Fachhochschule Furtwangen
Fachbereich Digitale Medien: Medieninformatik

A Project Management Methodology for
Multimedia Projects
Analysis of Existing Strategies and Creation
of a New Concept

Eine Diplomarbeit von Stefan Hartweg

Wintersemester 2001/2002

Betreuende Professoren:
Prof. Dr. Fritz Steimer
Prof. Dr. Christoph Zydorek

Analysis of Existing Strategies and Creation of a New Concept

This paper tries to define a concept for managing multimedia projects efficiently and takes the suitability of existing methods into account.
Developing a valid solution makes it necessary to look at project management as a generic discipline first and then apply the results to the multimedia discipline. Only then can we be sure that no important aspects of project management have been forgotten, nor that existing and working strategies, which could be applied to multimedia projects, have been ignored. This paper therefore defines project management and generally describes its areas of responsibility. The question of whether project management is necessary and beneficial needs to be addressed as well. After project management and the necessity to actively apply it in some form has been understood in general, a specific focus on the existing information for multimedia project management will be undertaken. It will become apparent that different viewpoints exist as to whether multimedia project management should apply project management methods of related industry areas, such as software development. This will justify the need to compare multimedia projects with software development projects. After having gained an insight into project management as well as the characteristics of multimedia projects, it is possible to determine the demands that a project management method needs to be able to meet, to successfully manage multimedia projects. It would be beyond the scope of this thesis to analyse every existing method. Instead, one method will be analysed as an example. The useful aspects of the analysed method will be identified along with its shortfalls in relation to multimedia development. Finally, recommendations on how the shortfalls could be corrected will be made, so that a project manager will be able to use the examined method, specifically suited to multimedia projects.

Contents

1 Preface ... 7

2 Introduction ... 9
    2.1 The Topic of this Thesis ... 9
    2.2 Hypotheses and Findings ... 12
    2.3 Definition of Multimedia ... 14
    2.4 Types of Multimedia Products ... 16
        2.4.1 Forms of Delivery ... 16
        2.4.2 Categories of Multimedia Products ... 18
        2.4.3 Conclusion ... 20
    2.5 Project Management Definitions ... 21
        2.5.1 Project and Project Management ... 21
        2.5.2 Project Stakeholders ... 22
        2.5.3 Project Methodology, Methods and Processes ... 22

3 The Historical Development of Project Management ... 25
    3.1 The Philosophy of Ancient Project Management ... 25
    3.2 The Philosophy of Modern Project Management ... 26
    3.3 Conclusion ... 28

4 The Components of a Project Management Method ... 29
    4.1 The Project Management Context ... 30
    4.2 The Project Life Cycle ... 32
    4.3 Project Processes ... 32
        4.3.1 Project Integration Management ... 35
        4.3.2 Project Scope Management ... 36
        4.3.3 Project Time Management ... 37
        4.3.4 Project Cost Management ... 37
        4.3.5 Project Quality Management ... 37
        4.3.6 Project Human Resource Management ... 38
        4.3.7 Project Communications Management ... 38
        4.3.8 Project Risk Management ... 39
        4.3.9 Project Procurement Management ... 39
    4.4 Conclusion ... 40

5 The Necessity of Project Management ... 42
    5.1 The Subconscious Management of Projects ... 42
    5.2 The Single Point of Responsibility ... 43
    5.3 The Advantages of a Project Management Method ... 46
    5.4 Conclusion ... 49

6 Existing Information on Multimedia Project Management ... 50
    6.1 Interviews ... 50
        6.1.1 Redefine ... 51
        6.1.2 DCG ... 54
        6.1.3 Griffith University ... 55
    6.2 Published Materials ... 57
        6.2.1 Managing Multimedia: Project Management for Interactive Media ... 58
        6.2.2 Managing Multimedia Projects ... 67
        6.2.3 Developing Effective Websites: A Project Manager′s Guide ... 70
    6.3 Internet ... 72
    6.4 Conclusion ... 73

