Project Management for Creative Projects

Learn to use project management best practices to balance the goals, schedule, team members, and clients involved in a creative endeavor.

Introduction

• How do you manage creative projects?
• What you should know before watching this course

1. The Whats and Whys of Project Management

• The benefits of project management
• When not to use project management
• Reviewing the golden rules of effective project management
• What is the Project Management Institute (PMI)?

2. Understanding Services Offered

• Understanding your internal capabilities
• Outsourcing
• Partnering

3. Project Management Core Concepts

• Project management bottom line
• Understanding the triple constraint
• Defining the objectives of a project
• Defining the characteristics of a project
• The standard life cycle of a project
• Using project management effectively
• A typical life cycle for a creative project

4. Scoping a Creative Project

• Scoping the project
• Giving the project a descriptive and unique name
• Creating an executive summary
• Refining the scope
• Identifying key roles for a project
• Building the scoping document
• The importance of sign-off
• Creating a technical brief

5. Estimating Time

• Using historical data
• Using a time estimation formula
• Getting a peer review for time estimation
• Getting an external review for time estimation
• When to pad the budget
• The work breakdown structure

6. Client Communication

• Using in-progress reports to communicate with clients
• What information can you share with your client?
• Using online project management tools
• Understanding the core features needed for online systems
• Managing a project with Basecamp
• Managing a project with Facebook
• Communicating with Slack
• Collaborating with Google Docs and Sheets

7. Project Control Cycle

• What is a control cycle?
• Building a control cycle
• Balancing control with speed
• Enforcing the control cycle

8. Managing Employees and Contractors

• Time tracking
• Recruiting contractors
• Managing contractors
• When to hire staff
• Understanding the independent contractor status
• Working with an accountant

9. Effective Teams

• Reviewing the elements of a successful team startup
• Outlining effective team membership
• Warning signs of a failing team
• Corrective actions for teams
• Encourage leadership amongst the team
• Fostering team accountability

10. Keeping Clients Happy

• Fostering open and frequent communication
• Performing a client debrief
• Being seen as a resource to your clients
• Surveying clients

11. Closing Out the Project

• When is a project done?
• Reconciling change orders
• Reconciling billing
• The project debrief
• Capturing lessons learned
• Archiving the project

Conclusion

• Goodbye and suggested learning