DLF Project Managers Toolkit

This toolkit is a collaborative project, based on contributions by members of the Digital Library Federation's Project Managers Group (DLF PMG). First initiated by Jennifer Vinopal at New York University in February 2013, the toolkit has grown and evolved over the years as a living document to share experiences and link out to resources.

• What? A crowdsourced collection of information, tips, techniques, and tools for project managers working in digital libraries. Please contribute and share your knowledge.

• Why? Whether we realize it or not, librarians and library staff are managing projects all the time. These may be informal or formal projects, or we might not think of them as projects at all. Just the same, we could all stand to take a more organized and structured approach to planning and accomplishing our project work. Much of the project management literature and training frequently emphasizes a corporate perspective, which may not always be applicable to a library setting.

• Who? Anyone who wants to contribute. Feel free to post anonymously if you prefer, or sign the contributors list at the end of the document.

• How? Be generous with your knowledge and be respectful of what others have written. Share your experience and help others to learn from both your successes and failures.

To contribute, simply login then select the Edit tab. If you are a first time contributor, select ‘create account’ at the top right of the page. Then send a request to info@diglib.org to get access to edit pages, add links or share documentation. Then add your name to the Contributors List at the bottom of this page.

Getting started

Project Management Basics

Review a few Project Management Basics which are basic building blocks for the other sections of the toolkit.

Project Management Methodologies

Project management methodology (PMM) is a system of principles, techniques, and procedures.

Project Proposal Process

The Project Proposal Process initiates the project and is critical to planning.

Project Charters & Memorandum of Understandings

The goal of a Project Charter is to document agreement between all parties (sponsor, stakeholder, staff) about the goals, scope, and deliverables of the project. Ideally, the document defines time, scope and cost.

A Memorandum of Understanding can be used to build out a project charter and be used to manage expectations, project planning and increase transparency, communication and understanding. The University of Texas Arlington hosts a Memorandum of Understanding Collection which was developed by a group of librarians for library specific projects and includes a workbook and templates.

Project Plans

Project Plans flesh out more details of a project, such as scope; individual stakeholders; milestones and tasks, and roles and responsibilities within; and a timeline. It answers the same questions as a project charter, but often in more detail.

Project Scheduling

Project Scheduling captures the work that needs to be performed. It may also visualize the steps in the project. This section compares two methods: gantt charts versus kanban.

• When considering cost, refer to the Digitization Cost Calculator: https://dashboard.diglib.org/

Workflows

A workflow is a sequence of steps toward the completion of a defined task used to manage repetitive processes. Workflow modelling helps participants and stakeholders understand the sequence of steps and their roles in the process. It can also help identify patterns, gaps, and bottlenecks to enhance efficiency and improve team dynamics.

Included are Examples of workflows contributed by different institutions and references.

Project Templates

Project Templates are useful for expressing information in a systematic manner, streamlining processes and saving time and energy. Templates can provide clearer communication and consistency across project. Included are templates provided by different institutions.

Project Sunsetting

For a wide variety of reasons, you may need to stop investing time and resources in a project before completion. In these cases, it is important to consider how to document the project close-out and communicate to the team and stakeholders.

Jason Ronallo, Bret Davidson. NCSU Libraries. Sunsetting: Strategies for Portfolio Management and Decommissioning Projects. https://ronallo.com/presentations/sunsetting-dlf/slides-single-page.html Digital Library Federation Forum, Pittsburgh, PA, October 23, 2017. https://sched.co/BzsO

Project Portfolio Management

Project portfolio management is the centralized management of processes, methods, and technologies used by project managers to analyze and collectively carry out current or proposed projects. Vinopal, Jennifer. Using Confluence for Project Portfolio Management at New York University. DLF Fall 2008. File:DLF2008Vinopal.pdf

Service Management

Service management refers to the broader strategies, policies, procedures to design, deliver, support, and manage services that bring value to an organization. Consider the four key components of value, outcomes, costs and risks.

Project Management Software

This section contains a list of tools for project management, with pros and cons for each.

