Recently I attended a two-day workshop called “A Systems Approach to Project Management” offered by the Human Resources Department at Michigan State University. I’m considering pursuing a Project Management certificate, and I figured that this workshop would be a good way to jump in feet first.
I was impressed by the formalized approach to much of the work I already do on a day-to-day basis (communicating with team members, working under deadlines, organizing, and planning). More so, I was surprised at the depth of knowledge that makes up the study of project management. It may seem to be just common sense on the surface (something our instructor admitted), but I think many people under-estimate the amount of work that goes into planning, scheduling, budgeting, and managing a project.
I’ll admit — as a student I never gave project management (as a formalized profession) a second thought even though I was well acquainted with editorial and production schedules. I figured that it was something you just did — I never realized that there was a formalized study and approach to managing projects. The more experience I get in the field, the more I find that good business planning and management skills are essential to the job.
Just think about all the people involved in the publishing process: writers, editors, designers, content experts, printers, managers, advertisers, customers, and so on. Coordinating all of this is no easy feat when you are working with multiple deadlines or with team members who are operating on different coasts. Based on what I learned at the workshop, strategic planning and generous scheduling are the keys to success early on. A good project manager will make tasks and deadlines clear – there should be no confusion over who has what job in the overall process.
I also picked up a bevy of productivity tools, including templates for charts to help organize team members and tasks and to figure out risk assessment and cost/benefit ratios (similar templates are available online at Cambridge Consulting).
If you are interested in learning more about project management I’d recommend checking out the Project Management Institute, the professional organization for project managers.
Please feel free to share your own project experiences (the good and the bad) and your opinion on the role of business/project management skills in publishing jobs.
Tags: professional development, project management, publishing