7 The Suitability of Existing Methods for the New Concept ... 76
    7.1 Differences Between Traditional Projects and Multimedia Projects ... 76
    7.2 Software Development Management ... 79
    7.3 Conclusion ... 83

8 The Development of the New Concept ... 85
    8.1 The Choice for the Method ... 85
    8.2 Multimedia Pathways ... 86
    8.3 Alterations on Multimedia Pathways ... 90
        8.3.1 The Life Cycle ... 90
        8.3.2 The Processes ... 94

9 Critical Reflection on the Findings ... 123
    9.1 The Quality of the Findings ... 123
    9.2 What Else Would Need to be Done? ... 125

10 Bibliography ... 129
    10.1 Books ... 129
    10.2 Internet Resources ... 131
        10.2.1 WebPages ... 131
        10.2.2 Electronic Publications ... 131
        10.2.3 Newsgroups ... 133
        10.2.4 E-Mail Contacts ... 133

1 Preface
The development of multimedia applications is not new. Nor is the management of projects. More and more people have been analysing the management of projects in order to streamline the processes involved, as well as to ensure that the best tools and practices are utilised to develop and deliver products on time and within budget. People have introduced frameworks, processes, methods and methodologies for project management to give guidance to project managers and the right tools to master their day-to-day tasks.

However, whilst a lot of attention has been given to the development of project management processes in IT and software development, the related area of multimedia production has only received minor interest in defining a standard for the task of project management, which makes the development of multimedia applications a risky business both for the client and the production company.

This paper deals specifically with project management in multimedia development. The aim of this paper, after describing the process of gaining an understanding of the requirements to manage multimedia projects, is to present a strategy to analyse existing project management methods in regards to their suitability for multimedia projects. Furthermore, one existing method will be taken as an example and recommendations will be made on how best to adapt this method to suit the management of multimedia production.

This thesis paper has been written as part of the curriculum of the Medieninformatik (applied computer science and media) course at the Fachhochschule Furtwangen (University for Applied Sciences, Furtwangen) and was kindly guided and supported by Prof. Dr. Christoph Zydorek and Prof. Dr. Fritz Steimer.

Thanks also needs to be given to Mr. Bruce Hodgen, senior consultant and lecturer at Griffith university, who initially sparked my interest in project management and who was not only prepared to provide me with his view on the subject but also helped me out with materials that were not readily accessible through the university library.

Redefine and DCG deserve mention and thanks, as they were the only two multimedia development agencies in Brisbane that were willing to share an overview of their project management method.

The thesis has been mostly developed and written in Brisbane, Australia. The final revision has been undertaken in the German hometown of the author.

2 Introduction
The following pages serve as an introduction to the topic of this thesis. A brief overview of the problem in multimedia project management will be given, followed by a description of the further structure of this document. Furthermore, the initial hypotheses and resulting findings of this thesis will be described briefly.

The term multimedia will be defined and different types of multimedia applications will be mentioned. In the area of project management there is some confusion in regard to the uniform usage of certain terms. These terms will be explained to avoid misunderstandings.

2.1 The Topic of this Thesis
I came into contact with project management during my studies of Medieninformatik at the Fachhochschule Furtwangen in Germany. At that time, I regarded project management as yet another couple of dozen pages containing text and diagrams that I had to learn in order to pass the exam at the end of the semester.

Two semesters later, I had the chance to leave Germany and to study a multimedia course a Griffith University in Australia. The curriculum of this course included a two semester (almost a calendar year) long project, where small groups of four to six students worked with an industry partner to create a multimedia product. After the students had been divided into groups, we were required to set the basic roles within the project team. With no one else in the team being overly keen on taking on the part as project manager and me already having had a lecture on project management, it didn’t require long discussion until I was assigned the role of project manager. The lecturers for the project had created Multimedia Pathways¹, which they prescribed as the project management method to use in our projects, as it contained all the necessary templates for documentation. We were also provided with a calendar that showed the due dates of the different documents, as well as prototype and product presentations.