Name	Uses and Overview	Pro	Con
Asana	Asana allows team members to collaborate on projects and track the progress of tasks. It works both for software development projects and other more generic projects.	Free (up to 15 members) Great for task-based work Works on mobile	If your team has over 15 members, you need to pay Doesn't do as well with project discussion Does not allow for private teams in the free version No bug/issue tracking
Basecamp	Basecamp allows collaborators to post messages, organize to-do lists and documents, and create group schedules. Related App: goplan	intuitive design easy-to-use features email integration some calendar integration	the first project is free, but you need to pay after that point scheduling support is limited
FreedCamp	FreedCamp allows a team to collaborate and communicate on projects through tasks and discussion boards. It allows for file sharing, alerts and reminders, time tracking and milestones as well as other features that will help to organize your projects.	relatively simple and easy to get started on a new project robust free service - a free account allows for unlimited users, projects, tasks, and storage allows for you to assign tasks, leave comments on tasks and use the system as a project tracker over time	cannot assign a task to multiple people - it can be assigned to one person or everyone in the free version, subtasks are very basic and you cannot assign them to specific people
Google Suite	Google applications (specifically, Google Drive) is a suite of tools for creating documents collaboratively and sharing information. Google Apps include a text, spreadsheet, and slide editor, as well as applications for drawing, organizing calendars, and sharing (but not editing) other types of files.	easy to share documents with large teams for collaboration easily searchable and organizable	you may need to use another tool to track/organize relevant documents, especially if there are a lot of them can be worthwhile to set up standard naming conventions for files since it is so easy to create files and folders if wireless is inconsistent, some files can be hard to access. use the desktop app to ensure off-line access and to organize or sync files
Jira	Issue tracking and project tracking software. JIRA allows teams to "create and estimate stories, build a sprint backlog, visualize activity, measure team velocity, and report on progress."	works well for teams who use Scrum project management methods	paid service ($10 for teams of up to 10; $75 and more for 15 teams and up)
Microsoft Project	Microsoft Project is a project management software designed primarily to design and edit project schedules, assign resources, track progress, manage budgets, and analyze workloads. It's most useful for waterfall type projects with a focus on Gantt charts and tasks having dependencies and predecessors.	Powerful set of tools and functions for project management Useful for waterfall type projects, following many principles of the PMI	Not free (unless using 30 day free trial of one of their Project Plans); very expensive if buying on premise Steep learning curve, especially if not familiar with Gantt charts Not well suited for agile projects
Pivotal Tracker	Pivotal Tracker allows users to organize tasks by project and stories while integrating release dates and prioritization into the workflow.	helps organize agile project teams that cannot meet in person	only free for thirty days (paid plans)
Redmine	Redmine allows you to track issues, latest project news, and organize projects by members and contributors. You can associate files with given projects, create Gantt charts and calendars, and create wikis to document projects. Redmine has a demo site that allows you to see how it looks in action.	open source plug-ins allow for extensibility Ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects	doesn't work well with projects that aren't typical software development projects
Slack	Slack is a communication app for teams. It integrates with several of the project management tools on this list, and allows team members to communicate more easily and informally than through email.	allows for easy communication between entire organizations, small groups within the organization, and individual members integrates with many other applications (e.g. Google Docs, JIRA, Trello, GitHub, etc.) allows members to easily set up reminders, take notes-to-self, customize alerts can be used on the web or via desktop app across devices	free version only has a 10,000 message capacity (older messages get deleted) paid version has additional integrations such as single sign-on, customizable message retention period (ex. 90 day retention period or longer) Slack users sharing files (on free or paid versions) may not understand that it is not a system of record to store information; if retaining message history is important for project documentation, threads can be exported and copied to project documentation
Smartsheet	Smartsheet allows a team to collaborate and communicate with a spreadsheet-style interface. It allows for file sharing, alerts and reminders, the creation of Gantt charts, and other features that will help to organize your projects.	relatively simple (based on spreadsheets) Customizable and flexible links to other tools and services (like Google Docs)	paid service
Trello	Trello is an application for tracking tasks. It allows you to move individual cards (representing tasks) as they enter different phases. Trello allows you to assign tasks to different collaborators, create due dates, and provide contextual information for the tasks to be completed.	very similar to analog/paper SCRUM boards feature-specific prioritization bug tracking useful for tracking action/discussion items from meetings able to link or attach supporting documents to cards	showing the hierarchy of tasks not really possible not able to easily produce a to-do list (i.e. from the user's end, a list of tasks that the user is assigned to)

