tell you if the reuse adheres to the license conditions that you have selected in step 1.

If in doubt about Fairshare, you’ll find everything you need to know in their exstensive FAQs page.

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• You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it. #
• Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn’t have to do it. #
• Project Management is like pushing a wheelbarrow of frogs to market. #

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The landscape of web writing has changed. The value of well-edited and reviewed content is giving way to faster, less-refined posts on blogs, comments, and services like Twitter, and it is clear that many writers prefer to draw traffic to their own sites.

It’s for very reason, as of today, Digital Web Magazine has decided to officially ceased publication. Thanks Nick and team for providing a wealth of knowledge for many years.

The site will remain in place with all of its articles for users to continue browsing. Nick will also continue to curate the site, maintaining it so it remains online and fixing broken links and typos.

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I was surprised to hear this phrase used at the end of my tutorial on using the Crystal methods [1] for agile development. Crystal has been particularly vexing to convey to people, because it is a family of stretchable-shrinkable human-centered methodologies for projects, constructed from seven design principles and targeting seven desirable project properties. Because it is principle- and property-based, instead of being prescriptive, people in my lectures enjoy hearing about this approach–but then can’t describe it to others afterward.

Read full article here >>

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The end of the year is typically a time for prediction posts. We have our own thoughts on what we expect the future to bring (which we will publish this week), but in this post we’ll take a look at what some of our friends are discussing about the Web. While not everyone offers a prediction for 2009, we hope their wishes for the future of the Web and their thoughts on what’s important right now inspire thought and discussion.

Chris Brogan Looks Forward to a ‘One Ring’ Profile

After asking some of the Web’s brightest minds to predict the future of social media, Peter Kim compiled Social Media Predictions 2009 [PDF]. One of the predictions is by Chris Brogan who believes that 2009 will bring an end to the fight over a single sign in system.

… read the full article at:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/2009_predictions_across_the_we.php

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Despite the fact I couldn’t see any use for these damn diagrams in real live, I had to get my head around them because there was a 90% chance they’d rear their head in my up and coming exam paper.

Description

The arrow diagram shows the required order of tasks in a project or process, the best schedule for the entire project, and potential scheduling and resource problems and their solutions. The arrow diagram lets you calculate the “critical path” of the project. This is the flow of critical steps where there is the least float and thus delays will affect the timing of the entire project.

When to Use an Arrow Diagram

• When scheduling and monitoring tasks within a complex project or process with interrelated tasks and resources.
• When you know the steps of the project or process, their sequence and how long each step takes, and.
• When project schedule is critical, with serious consequences for completing the project late or significant advantage to completing the project early.

Arrow Diagram Procedure

Drawing the Network

1. List all the necessary tasks in the project or process. One convenient method is to write each task on the top half of a card or sticky note. Across the middle of the card, draw a horizontal arrow pointing right.
2. Determine the correct sequence of the tasks. Do this by asking three questions for each task:
   - Which tasks must happen before this one can begin?
   - Which tasks can be done at the same time as this one?
   - Which tasks should happen immediately after this one?
   It can be useful to create a table with four columns —prior tasks, this task, simultaneous tasks, following tasks.
3. Diagram the network of tasks. If you are using notes or cards, arrange them in sequence on a large piece of paper. Time should flow from left to right and concurrent tasks should be vertically aligned. Leave space between the cards.
4. Between each two tasks, draw circles for “events.” An event marks the beginning or end of a task.
5. Look for three common problem situations and redraw them using “dummies” or extra events. A dummy is an arrow drawn with dotted lines used to separate tasks that would otherwise start and stop with the same events or to show logical sequence. Dummies are not real tasks.

Problem situations

• Two simultaneous tasks start and end at the same events. Solution: Use a dummy and an extra event to separate them. In Figure 1, event 2 and the dummy between 2 and 3 have been added to separate tasks A and B.
  Figure 1: Dummy separating simultaneous tasks
  
• Task C cannot start until both tasks A and B are complete; a fourth task, D, cannot start until A is complete, but need not wait for B. (See Figure 2.) Solution: Use a dummy between the end of task A and the beginning of task C.
  Figure 2: Dummy keeping sequence correct
  

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What follows is a completely blatant promotion of a friend’s new product. But it is pretty brilliant!

This week, Cerego announced the North American beta launch of iKnow!, an intelligent social learning platform, at DEMOfall 08, the world’s premiere emerging technology conference.

iKnow! empowers people to learn faster, remember longer, and manage their memory for a lifetime. iKnow!’s patented learning algorithms generate personalized learning schedules that improve the absorption and recall of chunks of learning content called “items.” The algorithms are based on decades of research on optimum learning patterns in the fields of cognitive science and neuroscience. The end result is deeper learning at a faster pace.

“Research has shown that there is an optimum moment to review whatever you’re studying – at that moment right before you’re likely to forget it. The problem is that calculating this moment for a vast stream of information is far beyond the capacity of the human brain. But it’s not beyond the capacity of software. And now for the first time, we have not only the computing capacity to generate personalized learning schedules, but also a fertile venue for the creation and sharing of an infinite variety of learning content, the Web.”
- Andrew Smith Lewis, founder and chairman of Cerego

Combining cognitive science and neuroscience with the social nature of the web, iKnow! lets users remix the web for the purpose of learning. iKnow! measures memory strength and generates a personalized learning schedule optimized for each user.

Unlike other social networks, where networking itself is the goal, the iKnow! platform is a collaborative network that will allow learners all over the globe to leverage and remix content produced by the community. As a demonstration of its social learning platform, iKnow! currently offers a comprehensive set of tools and content for English speakers to study Japanese, with support for other major language pairs to follow within the year.

But that’s enough of me whittering on. See for yourself as Andrew and his partner, Eric Young , give their 6 minute product demo at DEMOfall 08.

About Cerego

Cergo’s unique approach to learning has been to bring together, within a unified system, what has previously been a broad and scattered collection of well-researched and accepted scientific principles in the fields of cognitive psychology, educational psychology, and neuroscience regarding efficient learning patterns. Through this work, Cerego has created a learning methodology that maximizes the effectiveness and efficiency of learning, memory, and performance.

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