Brutal honesty would describe the project overall as a disaster: the team was basically rushing from one due date for documentation to the next; barely able to fill the gaps in the templates let alone anything else. Close to the supposed project hand over we finally had to admit, despite research and prototyping at the beginning of the project, that the most important feature did not work and perform properly and that there was no solution available to fix the problems, which resulted in a rather poor quick fix with less functionality. This led to tensions within the team, liberal laying of blame for not having done a proper job in the first place, as well as the delay of planned tasks, because previous tasks had to be redone or took longer than initially expected. More issues arose when the client presented a list of further items, which, in their opinion, did not fulfil the original agreement. The student team on the other hand pointed towards the product specification description in the design document and tried to make it clear that the requirements had been fulfilled according to what had been specified. The different interpretations from team and company regarding the textual specification could not be resolved. In the end, the product was not handed over to the client because they were not prepared to pay a license fee for a product that did not meet their requirements.

In talks with the other student groups it became apparent that similar problems had occurred during their projects as well, especially regarding the abundance of documentation, agreeing on the product specification and exceeding the initial estimated task durations by far.

It is fair to say that these problems also exist within the professional multimedia industry. While problems in student projects allow students the possibility to learn from their mistakes and gather experience, these same issues could well destroy a company. When changes occur in specification during the project, when rework needs to be done, when tasks take longer than anticipated, then projects tend to overrun their initial budgets – and at the moment this approach seems to be far more common than being paid on a time required basis. This then becomes a serious issue for the producer because they have to either find a way to convince their client to take on the additional costs or carry them themselves, which can financially ruin the company, especially if it happens in several projects.

It is the responsibility of the project management to deal with these issues and to make sure that the project will be completed successfully, i.e. in time, on budget and high quality. The project managers need to be equipped with a set of processes, tools and strategies that allow them to efficiently avoid and if necessary address and solve problems as described above. The combination of these is generally described as a project management method or framework and have been developed both as generic and specific solutions.

This paper tries to define a concept for managing multimedia projects efficiently and takes the suitability of existing methods into account.

Developing a valid solution makes it necessary to look at project management as a generic discipline first and then apply the results to the multimedia discipline. Only then can we be sure that no important aspects of project management have been forgotten, nor that existing and working strategies, which could be applied to multimedia projects, have been ignored. This paper therefore defines project management and generally describes its areas of responsibility. The question of whether project management is necessary and beneficial needs to be addressed as well. After project management and the necessity to actively apply it in some form has been understood in general, a specific focus on the existing information for multimedia project management will be undertaken. It will become apparent that different viewpoints exist as to whether multimedia project management should apply project management methods of related industry areas, such as software development. This will justify the need to compare multimedia projects with software development projects. After having gained an insight into project management as well as the characteristics of multimedia projects, it is possible to determine the demands that a project management method needs to be able to meet, to successfully manage multimedia projects. It would be beyond the scope of this thesis to analyse every existing method. Instead, one method will be analysed as an example. The useful aspects of the analysed method will be identified along with its shortfalls in relation to multimedia development. Finally, recommendations on how the shortfalls could be corrected will be made, so that a project manager will be able to use the examined method, specifically suited to multimedia projects.

As already mentioned in the preface, most of the work for this paper was conducted in Brisbane, Australia and using the research resources that were available to the author there, mainly the Griffith university library, internet and email, as well as a small number of interviews and face to face discussions. The materials utilised and information contained in this paper are mostly drawn from the information, knowledge and experience available for the English market. German literature could not be taking into consideration, due to lack of accessibility and the finite time frame.

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1 Impart Corporation. Multimedia Pathways – A Development Methodology for Interactive Multimedia and Online Products for Education and Training. Internet Source: http://www.impart.com.au/pathways/