Other general software-independent recommendations for project management

• Wikis for project documents and documentation
• Google Docs or another collaborative document editor for the creation of project charter, meeting notes, etc. with separate document (or folder) for meeting notes
• Ticket-trackers
• Planning Poker
• After-Action Reviews or Retrospectives vis tools such as FunRetro or Stormboard
• Scheduling using Doodle or Google Sheets is useful for tracking team members' schedules

Professional Development

Professional development is an ongoing part of a project management career. A successful project manager possesses a blended set of hard and soft skills acquired over time. Training is offered by the Project Management Institute and various local education providers. Obtaining professional certification can enhance a person's career path and provide additional opportunities.

Resources and Other Toolkits

There are lots of great articles, presentations and grey lit out there on project management and digital libraries.

We've created a Zotero Group library at https://www.zotero.org/groups/2205688/dlf_pmg? and encourage you to add more when you read something good.

• Yale DHLab Toolkit

DLF-PMG Discussions and webinars

Topic	Date	Facilitator(s)	Format
Labor in Digital Work	February 12-16, 2018	Robin Pike & Sarah Severson	Multi-day discussion available through the listserv archive and summary
Tools for Project Management	April 3-10, 2018	Christine Quirion	Multi-day discussion available in full through the listserv archive and summary
Service and Portfolio Management	August 13-17, 2018	Elizabeth German	Multi-day discussion available through the listserv archive and summary
Project Portfolio Management Demo	April 5, 2019	Cristela Garcia-Spitz	Digital Initiatives Librarian Cristela Garcia-Spitz discussed project portfolio management and shared a demo of how digital projects are being tracked by the UC San Diego Library's Digital Library Development Program using Confluence and JIRA. She also covered some of the goals and challenges of portfolio management. The presentation recording is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtLLmFWQeQ8 and the slides are available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bf7n6tp
Before Action Review	January 10, 2020	Melissa Wisner	The hour session provides an introduction to Before Action Reviews and how to facilitate meaningful intake collection with stakeholders by Melissa Wisner, the IT Project and Portfolio Management Librarian at NCSU Libraries. The presentation recording is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPq-6Zgh6kM
How managers, project managers, and others are adjusting to telework and closures	April 10, 2020	Robin Pike	As managers and project managers, we’ve had to quickly adjust priorities and protocols during the past month as many of our institutions move to full-time telework. The Project Managers Group invites you to a moderated discussion to share practices, challenges, ingenious solutions, and more, with the goal of better preparing ourselves and the people we manage for continued telework and even confirming that what we’re doing is the best we can do in this uncertain situation. Listserv archive.
User Experience and Service Design: A Brief Introduction	May 15, 2020	Jenn Nolte	User experience (UX) is not a new discipline, and in fact has been around for many years under different names (human factors, usability, user-centered design), even before the internet! Still, many people conflate UX with web and visual design even though UX is useful in many more contexts, including the design of services. Service design shows us how to put and keep the user at the center of our planning for new or enhanced services. Jenn Nolte worked in library information technology at Yale University for over a decade before shifting over to user experience research. She holds an MLIS from Southern Connecticut State University and is currently pursuing an MS in Organizational Psychology at the University of Hartford. She recently served on the Connecticut UX Professionals Association board, currently serves on the New Haven IO board of directors, and hosts a monthly informal meetup for UX practitioners and enthusiasts in CT. Say hello and connect with Jenn at linkedin.com/in/jennnolte. The presentation recording is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLtFCiRAL0k and Presentation Slides
Working Remotely During a Global Pandemic: Strengthening Impact, Communication, and Empathy in Times of Crises	August 14, 2020	Casey Davis Kaufman	The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed the way we live, work, and interact with our colleagues. Reflecting on her experiences working remotely since July 2019, and more specifically since mid-March 2020 when COVID-19 upended our sense of normality and required swift and radical responses within our workplaces, Casey Davis Kaufman will offer a webinar that focuses on leading teams and projects while working remotely during the ongoing global crises. The presentation will cover a range of topics relevant to the present remote-working environment -- from effective communication and support, managing expectations, and 'holding space' for team members who may be experiencing incredibly challenging and emotionally difficult situations within and/or outside of work. Additionally, Casey will share recommendations for planning and managing digitization projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she will offer ideas for remotely engaging our communities while continually demonstrating the value of libraries and archives amidst our present challenges. Casey Davis Kaufman (she/her) is the Associate Director of the WGBH Media Library and Archives and Project Manager for the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. In her role, Casey supports a team that includes a repository manager, web developers, and outreach staff to undertake collections management, access, curatorial work, metadata management, engagement, and special projects. She served as Project Director for the NEH-funded PBCore Development and Training Project, as well as the IMLS-funded Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship, which is being sustained through a new collaboration with the University of Alabama. She has served as AAPB's project manager for multiple digitization projects, including the PBS NewsHour Digitization Project, and the current Riverside Church/WRVR-FM Digitization Project and New Mexico Public Media and Kansas Public Media Digitization Projects (all CLIR-funded). Casey is also Project Manager for the University of Tennessee Libraries' "Rising from the Ashes: The Chimney Tops II Wildfires Oral History Project." Casey is an active member of AMIA and serves on the AMIA Continuing Education Advisory Task Force, AMIA Advocacy Committee of the Board, AMIA Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship Task Force, and is Co-Chair of the AMIA Oral History Committee. Casey served on the AMIA Board from 2017-2019. She works remotely from her home in Murfreesboro, TN, with her canine assistant Romsey. The presentation recording is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D9JdypyR1c
Working With External Partners, Part 1	July 20, 2023	Danielle Afsordeh, Brittany Bertazon, Molly Huber, and Gabriella Williams	On July 20, 2023, the DLF Project Managers Group hosted the first of 2 webinars focusing on project management when working with external partners. An organization’s usual project workflows may need to be revised, changed or documented differently when partnering with external organizations that are not used to working on digitization or digital library projects at any scale. Our panelists will share their experiences working with such partners and we’ll also be sure there is plenty of time for questions and discussion following their short presentations. This presentations panelists include: Danielle Afsordeh (she/her), Community Outreach Archivist, Central Arkansas Library System, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Danielle will be speaking on her community partnership with the historically Polish Marche community in Northern Pulaski County, Arkansas. Brittany Bertazon (she/her/hers), Digital Project Manager, Utah State University, University Libraries. Brittany will be speaking on a class-integrated project that partnered with both the Utah State Archives and a state governmental agency. Molly Huber is the Outreach Coordinator for the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL), which is based within the University of Minnesota Libraries. Molly will speak about the relationships MDL has with its over 200 external contributing partners and how projects are conceived, organized, and successfully completed. Gabriella Williams is the Digital Projects Librarian at the University of Miami Libraries (UML). She served as both project manager and primary investigator on UML’s CLIR grant project to digitize Pan American World Airways records and create an aviation subject portal in DPLA. Gabby will be speaking about this project with specific emphasis on UML’s partnership with HistoryMiami Museum and their contributions to the project. The presentation recording is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8PxhclH2oo
Working With External Partners, Part 2	August 14, 2023	Amy Bocko, Natasha Hollenbach, Ana Krahmer, and Rebecca van Kniest	On August 14, the DLF Project Managers Group hosted the second of 2 webinars focusing on project management when working with external partners. An organization’s usual project workflows may need to be revised, changed or documented differently when partnering with external organizations that are not used to working on digitization or digital library projects at any scale. Our panelists will share their experiences working with such partners and we’ll also be sure there is plenty of time for questions and discussion following their short presentations. Panelists are: Amy Bocko is an associate professor and digital projects librarian at Western Michigan University. She specializes in collaborative digital storytelling, creating digital collections, and working with community-based partners to digitize and provide access to their archival materials. Amy was recently named the Presidential Innovation Professor of the University Libraries for 2023-26 for her project partnering with local organization, Society for History and Racial Equity (SHARE), launch a community-driven archives initiative in the local Kalamazoo community. Natasha Hollenbach (she/her), Digital Projects Manager, Indianapolis Public Library. Natasha runs Digital Indy (digitalindy.org), a digital archive where the Library collaborates with organizations across the city to digitize and make accessible materials highlighting the history and culture of Indianapolis/Marion County. In 2024, Digital Indy will celebrate 20th years and over 60 partnerships. Ana Krahmer oversees the Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) out of University of North Texas Libraries, hosted on The Portal to Texas History. In this role, she coordinates with partners from across Texas to support them in obtaining grant funding to digitally preserve and build access to their newspaper collections. Approaching 10 million pages, TDNP is the largest, single-state open access interface to newspapers in the U.S. Krahmer primarily works with public and academic libraries in partnerships, and in this work, she supports them from initial grant application stages to managing their newspaper digitization projects until final upload of content into their collections. Rebecca van Kniest is a librarian at Fontbonne University and serves as archivist for the Center for Bosnian Studies. Rebecca will talk about the Center's preservation and outreach work with the local Bosnian community, focusing on a recent collaboration with two area high schools and the St. Louis County Library. The presentation recording is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwOrHT5RcwI
Using JIRA and Airtable to Manage Digital Projects Workflows	September 13, 2023	Marissa Kings-Garwig, Molly Bragg, and Louise Smith	On September 13, DLF's Project Managers Group hosted a demonstration on using JIRA and Airtable for project management. Panelists: Marissa Kings-Garwig, Molly Bragg, Louise Smith The presentation recording is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeYsL96ekQ
Digital Repository Management and Ownership	May 17, 2024	Kim Leaman	On May 17, 2024, DLF's Project Managers Working Group hosted this webinar, in which Kim gave an introductory overview with examples of her role as a Product Owner and how she fits into the workflows and expectations of the Digital Library Services (DLS) team and their stakeholders. Kim Leaman is a Library IT Project Manager who focuses primarily on Princeton University Library's (PUL) digital projects and initiatives. She collaborates with staff members from various departments to meet the needs and manage the expectations of Princeton's internal and external stakeholders. Kim is also a Product Owner for PUL's digital repository and curated collections platform (Digital PUL). The presentation recording is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6F995Tippo

Contributors

To contribute to the Project Managers Toolkit login at the top right of the page, then select the Edit tab. If you are a first-time contributor, select ‘create account’ at the top right of the page and send a request to info@diglib.org to get access to edit pages, add links, or share documentation. (We had to add in this step because the bots were getting us.) Then add your name to the Contributors List.

• Andy Ashton, Brown University
• Carolyn Caizzi, Northwestern University
• Kathleen Cameron
• Jason Casden, North Carolina State University
• Tim Clarke, Muhlenberg College
• Tom Cramer, Stanford University
• Cristela Garcia-Spitz, UC San Diego Library
• Joshua Honn, Northwestern University
• Katherine Kott, Independent Consultant
• Christine Malinowski, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Rafia Mirza, UT Arlington, TX
• Lisa McAulay, UCLA
• Sandra McIntyre, Mountain West Digital Library
• Alan Pike, Emory Center for Digital Scholarship
• Robin C. Pike, University of Maryland
• Christine Quirion, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Corey Schmidt, University of Georgia
• Sarah Severson, McGill University Library
• Sarah Stanley, Florida State University
• Joan Starr, California Digital Library
• Krystal Thomas, Florida State University
• Becky Thoms, Utah State University Libraries
• Micah Vandegrift, Florida State University Libraries
• Jennifer Vinopal, New York University
• Cliff Wulfman, Princeton University
• Cynthia York, Johns Hopkins University

Interested in related resources? Check out DLF's Organizers' Toolkit!